September 5, 2025 • 37 mins
We all know freshman year is a big turning point. There's orientations, welcome celebrations, loads of "firsts" to experience - but with three more years of college, the changes and growth have only begun.
What happens next?
This week, Dr. Ross and student producer Ashley Worley reconvene with two students who appeared on the podcast in their first week of freshman year: Mary Mooney and Dominick Robinette. Now approaching their sophomore year, they discuss the variety of developmental shifts and struggles they've encountered, like managing anxiety, building connections on campus, and navigating AI use in homework. Through it all, they offer insights on how this often-overlooked middle year can be just as pivotal for growth as the first.
Have more questions about surviving and thriving in sophomore year? Email us at ADRquestions@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
It's created to give you infoto succeed at college.
Our hosts are highly qualified.
Dr Catherine Ross is a memberof the University of Texas
System's Academy ofDistinguished Teachers.
She's also a popular professorof 19th century English
literature.
Ask Dr Ross is a communityservice of the University of
(00:27):
Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Here we are again with the famous Mary Mooney and
Dominic Robinette, two studentsthat, when we first started
talking to them, were brand newfirst-year students at UT Tyler
and we thought it'd be a lot offun to follow their career all
the way through their time tillgraduation.
So we visited the first coupleweeks of class and Mary was very
(00:53):
nervous about making any kindof mistakes and speaking up.
Dominic was thinking aboutchanging his major and was kind
of really happy to be away fromthe bleak geography, shall we
say, of Midland, texas.
And things had changed by thetime we met with you a little
bit later on, dominic.
Your big change was what achange of major, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, it was a change of major Switched from biology
pre-med to electricalengineering.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And how's that going for you?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's been good so far , honestly, just lots of fun.
I've enjoyed it a lot more justbecause you know I'm more of a
numbers slash math person andyou know that's really what
engineering is just numbers,solving problems and figuring
out math.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So the fun of solving problems, huh, I think that's a
wonderful thing for people outthere to hear that solving
problems is actually kind of afun process, isn't it?
Yeah, All right Now, Mary.
You started as an English majorand I think you're still an
English major.
We haven't run you off yet.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
No, no, y'all have kept me here.
In fact, I'm so sure of mymajor.
It's definitely for me.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh, that's so good to hear what made it feel like you
were so sure about it.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Well, I feel like all the classes I took, I just felt
like all the stuff likeinterest me.
It wasn't like work, it didn'tfeel like schoolwork, even
though like I was scared to messup and like I wanted to like do
the best I could.
It was like fun in the processtoo.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So both of you are having fun, and to me, that's
one of the great things aboutcollege is that it is a lot of
fun, and it's not just funoutside of the classroom, it's
actually fun in the classroom,and I'd like you to talk a
little bit more about that, mary, when you say it's fun, would
you think about the folks outthere that are maybe nervous
about getting to college andcould you tell them a little bit
(02:35):
more about why it's?
Speaker 4 (02:36):
fun.
I think the most fun part forme is like being able to like
sit in a college classroom,which is like super intimidating
and like you feel like you'rean adult, but like the stuff
that you're learning you get itautomatically if you choose the
right major.
So, for example, like one of myclasses that I took second
semester was a modern literatureclass and first going into the
(02:57):
class it was upper senior leveldivision class, so I was super
scared.
I was like I'm doing the wrongthing.
But when I got in there and Istarted doing the work, it was
like I wanted to keep on going.
Like, even though the class wasan hour and 20 minutes, it was
like I couldn't get enough of it, like I wanted to keep going
back when it clicks.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That, I feel like, is the fun part, and also, you're
in a classroom with other majors, right, and this is one of the
great things about movingforward.
After a certain year or two,you start getting into your
major, and then you're not justtaking a history class here, a
math class here, a politicalscience class here.
You're taking lots and lots andlots of the same courses.
(03:35):
So now, besides classrooms,things have been changing too
for you.
Now, mary, do you have a job?
What are you doing here oncampus this summer?
Did you drive all the way infrom Jacksonville just for us?
(03:57):
I drove all the way in fromJacksonville.
Oh my gosh.
Well, we've got to take her outfor lunch or something.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
No, no, no.
I mean, I come to Tyler all thetime anyway.
Tyler is like the place to befrom Jacksonville, so it was no
trouble.
But I do have a job inJacksonville anyway, so that's
kind of what keeps me busy there, and then when I want to have
fun I come to Tyler.
So what are you doing for a jobin Jacksonville?
I'm a cashier at this littlestore that.
I've been a cashier since likejunior year of high school.
(04:23):
They just like let me come back.
I'm a temporary employee andrecently, this summer, they
promoted me to office clerk.
So now I'm not just a littlecashier, I'm doing a lot more,
bigger things, I guess.
And what kind of store is it?
It's a Berkshire Brothers, soit's just a little convenient
grocery store type thing.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, and for those folks who don't know this area,
the Brookshire brothers are veryfamous family in the Tyler and
East Texas area.
In fact, we have a buildingnamed after them Brookshire Hall
, I think that's called.
But, dominic, you now have apretty interesting job here.
You were telling us about itbefore we started, so speak away
(05:01):
.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, so my first campus job was actually working
in the University Center as partof the operations team, really
just kind of helping with eventsetup, teardown and management.
Every now and then we wouldjump in and actually help run
the events that happened allthroughout the University Center
.
But for the summer I actuallygot recommended by my boss to be
(05:25):
an orientation leader, and sothat is why I'm actually able to
be here this summer, becausethey do provide housing and it's
a super fun job honestly.
Also, as my job in theUniversity Center, I'm going to
get promoted in the fall tobuilding manager, so I'm pretty
excited about that.
I'll be, you know, stillworking with the operations team
(05:45):
, but just a little bit more onthe business side, really not as
much helping out with settingup the events, but more just
making sure things in theuniversity center are just
running smoothly.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Tell us a little bit about what orientation is and
what you do as an orientationleader.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
For New Patriot Orientation.
