Using Free Tools to Achieve Your Goals

By: Carlos Glick

Students learning about internship and job opportunities at the Center for Career and Professional Development’s “career crawl.” Credit: silive.com

 As the spring semester has finally begun, its important to be aware of all of the services and tools available on campus to help you succeed. 

Whether you are a freshman, or a senior getting ready to graduate, we are all reaching to achieve a list of academic goals. In order to map out these goals, CSI offers several ways to assist you.

    “The Gazetteer,” or CSI’s Student Planner, is an excellent tool to input information and remain on task. It becomes a great resource for students who like a tangible book to write down their schedule for classes, important due dates, and map out future assignments. 

  In addition, the Technology Training Team at CSI offers free training and assistance with creating PowerPoint presentations, storage of documents, creating spreadsheets, accessing and utilizing Office 365, formatting papers, and using blackboard. 

The Technology Training Team at CSI offers free services for all students. Credit: Doriann Hyland

The training sessions are free and can be one-on-one, group, classroom workshops, and even virtual via Blackboard Collaborate.These are all tools given to us to succeed, so take full advantage of these important services. In order to find out more information, visit 2A-302, www.csi.cuny.edu/online-resources/office-information-technology-services/technology-training, or email TechnologyTraining@csi.cuny.edu. 

CSI also has its very own Center for Career and Professional Development. The helpful professionals at the career center can assist you with one-on-one career planning, resume and cover letter development, searching for internships, interview coaching, provide you with up to date job postings, and even link you with mentors who can coach you with their real-world experience. 

Hopefully, through taking advantage of these key resources, students will be able to unlock their full potential and be prepared for success within and beyond their college career.

    To find out how actual college students feel about this new start, I spoke with a couple of students at CSI. Matt Ferrando, a current Sophomore and Kyla Besett, also a current Sophomore, are both concentrated on obtaining a degree. 

 Besett and Ferrando are two very different people with different interests they want to pursue. Besett wants to concentrate on getting a degree in Drama, (with interests of a minor in Psychology) while Ferrando is currently undecided, but is thinking of getting a degree in Social Work. 

   Both Besett and Ferrando have a similar goal in common, that is to pass their classes. Besett and Ferrando also have goals related to their field of interests. 

Besett wants to do good in her play that’s coming up, while Ferrando wants to gain enough credits for the BSW program and graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Besett has other goals she is striving towards, such as, to create new relationships and to get a degree. 

In order for students just like Besett and Ferrando to make their dreams a reality, they should set short-term goals. 

President M Russell Ballard, a leader of my faith has said about setting goals: “Set short-term goals that you can reach. Set goals that are well balanced– not too many or too few, and not too high or too low. Write down your attainable goals and work on them according to their importance.” 

As a student myself, this is my second semester here and I have goals of my own that I would like to accomplish this semester. 

As a Cinema Studies major and a graduate from Kingsborough Community College, my goals have changed throughout my college career. At Kingsborough, I was a Liberal Arts Major and got my associates in Liberal Arts. 

I took a few theater classes and hoped I would make a career in theater but that changed when I got to CSI. My goals throughout the semester are to get good grades, study harder than ever before and increase my GPA. 

Mary Lou Retton has said “Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit.”

The beginning of the semester can be stressful, but if you put your mind into it, you can reach high. 

If we put the effort to achieve our dreams and believe in ourselves, we can strive to have the best semester we can.