UCF Online Student Interview Series | Episode 1

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[Music]
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my name is Melanie toribio and I’m a
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success coach for the UCF online connect
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Center I’m joined today by UCF online
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student Dasha Thompson and we’re going
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to dive into a bit of conversation about
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what it’s like to be a UCF online night
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so let’s get started thank you for
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having me yeah of course so could you
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start by telling me a little bit about
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yourself your name where you’re located
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your program and your graduating class
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yeah so my name is are Joshua Thompson I
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was actually born and raised in Orlando
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so UCF was always going to be my number
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one choice my major was health service
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administration and I worked closely with
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Jennifer with my time with you SIA
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excellent and what drove you to want to
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complete a bachelor’s degree I always
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wanted to go to medical school and
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become a doctor but aside from just
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learning the clinical aspect of medicine
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I also wanted to learn the
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administrative side of medicine because
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I hope to one day maybe try to change
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some policies and create a better system
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that works for our healthcare system so
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we can improve it and be more up-to-date
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with other countries such as like the
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United Kingdom or Canada I just want to
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improve our health care system and the
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way that we practice medicine here in
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the United States excellent such a
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relevant topic today but what why did
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you choose online learning as your
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preferred method for degree completion
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well I had to work full time in order to
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support myself and you know I had to
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have a job so UCF online was perfect for
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me because it was very flexible and I it
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worked really well with my schedule I
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was able to work full time like usual
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but I was also able to complete all the
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courses I needed on time to graduate
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with UCF I said it offered a lot
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flexibility than the face-to-face
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classes exactly what what has your
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experience with your online classes been
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like so far the the experience has been
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amazing all my teachers were very
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helpful they were all anytime I had a
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question or if I was a bit confused for
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anything
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they were always able to respond back
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immediately
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aside from that there’s a lot of
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features on the online course such as
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like the calendar feature where if you
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have any assignments or if you don’t
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know when things are due it tells you
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exactly what things are due and that was
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probably the most helpful for me I never
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missed any assignment because of that
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feature there’s just a bunch of ways to
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always keep in communication with your
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professors so although you can’t see
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them face to face you can always call
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them you can email them sometimes
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they’ll even Skype with you if necessary
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so it was it didn’t really seem like a
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difference from any campus
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situation for me yeah those are all
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really helpful tools that you were able
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to utilize through canvas what are some
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additional tips that you’d like to share
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or give to anyone who’s currently
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learning online some recommendations I
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have is to always just reach out to a
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professor if you have any questions or
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anything they are there to help you they
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want to see you succeed so as long as
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you reach out to them and utilize that
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resource you will do as well if you want
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to do as I mentioned before just try to
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use that calendar feature because it
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always will just keep you up to date
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with all your assignments so you’ll
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never miss an assignment or you’ll never
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wait to the last minute to try to
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complete assignment it tells you your
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entire semester of assignments so you
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can even work ahead if you would like
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and that was probably like the greatest
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feature for me that contributed to my
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success with the UCF yeah I’m sure
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especially with online classes where you
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are given a lot more flexibility um
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self-discipline time management those
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are all really important things to that
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factor into to your success as a student
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do you have any advice for students
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applying to UCF online
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yeah I would definitely say is figure
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out the best schedule for you and then
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just pick classes according to that so
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if you know that you work all day and
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maybe you only have a couple hours after
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work
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don’t make I wouldn’t choose maybe like
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four or five classes maybe just choose
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one or two classes just to see if you
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can do that because it takes a lot of
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self-discipline for online learning it’s
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not like you go to class and the teacher
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tells you you need to do this on this
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day it definitely take you have to take
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it upon yourself to really want to do
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the work and so definitely just create a
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schedule for yourself and as I mentioned
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before definitely if you have any
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questions or any concerns just
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definitely just try to reach out to an
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advisor or a teacher so that they can
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help you succeed because we all want to
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see your success it’s good to ease your
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way in to things rather than overload
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yourself and not having enough time to
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manage all of the the different
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commitments now we’re gonna shift into
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some more questions regarding your
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relationship with your success coach so
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what were your initial thoughts on
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coaching I that is a great question I
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was never used to coaching I know that
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you have an academic advisor where you
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can reach out to them if you had any
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questions so for me having good coach
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was almost like having two academic
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advisors because if academically I could
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reach out to my advisor but if I had any
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questions about the program or any
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questions about anything in general
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Jennifer my coach was always really
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there for me she always emailed me she
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always called we made monthly meetings
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just to discuss where I was my future
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goals
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if classes were going as expected so I
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thought coaching was was really good
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because Jennifer always checked in on me
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and she just wanted to make sure that
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everything was going as well as I hoped
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and fortunately it did go well so it’s
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that additional layer of support
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great and what how do you feel that the
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relationship with Jennifer on with your
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success coach has impacted your
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experience here at UCF I personally
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think that my relationship with Jennifer
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since we worked together though it
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really improved my my coursework with
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UCF because I felt that Jennifer also
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kind of kept me accountable for all the
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decisions that I made if I ever had any
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questions as far as like maybe even
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graduate school which I did get accepted
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to Jennifer would like help me she would
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say like oh try to find funding or like
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what are the criteria so Jennifer was
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was definitely a huge support system for
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me as I maneuvered through this the
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courses at UC ER that’s amazing Josh and
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congratulations are you gonna be
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starting in the fall yes yes with LSU
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excellent that’s amazing and could you
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tell me about a time when Jennifer
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influenced your ability to overcome an
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obstacle yes actually it was this
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semester it was it was probably around
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January where I was preparing to take
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for the GRE to get into graduate school
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and so there was there were many
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questions that I didn’t understand about
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that process and because Jennifer had
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went to grad school herself she
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definitely helped me with that she was
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telling me about how to like sign up for
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the GRE and send it to the different
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schools because there were different
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schools that I were had applied to and I
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was interested in and Jennifer also was
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like we talked about she was telling me
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about funding because she said that’s
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important you can find funding ways and
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so just definitely just the process of
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post UCF Jennifer was very very helpful
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she sent me different links and
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different emails to definitely help
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support my dreams of getting into
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graduate school so I’m very grateful for
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her for that hmm it’s not like she was a
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big support system throughout your
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experience here ECF and now applying to
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grad school so that’s amazing
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how would you feel that coaching has
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impacted your personal or professional
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development has it helped you to adapt
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your style in any way as a student yes I
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think it’s helped me adapt because
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Jennifer she she was a form of a mentor
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in a way because like like we discussed
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if I had any questions or if I just
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didn’t understand maybe even not about
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grad school but just about my current
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courses that I was taking Jennifer
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definitely went above and beyond to help
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me
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she was just constantly sending me
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emails or you know calling just to make
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sure that I understood anything and
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Jennifer always asked she’s like do you
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have any questions or is there anything
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I can help clear up for you and that was
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definitely a big relief because
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sometimes we don’t know what’s going on
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or we don’t understand especially if
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you’re transitioning into the online
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system for the first time and so she
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definitely the transition very easy or
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easy for me and yeah it definitely
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changed the way that I look at online
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courses exile well thank you so much for
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sharing that thank you so much for
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joining me in this conversation today
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and for being a part of UCF and for
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representing UCF online so well thank
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you thank you so much