It's two days, it's a Thursdayand a Friday.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And these are all incoming first year students or
transfer to.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
We do transfer orientation separately, so on
Thursdays it's typically alittle bit more laid back, but
it's still lots of businessbeing done, Like we will get
into small groups, get to knowthe students real well, kind of
introduce them to campus andjust what the UT Tyler kind of
family is, Because most peopleon campus I would say are very
(06:30):
welcoming and you just need tohave a conversation with them.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, I've heard folks say that they went to
different campuses and theyalways felt as though this was a
place where they kind of wantedto be, was friendly, and I
remember my own experience withthat.
Ashley, did you travel a lot ofcampuses or did you come
straight here?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I pretty much came straight here because here was
where the scholarship was for me, and also your sister was
already here too, so you knewthe routine.
Yeah, but I think mainly whereI got introduced to like the
campus culture like Dominic wastalking about was when I was
working as a tour guide.
It's a big deal for the tourguides.
They want you to get peopleintroduced to campus and excited
(07:09):
and you know what the customsare and the fun little like
campus legends, like the turtleand all that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, because students, when they first get
here, were you prettyintimidated, Mary.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean orientation alone.
It was just like so many peopleand like, personally, for me I
don't like the whole camp, likehey, let's come have fun, learn
people, and I tend to stray awayfrom that, so it was definitely
intimidating.
But I mean orientation showedme not only like all the people
that I was going to be around,but also what the campus has to
offer.
(07:41):
I loved just exploring, likeall the buildings and seeing all
like the educational resourceswe have here.
That was really what I lovedabout orientation.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Now the orientation part.
Do they load you up into groupsby the major or do they let you
kind of mix and mingle?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, they usually separate them out into schools.
We also offer group advisingduring orientation.
So towards the end, as we'rekind of gearing up, everyone's
been kind of sectioned intotheir own groups like the whole
orientation, but we will starttaking them to get actually
advised and most of themtypically do have a major picked
.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Do those folks that you meet that very first
orientation?
Have they continued to be thepeople that you know and love
throughout?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
the years.
I actually know because I wentto Swoop Camp so I had a
roommate and my roommate.
We lived on the same floor andwe saw each other, would say hi
and everything like that.
But yeah, I definitely know alot of the people that I met at
Swoop Camp.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So it helps to kind of take that anxiety about not
knowing anybody off the table,doesn't it?
Yeah?
Yeah, now Ashley also has a jobon campus.
Would you like to tell theaudience what you do?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Well, this is my campus job.
It started as volunteer and nowI've been very fortunate to get
it as like a part-time position, but basically I get to do all
of the production aspects.
So I'm messing with thesebuttons here and running the
board, producing the episodespart-time position, but
basically I get to do all of theproduction aspects.
So messing with these buttonshere and running the board,
producing the episodes andsending them out in their final
product form, but also a lot ofthe organization elements, like
(09:14):
I send you all the emails andgetting people to come to the
studio.
Overall, I think personally Ihave the best job on campus.
Don't tell anybody, but I'vereally enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, I wanted to bring this up.
First of all, 19 and a halfhours, right, is all you can
work when you do a campus job.
We don't want you to have a40-hour-a-week job Now.
We have a lot of students whodo that and those are the ones
who I wring my hands over atnight when they get really
stressed out.
But if you can do a part-timejob like this and I did one when
I was in college as well it's areally good option.
(09:47):
It takes off some of theanxiety of the financial drain
that college always is, but italso gives you some professional
experience.
I wanted to talk to you allabout something that Mary knows
(10:11):
I've talked about in classbefore, which are the seven
vectors of college studentdevelopment.
What this is?
Chickering and Reiser are twoscholars who study the
psychology of being a collegestudent, and they talked about
the seven vectors of yourdevelopment.
You know, a lot of times peoplethink by the time you get to
college, man, you've done it.
But we also know that yourbrain didn't even fully develop
(10:32):
until you're 25.
And there are all these skillsthat are changing.
I mean, I just noticed the wayyou two walked into the room
just now is so different fromthe way you walked in a year ago
.
You're taller, you're tanner,you've got a mustache, you've
got longer hair, but you alsohave a kind of confidence that
you're getting to know thisplace and you kind of own it.
And so that very first vectoris the one we call developing
(10:55):
competence, and that'sdeveloping intellectual,
physical and manual skills forwhatever it is that you're
trying to study, likeengineering or English or mass
comm.
But guess what the next one isafter that?
It's called managing emotions.
And then the next one, which issort of related to that, is
moving through autonomy towardinterdependence.
Start by managing emotions.
(11:16):
I remember Mary was verynervous, and you're not so
nervous anymore, are you?
Are you a lot better?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
at that.
I think so.
I remember Mary was verynervous and you're not so
nervous anymore, are you?
Are you a lot better at that?
I think so.
I'm definitely more confident.
I'm not as nervous in theclassroom, but throughout
freshman year I did strugglewith just anxiety as a whole.
I had anxiety before, you know.
I came here and it definitelydid not get better.
I just found other ways tomanifest my anxiety.
So when I came back home it wasevident to my mom that was like
(11:44):
okay, like we have to look intothis because you're stressing
out too much.
When you're by yourself and youhave all this college work that
you have to look at, it'sreally hard to like separate,
like okay, I need to focus oncollege, okay, I need to focus
on myself.
You tend to forget aboutyourself and that's what I did.
I let my anxiety take over.
I let it control and intertwinewith how I work, with my
(12:05):
college life.
So, definitely, being away fromcollege, taking a break in the
summer.
I'm working on that and I'mworking on managing my emotions
and hopefully it will be better.
My sophomore year.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well and you know, mary, you're not unlike a lot of
young people who are verydriven to do very, very well.
You are valedictorian.
You want to stay being avaledictorian type.
I know from being yourprofessor that you have very
high standards for yourself, andthese are all great things to
have, but college can bestressful.
Now, did either of you have anykind of issues with that?
