Scholarship. Academics. That is why we go to college; we go for the education and the knowledge. This is no secret, and it is definitely the expected outcome of pursuing a higher education. A college experience can provide you with the knowledge you need to enter the workforce and create a living for yourself. However, not everyone attends college, and even among those who do, only about 60% actually graduate. What motivates those 60% to stick it out to the end?
I believe it is a passion to truly learn. Going to classes and doing the bare minimum may get you through your college years, but at what cost? How much knowledge did you actually acquire? And how did you feel when you were in those classes? If all you do is the bare minimum, there is not much you are actually learning. To truly get a good education, you have to want that for yourself, and you have to be an active learner. You must take initiative of your own education.
The Cormier Honors College has been one way for me to take my education a step further and to push myself to learn more. It is not more work, but different work. It stretches my brain to think in new and challenging ways that will help me grow and expand my knowledge through my time at Longwood. Just in my first year at Longwood, I had already taken an extra honors course, a directed study, to research how volunteering affects stress levels. I love learning, and the Honors College has helped me pursue that passion both in my focused major as well as in other branches of study.