During the two pathway semesters at George Mason University, I learned many new things and absorbed abundant energy that promotes me to be greater on the academic field than before. For example, the course of PROV-501 has a goal which is teaching the students how to analyze a case that states some former students violated the Honor Code at Mason. Also, the course of PROV-501and INYO-502 both focuses on the right way of writing the reflections for not only the activities on campus but also the artifacts that show students’ achievements on the e-portfolios. I improved my skill of analyzing and understand the importance of writing a reflection because of Professor Amy’s guidance. She taught us that a reflection is not a description; it is about what you feel and experience when you were participating an event then how can you use your experience for own further development. Not only that, I am now can confidently perform an excellent presentation due to the classes gave me a lot of chances to speak to the public and in front of the classmates.

Moreover, the faculty designed the course of 506 and 507 which are beneficial for the pathway students to improve their reading and writing skill. Personally, I have read and studied lots of academic articles and research during the 506 course; Professor Deb paid particular attention to the part of rhetorical elements for students deeply understand how to use those sources to integrate and give a summary. What the courses gave the students has helped me currently doing the MCP project more professionally and analytically. To combine with the learning sources in 506 course, I can effectively find the useful and targeted literature on Google Scholar, and Mason library then read the literature correctly as well as having the critical thinking. Now, I confidently say that I can give a well-done project and give the logical and interesting views for my audience.

Until now, every course is beneficial for me to extend my skills that needed in the graduate school such as analyzing a paper clearly in the graduate courses and enhancing reading efficiency. My EAP 507 professors always tell us that there are many steps for reading an academic article, not just for reading the word but for having critical thinking for what is the author’s idea, purpose, solutions, and suggestions. I understand when I am going to start my graduate study, I will experience a lot of presentations and study many things of my major. Because of this, I will be very grateful that I have undergone all the pathway courses and training so that I can confidently face the problem in the future. Thus, I will take my learning attitude to accept all the challenge and study as an excellent graduate student.

Graduate students at the Arlington campus. Photo by Alexis Glenn/Creative Services/George Mason University