(12:39):
Yeah, I mean, college was prettystressful, you know just for me
it was really the distance andjust knowing nobody.
I mean Midland Texas is likeanother country, it's really far
away, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, it's far, but the biggest thing that's
honestly helped me witheverything like that is getting
more involved in campus.
So I've joined a couple oforganizations on campus and just
getting to know people throughthat and just continually
meeting people has just reallyhelped me out.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Well, and I think sometimes, if you'll talk about
what you're anxious about, a lotof times, someone can say I had
that too, it's okay, or yeah,that's a good reason to be
anxious.
Have you talked to Professorso-and-so?
Or have you talked to the RA?
A lot of times there are folkslike that.
It's real low stakes.
It's not like you know, goingin for a serious appointment
(13:28):
with a doctor or anything, it'sjust talking to somebody.
And I know that what I sawhappening to you was that you
were getting better.
You don't always notice it whenyou get better, do you?
What about you, ashley?
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Well, I will say I found out I have kind of an
interesting way of dealing withfeelings is that I don't really
get anxious or whatever in themoment.
It like hits like probably anhour or two hours after, and
that's something I figured outkind of quickly when I got to
college and it's useful in oneway and not so useful in other
ways.
College, and it's useful in oneway and not so useful in other
(14:03):
ways.
So being able to deal withthings in the moment is
something that having jobs oncampus and talking to professors
and all of those things thatare par for the course when you
come to college that's somethingthat has been a lot more
frequent and that I've beendeveloping.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I'm actually just like you, I can look real cool,
calm and collected.
Somebody will come at me andI'm just you know.
Actually, just like you, I canlook real cool, calm and
collected.
Somebody will come at me andI'm just you know, that's all
right, I can handle this, noproblem.
And then later on it's justdoing and doing and doing, and
you're right that it's.
Learning to stay in the momentis important.
The other thing is that Ashleyand I have had some crises in
(14:38):
the work and my sense is thatit's been good training for you.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Oh, absolutely, and every job is going to be like
that too, you know.
So it's better to have workwhile you're in college, so that
you're getting both ends ofthose learning.
College is good for theinterpersonal skills anyway, but
work especially.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And the thing that's good too about it and it sounds
like you get this too atBrookshire's is that it's sort
of a family thing.
Right, you guys are a family,and so the folks that are
supervising you maybe yourprofessors or maybe employees at
the campus so we all have a lotof interest and you're doing
well, and so that's anotherreason why a campus job is a
great deal.
(15:19):
Now the other three things thatI really really want to talk
about is establishing identity,developing purpose and
developing integrity, and thosetake years to develop, you know,
(15:42):
but identity it sounds like,mary, you just said you're more
like your true self.
Now, is that right?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yeah, I think so, being in college during the
beginning, I strayed away frompeople and I isolated myself and
I think by doing that I wasable to prioritize what I like,
so my interest, and I was ableto let that become my
personality and allow myself tolet other people know hey, I
like this stuff and if you don'tlike it too bad, I'm a serious
English major, exactly, and I'mokay to nerd out about it and
through that I feel like I foundmy identity, which, of course,
(16:16):
it's not completely discovered.
I have a lot more growing to dobut through that I'm able to
attract people that will betterme and have the same interests
as me, and it's all good.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
How about?
You has your identity.
Is it getting more focused foryou, dominic?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah.
So I was really closed off tomost people and I usually am
Whenever I first get to knowthem.
I'm just kind of nervous to bemyself, and I usually am
whenever I first get to knowthem.
Yeah, I'm just kind of nervousto be myself.
The first organization Iactually started going to was
Boathouse.
It's an on-campus organizationand going to that, just meeting
countless people, I've actuallymet the people that I'm gonna be
(16:52):
moving into an apartment withat Boathouse.
So going to that has allowed meto open up more.
And I also joined a fraternity.
I joined the Kappa Sigma.
Hanging around people like thatand like-minded individuals has
just opened me up to where, ifI'm hanging around anybody, I'm
myself.
Now I'm not anywhere near asclosed off as I used to be.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I think that's a really interesting thing.
Now, what is Boathouse?
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Boathouse, it's a Christian student organization.
Boathouse, it's a Christianstudent organization and we go
out on Lake Tyler on Tuesdaysand it is from like 6 to 10 pm.
We get a dinner, just kind oftalk and hang out for about an
hour and then there is a worshipservice and a sermon given as
well.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You know, I think it's important for students to
recognize that there is aspiritual element to the growth
you're going through.
There is a spiritual element tothe growth you're going through
and I know there is for me asan adult in my profession is
definitely has aspects to it andI'm really pleased that
universities take time and givespace to that kind of
(17:53):
opportunity.
Ashley, are you doing anythingalong those lines?
Is your identity changingbecause of the things that
you've been involved in?
Anything along those lines?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Is your identity changing because of the things
that you've been involved in.
If it has, I haven't noticedit's a short version.
I kind of came into collegefeeling pretty solid about who I
was.
I was very fortunate to have,you know, parents who spent
basically my entire childhoodtrying to give building blocks,
so that by the time I was 18 orready to go to college, like we
were not done growing but had agreat foundation.
(18:22):
And that's because you werehomeschooled.
Well, probably yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Now you went to public high school and you went
to public high school, mary.
So I do think that there's abig difference between learning
who you are when you're workingwith your family that closely.
Now some people their familiesare driving crazy, and it's real
(18:47):
good to be in a public school.
And I will say this that myexperience with homeschool
students has been generally thatyou are pretty self-aware, and
you certainly have been that way, and we've been lucky enough to
be able to find a work for youthat fits too with what I think
your professional identity.
Lucky enough to be able to findwork for you that fits too with
what I think your professionalidentity is going to be one day.
So that's been pretty handy foryou.
Developing purpose when youhear that phrase, what does that
(19:21):
make you think, mary?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
well, with the context of college, the only
thing I can think of is career.
What's the end goal?
How are you going to make money?
That type of purpose and youhave that figured out already,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I think I have a pretty good idea.
Yeah, yeah, and I hope it's thesame thing you said last time
we talked college professor,english college professor I
think you really are well suitedto that.
You have the kind of motivationand the intellect to do it.
But also you are pretty good atfocusing and you know ruling
out some of the stuff that'sinterfering with that serious
(19:56):
research stuff that we have todo.
So I think it'll be reallyinteresting to watch you develop
that research stuff that wehave to do.
So I think it'll be reallyinteresting to watch you develop
that.
The trick for you, I think, isgoing to be deciding what part
of English studies you want todo, because it's a huge field.
Are you going to do American?
Are you going to do world?
Are you going to do British?
So that'll be a piece of whatyou do.
And I guess, moving frommedicine to electrical
engineering, you've got purpose,starting to get a little more
(20:18):
focus for you too.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
electrical engineering you've got purpose
starting to get a little morefocus for you too, huh yeah.
So I don't exactly know whatpart of electrical engineering I
want to be in, you know,because that in and itself is a
very broad field.
There's like power grids youcould work on cars almost
anything that you can think ofessentially needs an electrical
engineer, because almosteverything we have now has
electronics in it.
(20:40):
It's a broad category, but it'snarrow enough that I think like
I have a goal of what I'mworking towards Just getting to
work with leading technology.
Honestly, that's something thatI get super excited about is
hearing about new technologies,and the fact that I could be on
the edge of guiding people tonew technology like that.
(21:00):
It gets me super excited.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
That's fun, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
And also, you know, I mentionedbefore the career conference.
When that comes around in,usually October, there will be
electrical engineers invited.
But I know that all of ourdepartments are trying really
hard these days to steerstudents toward, if not an
internship, then opportunity tocommunicate with and talk to,
and sometimes even follow,professionals in the field.
(21:24):
What about you, ashley Purpose?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
I had kind of a similar experience to what
Dominic was talking about, whereyou come into your major and it
feels specified, but it'sactually rather broad when you
look at the actual careerapplications of it.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
And both of you are in fields that are changing all
the time.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Yeah.
So I was fortunate to have alot of the basics done in high
school.
So I came in and got right tothe coursework for Mass Comm and
I found out very quickly a lotof these things about myself.
I was like, ok, news is notgoing to work for me.
I cannot work in news, and itwas because of the resources
like the Career SuccessConference and the core classes
(22:03):
we had that were, you know, newsemphasis and mass comm just
realizing that my personalityand the things that I value and
find gratifying in doing workare not always the most
prominent in a particular fieldor subset of a field.
But what I realized becameimportant to me was that I
really like project-orientedwork and work that helps
(22:26):
somebody.
Whatever the project is, it'snot about the person who's
making it as much as it is whoit's for.
So audience-oriented work.
And the other thing that's heldup is that I still love
entertainment.
I love podcasts, I love movies,I love fiction books.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
What's wonderful to hear.
All three of you seem to havefound something you enjoy
studying, and that's the key.
The thing that always makes methe saddest is when I've got a
first year or sophomore studentwho's studying nursing because
they thought they wanted to be anurse and now, oh my goodness,
I don't like being around sickpeople, or, oh, I really hate
anatomy, or I just don't want todo the math, and then they feel
(23:05):
stuck.
And what I'm happy to see isthat in your case, dominic, you
saw pretty quickly and youshifted.
In your case, ashley, you'rekind of in the right field, but
you're not sure which part ofthat field, and you're working
on that the last question, orthe last competency on the list,
(23:32):
and it's not going to be thelast thing you do.
But it has to do with integrity, and I think integrity is
partly being true to yourself.
But one of the things I waswondering is now, everybody
knows that in high school, lotsof kids cheat and in college
guess what A few people cheat.
Here too.
I've noticed, for example, withthe advent of AI, that I can
(23:54):
get an AI answer to a prompt ona homework assignment or a
partially AI written essay.
It's very, very tempting whenyou see other folks messing
around, and I was wondering ifyou have had to confront any of
those circumstances yet, or ifyou had some thoughts and
feelings about it.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, I think AI.
There's two sides to it,honestly.
One, it is one of the greatesttools you could ever use.
I used it to help me study forchemistry and I passed that
class with, I believe, a 100.
It's one of those things whereyou can use it and it'll help
you understand everything somuch better.
But at the same time, it's soeasy to be like, man, I really
(24:39):
don't know what this problem is.
It'll just spit the answer outand you can be like, oh, I
really don't know what thisproblem is.
It'll just spit the answer outand you can be like, oh, I'm
learning it.
And then suddenly you get tothat exam.
Or, if it's an online class, ifcertain people start using it,
you may not even notice that,like suddenly you didn't know
what you did that entire class.
Ai literally took that classfor you, and so I think those
(24:59):
are the two like main sides toAI and it just comes with, I
guess, probably just teachingpeople that this is a powerful
tool, but if you use it thewrong way, you're not helping
yourself in any way.
You're just setting yourself upfor failure.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
How are you going to pass the exam if AI took the
course for you?
How are you going to show upand know the stuff?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I have a strong stance on AI, so in high school
I never touched it.
I was scared of it, even thoughI saw my peers use it and I saw
that without me using ChatGPTspecifically, my work stood out
and I was able to excel incertain classes and it gave me a
confidence in my academicability and it gave me agency in
my work me a confidence in myacademic ability and it gave me
(25:44):
agency in my work.
So when I came here, most of myclasses I never took tests.
They were all essays, allwritten things, and knowing from
high school that my work wouldstand out if I didn't use it, I
would find myself gettingfatigued when I would work.
I couldn't think of things andI used ChatGBT just as a
brainstorming assistant and ithelped me so much.
I would see how it would thinkand then I'd saw how my brain
(26:05):
would think differing opinionsand then a brand new idea would
be created.
So, similar to what Dominic wassaying.
It really depends on who usesit and how you use it.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
I'd like to add on to AI in writing.
Whenever I took English 1301,that was a big thing that that
class really was focusing on.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Oh, and that was with Michaela Murphy.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Yeah, so that whole class really was almost learning
how to use AI in writing theproper way and she even gave us
like examples.
She was like go ahead, have AIwrite this paper and see how bad
it is, honestly, because forthe level that college writing
needs to be, ai just can't do it.
(26:47):
It can't follow simpleinstructions most of the time,
knowing how to use it at thesame time, like she taught us
how to use it a lot and I reallydo appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Ashley, you want to add to this conversation?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, I definitely agree with what both of y'all
are saying.
My background, you know comingto the AI and then cheating with
AI and all that sort of thingwas kind of different because I
had a toaster of a laptopgrowing up, like I didn't have
the technological tools to cheat.
Most of my homework was paper,pretty much all of it.
So when I came into college,first of all, don't join the
(27:20):
group me's, don't join the thegroup me's, don't join the class
group me's.
It's a trap.
But with using AI, I had beenlike Mary was doing and just
staying away from it because Ifrankly just had never bothered
with it before.
And I came into a class that Ijust finished and we had this
really intensive researchproject at the end of it where
(27:41):
she let us pick what project wewere going to do, what topic we
were going to research, so longas it was related to one of the
texts we'd been engaging.
And I was like, well, I wonderif there's a neuroscience
backing for whatever this mediatheorist was saying.
And I was like maybe I could dothat for my project.
She was like, maybe you coulddo that.
Yeah, that was a mistake, I knownothing about the brain and I
(28:02):
realized very quickly liketrying to break down these
studies to where I couldunderstand them was like way a
bigger task than I could handleand what I realized is that AI
is great for comprehension, likey'all were talking about.
So I could give it thesestudies and the specific
sections where it was like 99%jargon, I could be like explain
(28:25):
it to me.
Like I was dumb, like I knewwhat none of this meant, and it
could do it and I was able tofinish that project.
I feel like I have a way betterunderstanding of the brain now
and was able to actually developlike my own stance on the
project and overall it was justa fantastic tool.
But then I also understand thetemptation to cheat with it,
(28:45):
because when you're up at like4.15 am trying to troubleshoot
with your little chat GPT likewhat is this person actually
saying in this study?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And it offers oh, I know, Would you like me to write
this for you?
That makes me crazy when I seethat.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
You know it's just trying to offer what the next
logical step would be to givemore assistance, like is there
anything else you need from me?
It's just part of the way itworks, but it is so tempting,
you know, when you've been upthat long, when you're working
that hard, when your brain'stired and it keeps offering,
every single time it goes.
Would you like me to write aparagraph?
Would it goes?
Would you like me to write aparagraph?
Would you like me to write alittle paragraph?
What I noticed is when I keptsaying no, it would make the
(29:23):
request smaller.
It's like would you like me towrite it as a paper for you?
Would you like me to write aparagraph for you?
Would you like me to write asentence for you?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Please let me help you cheat.
I know the other thing.
It's a great study tool if it'sconstructed properly.
And here's what I learned howto do.
A colleague of mine who hasspent three years investigating
how to use it, created aprotocol for an AI teaching
assistant.
I can load in all my ownknowledge base, the stuff I
(29:55):
teach, the texts I teach thedirections I give my policy
statement, my research projectassignments, all that sort of
stuff.
That's a knowledge base, andalso my policy statement with
what to do and when to do it andstuff like that.
And it created a TA that was sogood that the students were
just raving about it.
Very first thing that we did totest it was.
(30:16):
He said, what do you have to doto make an A in Dr Ross's
English class?
And it read my policy statementjust to a T.
Well, she really likes classparticipation.
You better be sure you do yourclass preparation assignment
ahead of time, but it's okay ifyou're a little bit late,
da-da-da-da.
And when my colleague who gaveme the template for this, he
sold it to me by sayingCatherine, I have tested this
(30:38):
with live teaching assistantsand the bot is better.
Whoa, have tested this withlive teaching assistants and the
bot is better, whoa.
So that was very interesting tome.
However, I'll give you a perfectexample.
I'm reading this my newfavorite novelist, augusta
Webster Ward, and I knew therewas a chapter there that I
wanted to reread and I asked itwhere it was.
Chapter 16, and here's thequotation.
(30:58):
I went to chapter 16, it wasnowhere near that.
It had just made it up.
Another thing that's funny isthat sometimes it will give you
the names of articles that don'texist, and so you have to be
very, very, very careful.
But it's a good tool for a lotof basic stuff.
So I don't want anybody tothink that AI is evil or
(31:19):
cheating, unless you use a cheat, and we're all going to be
tempted to do that Now.
Tricky stuff, you know,everything you put in there is
becoming public information.
You're teaching the bots, ifyou will.
I think it's a tool like acalculator, and I'm glad that
you all understand that thereare limits to using it.
What's your best advice to abrand new first-year student,
(31:55):
mary?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I mean, I think throughout this whole series, my
advice has stayed the same,because it's something I tell
myself constantly and it's okayto struggle, it's okay to find
college is hard, especiallycoming from someone who all
throughout their academic life,everything's been somewhat easy.
I've been able to excel, I'vebeen able to do everything.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And you are a perfectionist.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Definitely, to say the least, yes.
So when you come to college,purposefully it's designed to
make you mess up, it's designedto make you learn things through
struggle.
So when you tell yourself, ok,struggle is normal, I have to
get over it, I have to know howto move on with it, everything
becomes so much easier and youallow yourself to learn so much
more.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So definitely my advice would say make struggle a
normal thing and be comfortablewith it.
I don't think we sit back andthink, oh, how can I make Mary
be really miserable and scaredand nervous about herself?
But you're right that whenyou're doing hard work, it is a
struggle.
If it weren't, it wouldn't beworth doing.
You actually almost alwayslearn more from making the
mistakes than you do from beingperfect, so that's a really
(33:02):
healthy thing.
Be okay with not being theperfect person in the class.
There are always going to besmarter people around.
What about you, dominic?
You've probably been thinkingabout this a lot because of your
getting trained for thisprogram.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I would say have fun College.
It's one of the last times thatyou're going to be able to just
have random things happen.
You know, like I've taken justrandom trips that we planned the
day of, and it's lots of funand as long as you just be
yourself and enjoy it like it'llbe worth it.
But you should always workharder than how much fun you
(33:41):
have.
You know, have fun, work harderthough.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
You know I'm getting ready to go on a big research
trip and I just finished goingto a conference and working very
hard to get this paper readyand, like you, I would work,
work really, really hard andthen every now and then I'd say,
(34:05):
OK, it's time to go watchJustified, or it's time to go
walk the dog or do somethingreally silly and enjoy it while
I'm doing it.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
What about you, ashley?
What are you going to add tothis?
I would say my best advice wasgiven to me by Dr Stroyfert,
who's the dean of the HonorsCollege, and, to sum it up, it's
be curious and then verysimilar to Mary failure is the
best teacher.
What Dr Schroepfert said whenwe were having our convocation,
you know, the new freshman classwas coming together and he said
(34:31):
the attitude of this onestudent in the Honors College
that he thought was veryoutstanding and that has tried
to apply as a attitude for thewhole Honors College, was I
don't know, but let me figure itout.
And that has changed the waythat I approach pretty much all
of my coursework interactionsand, I think, changed really the
(34:53):
opportunities that I've beengiven as well, because when I
was working for Michaela, I was,you know, in the digital design
studio, pretty much just apersonal assistant and one of
the things that came up thepodcast was still a volunteer
project.
They were like, hey, do youwant to edit podcast episodes?
I said I don't know how to dothat, but I could probably
figure it out.
And then, like 10 billionfailures later, here we are and
(35:17):
we're still producing episodesand now it's a job and I love
doing this job and we're goingto a conference in July.
You know it's crazy the rippleeffect that that kind of an
attitude can have by just sayingyou know what?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
let's try it, let's try it.
You know, as I watch studentsover the years, it did seem as
though students got moreintimidable and more intimidated
and less out there.
And I think all three of youare saying you know, get out
there and live this time and usethis time, work hard, play hard
and have a good four years, orthree and a half years, in
(35:54):
college.
I can't wait to see what youall say in your junior year.
Well, thank you so much.
We'll see you in a couplemonths.
Be safe this summer and also,if you come up with any good
podcast ideas, let us know.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
If anybody has any questions about freshman year,
sophomore year, college for Maryand Dominic, you can always
contact us through our Gmail orleave a comment.
If you're listening to us onYouTube, that'd be cool.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
All right, we'll get those questions to you.
Thanks for coming in so well.
That was pretty interesting.
I enjoyed that.
I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
This has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
Thank you so much for listeningin with us today, and if you
have questions about collegelife or any of the topics that
we were talking about today,please send us your questions to
ADRquestions at gmailcom.
We'd love to hear from you.
In the meanwhile, we'll see youin the next episode.
Thank you very much.
This is Ashley Wortley signingoff.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Bye-bye.
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
It's created to give you infoto succeed at college.
Our hosts are highly qualified.
Dr Catherine Ross is a memberof the University of Texas
System's Academy ofDistinguished Teachers.
She's also a popular professorof 19th century English
literature.
Ask Dr Ross is a communityservice of the University of
(00:27):
Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Here we are again with the famous Mary Mooney and
Dominic Robinette, two studentsthat, when we first started
talking to them, were brand newfirst-year students at UT Tyler
and we thought it'd be a lot offun to follow their career all
the way through their time tillgraduation.
So we visited the first coupleweeks of class and Mary was very
(00:53):
nervous about making any kindof mistakes and speaking up.
Dominic was thinking aboutchanging his major and was kind
of really happy to be away fromthe bleak geography, shall we
say, of Midland, texas.
And things had changed by thetime we met with you a little
bit later on, dominic.
Your big change was what achange of major, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, it was a change of major Switched from biology
pre-med to electricalengineering.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And how's that going for you?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's been good so far , honestly, just lots of fun.
I've enjoyed it a lot more justbecause you know I'm more of a
numbers slash math person andyou know that's really what
engineering is just numbers,solving problems and figuring
out math.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So the fun of solving problems, huh, I think that's a
wonderful thing for people outthere to hear that solving
problems is actually kind of afun process, isn't it?
Yeah, All right Now, Mary.
You started as an English majorand I think you're still an
English major.
We haven't run you off yet.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
No, no, y'all have kept me here.
In fact, I'm so sure of mymajor.
It's definitely for me.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh, that's so good to hear what made it feel like you
were so sure about it.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Well, I feel like all the classes I took, I just felt
like all the stuff likeinterest me.
It wasn't like work, it didn'tfeel like schoolwork, even
though like I was scared to messup and like I wanted to like do
the best I could.
It was like fun in the processtoo.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So both of you are having fun, and to me, that's
one of the great things aboutcollege is that it is a lot of
fun, and it's not just funoutside of the classroom, it's
actually fun in the classroom,and I'd like you to talk a
little bit more about that, mary, when you say it's fun, would
you think about the folks outthere that are maybe nervous
about getting to college andcould you tell them a little bit
(02:35):
more about why it's?
Speaker 4 (02:36):
fun.
I think the most fun part forme is like being able to like
sit in a college classroom,which is like super intimidating
and like you feel like you'rean adult, but like the stuff
that you're learning you get itautomatically if you choose the
right major.
So, for example, like one of myclasses that I took second
semester was a modern literatureclass and first going into the
(02:57):
class it was upper senior leveldivision class, so I was super
scared.
I was like I'm doing the wrongthing.
But when I got in there and Istarted doing the work, it was
like I wanted to keep on going.
Like, even though the class wasan hour and 20 minutes, it was
like I couldn't get enough of it, like I wanted to keep going
back when it clicks.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That, I feel like, is the fun part, and also, you're
in a classroom with other majors, right, and this is one of the
great things about movingforward.
After a certain year or two,you start getting into your
major, and then you're not justtaking a history class here, a
math class here, a politicalscience class here.
You're taking lots and lots andlots of the same courses.
(03:35):
So now, besides classrooms,things have been changing too
for you.
Now, mary, do you have a job?
What are you doing here oncampus this summer?
Did you drive all the way infrom Jacksonville just for us?
(03:57):
I drove all the way in fromJacksonville.
Oh my gosh.
Well, we've got to take her outfor lunch or something.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
No, no, no.
I mean, I come to Tyler all thetime anyway.
Tyler is like the place to befrom Jacksonville, so it was no
trouble.
But I do have a job inJacksonville anyway, so that's
kind of what keeps me busy there, and then when I want to have
fun I come to Tyler.
So what are you doing for a jobin Jacksonville?
I'm a cashier at this littlestore that.
I've been a cashier since likejunior year of high school.
(04:23):
They just like let me come back.
I'm a temporary employee andrecently, this summer, they
promoted me to office clerk.
So now I'm not just a littlecashier, I'm doing a lot more,
bigger things, I guess.
And what kind of store is it?
It's a Berkshire Brothers, soit's just a little convenient
grocery store type thing.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, and for those folks who don't know this area,
the Brookshire brothers are veryfamous family in the Tyler and
East Texas area.
In fact, we have a buildingnamed after them Brookshire Hall
, I think that's called.
But, dominic, you now have apretty interesting job here.
You were telling us about itbefore we started, so speak away
(05:01):
.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, so my first campus job was actually working
in the University Center as partof the operations team, really
just kind of helping with eventsetup, teardown and management.
Every now and then we wouldjump in and actually help run
the events that happened allthroughout the University Center
.
But for the summer I actuallygot recommended by my boss to be
(05:25):
an orientation leader, and sothat is why I'm actually able to
be here this summer, becausethey do provide housing and it's
a super fun job honestly.
Also, as my job in theUniversity Center, I'm going to
get promoted in the fall tobuilding manager, so I'm pretty
excited about that.
I'll be, you know, stillworking with the operations team
(05:45):
, but just a little bit more onthe business side, really not as
much helping out with settingup the events, but more just
making sure things in theuniversity center are just
running smoothly.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Tell us a little bit about what orientation is and
what you do as an orientationleader.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
For New Patriot Orientation.
It's two days, it's a Thursdayand a Friday.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And these are all incoming first year students or
transfer to.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
We do transfer orientation separately, so on
Thursdays it's typically alittle bit more laid back, but
it's still lots of businessbeing done, Like we will get
into small groups, get to knowthe students real well, kind of
introduce them to campus andjust what the UT Tyler kind of
family is, Because most peopleon campus I would say are very
(06:30):
welcoming and you just need tohave a conversation with them.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, I've heard folks say that they went to
different campuses and theyalways felt as though this was a
place where they kind of wantedto be, was friendly, and I
remember my own experience withthat.
Ashley, did you travel a lot ofcampuses or did you come
straight here?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I pretty much came straight here because here was
where the scholarship was for me, and also your sister was
already here too, so you knewthe routine.
Yeah, but I think mainly whereI got introduced to like the
campus culture like Dominic wastalking about was when I was
working as a tour guide.
It's a big deal for the tourguides.
They want you to get peopleintroduced to campus and excited
(07:09):
and you know what the customsare and the fun little like
campus legends, like the turtleand all that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, because students, when they first get
here, were you prettyintimidated, Mary.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean orientation alone.
It was just like so many peopleand like, personally, for me I
don't like the whole camp, likehey, let's come have fun, learn
people, and I tend to stray awayfrom that, so it was definitely
intimidating.
But I mean orientation showedme not only like all the people
that I was going to be around,but also what the campus has to
offer.
(07:41):
I loved just exploring, likeall the buildings and seeing all
like the educational resourceswe have here.
That was really what I lovedabout orientation.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Now the orientation part.
Do they load you up into groupsby the major or do they let you
kind of mix and mingle?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, they usually separate them out into schools.
We also offer group advisingduring orientation.
So towards the end, as we'rekind of gearing up, everyone's
been kind of sectioned intotheir own groups like the whole
orientation, but we will starttaking them to get actually
advised and most of themtypically do have a major picked
.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Do those folks that you meet that very first
orientation?
Have they continued to be thepeople that you know and love
throughout?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
the years.
I actually know because I wentto Swoop Camp so I had a
roommate and my roommate.
We lived on the same floor andwe saw each other, would say hi
and everything like that.
But yeah, I definitely know alot of the people that I met at
Swoop Camp.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So it helps to kind of take that anxiety about not
knowing anybody off the table,doesn't it?
Yeah?
Yeah, now Ashley also has a jobon campus.
Would you like to tell theaudience what you do?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Well, this is my campus job.
It started as volunteer and nowI've been very fortunate to get
it as like a part-time position, but basically I get to do all
of the production aspects.
So I'm messing with thesebuttons here and running the
board, producing the episodespart-time position, but
basically I get to do all of theproduction aspects.
So messing with these buttonshere and running the board,
producing the episodes andsending them out in their final
product form, but also a lot ofthe organization elements, like
(09:14):
I send you all the emails andgetting people to come to the
studio.
Overall, I think personally Ihave the best job on campus.
Don't tell anybody, but I'vereally enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, I wanted to bring this up.
First of all, 19 and a halfhours, right, is all you can
work when you do a campus job.
We don't want you to have a40-hour-a-week job Now.
We have a lot of students whodo that and those are the ones
who I wring my hands over atnight when they get really
stressed out.
But if you can do a part-timejob like this and I did one when
I was in college as well it's areally good option.
(09:47):
It takes off some of theanxiety of the financial drain
that college always is, but italso gives you some professional
experience.
I wanted to talk to you allabout something that Mary knows
(10:11):
I've talked about in classbefore, which are the seven
vectors of college studentdevelopment.
What this is?
Chickering and Reiser are twoscholars who study the
psychology of being a collegestudent, and they talked about
the seven vectors of yourdevelopment.
You know, a lot of times peoplethink by the time you get to
college, man, you've done it.
But we also know that yourbrain didn't even fully develop
(10:32):
until you're 25.
And there are all these skillsthat are changing.
I mean, I just noticed the wayyou two walked into the room
just now is so different fromthe way you walked in a year ago
.
You're taller, you're tanner,you've got a mustache, you've
got longer hair, but you alsohave a kind of confidence that
you're getting to know thisplace and you kind of own it.
And so that very first vectoris the one we call developing
(10:55):
competence, and that'sdeveloping intellectual,
physical and manual skills forwhatever it is that you're
trying to study, likeengineering or English or mass
comm.
But guess what the next one isafter that?
It's called managing emotions.
And then the next one, which issort of related to that, is
moving through autonomy towardinterdependence.
Start by managing emotions.
(11:16):
I remember Mary was verynervous, and you're not so
nervous anymore, are you?
Are you a lot better?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
at that.
I think so.
I remember Mary was verynervous and you're not so
nervous anymore, are you?
Are you a lot better at that?
I think so.
I'm definitely more confident.
I'm not as nervous in theclassroom, but throughout
freshman year I did strugglewith just anxiety as a whole.
I had anxiety before, you know.
I came here and it definitelydid not get better.
I just found other ways tomanifest my anxiety.
So when I came back home it wasevident to my mom that was like
(11:44):
okay, like we have to look intothis because you're stressing
out too much.
When you're by yourself and youhave all this college work that
you have to look at, it'sreally hard to like separate,
like okay, I need to focus oncollege, okay, I need to focus
on myself.
You tend to forget aboutyourself and that's what I did.
I let my anxiety take over.
I let it control and intertwinewith how I work, with my
(12:05):
college life.
So, definitely, being away fromcollege, taking a break in the
summer.
I'm working on that and I'mworking on managing my emotions
and hopefully it will be better.
My sophomore year.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well and you know, mary, you're not unlike a lot of
young people who are verydriven to do very, very well.
You are valedictorian.
You want to stay being avaledictorian type.
I know from being yourprofessor that you have very
high standards for yourself, andthese are all great things to
have, but college can bestressful.
Now, did either of you have anykind of issues with that?
(12:39):
Yeah, I mean, college was prettystressful, you know just for me
it was really the distance andjust knowing nobody.
I mean Midland Texas is likeanother country, it's really far
away, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, it's far, but the biggest thing that's
honestly helped me witheverything like that is getting
more involved in campus.
So I've joined a couple oforganizations on campus and just
getting to know people throughthat and just continually
meeting people has just reallyhelped me out.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Well, and I think sometimes, if you'll talk about
what you're anxious about, a lotof times, someone can say I had
that too, it's okay, or yeah,that's a good reason to be
anxious.
Have you talked to Professorso-and-so?
Or have you talked to the RA?
A lot of times there are folkslike that.
It's real low stakes.
It's not like you know, goingin for a serious appointment
(13:28):
with a doctor or anything, it'sjust talking to somebody.
And I know that what I sawhappening to you was that you
were getting better.
You don't always notice it whenyou get better, do you?
What about you, ashley?
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Well, I will say I found out I have kind of an
interesting way of dealing withfeelings is that I don't really
get anxious or whatever in themoment.
It like hits like probably anhour or two hours after, and
that's something I figured outkind of quickly when I got to
college and it's useful in oneway and not so useful in other
ways.
College, and it's useful in oneway and not so useful in other
(14:03):
ways.
So being able to deal withthings in the moment is
something that having jobs oncampus and talking to professors
and all of those things thatare par for the course when you
come to college that's somethingthat has been a lot more
frequent and that I've beendeveloping.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I'm actually just like you, I can look real cool,
calm and collected.
Somebody will come at me andI'm just you know.
Actually, just like you, I canlook real cool, calm and
collected.
Somebody will come at me andI'm just you know, that's all
right, I can handle this, noproblem.
And then later on it's justdoing and doing and doing, and
you're right that it's.
Learning to stay in the momentis important.
The other thing is that Ashleyand I have had some crises in
(14:38):
the work and my sense is thatit's been good training for you.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Oh, absolutely, and every job is going to be like
that too, you know.
So it's better to have workwhile you're in college, so that
you're getting both ends ofthose learning.
College is good for theinterpersonal skills anyway, but
work especially.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And the thing that's good too about it and it sounds
like you get this too atBrookshire's is that it's sort
of a family thing.
Right, you guys are a family,and so the folks that are
supervising you maybe yourprofessors or maybe employees at
the campus so we all have a lotof interest and you're doing
well, and so that's anotherreason why a campus job is a
great deal.
(15:19):
Now the other three things thatI really really want to talk
about is establishing identity,developing purpose and
developing integrity, and thosetake years to develop, you know,
(15:42):
but identity it sounds like,mary, you just said you're more
like your true self.
Now, is that right?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yeah, I think so, being in college during the
beginning, I strayed away frompeople and I isolated myself and
I think by doing that I wasable to prioritize what I like,
so my interest, and I was ableto let that become my
personality and allow myself tolet other people know hey, I
like this stuff and if you don'tlike it too bad, I'm a serious
English major, exactly, and I'mokay to nerd out about it and
through that I feel like I foundmy identity, which, of course,
(16:16):
it's not completely discovered.
I have a lot more growing to dobut through that I'm able to
attract people that will betterme and have the same interests
as me, and it's all good.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
How about?
You has your identity.
Is it getting more focused foryou, dominic?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah.
So I was really closed off tomost people and I usually am
Whenever I first get to knowthem.
I'm just kind of nervous to bemyself, and I usually am
whenever I first get to knowthem.
Yeah, I'm just kind of nervousto be myself.
The first organization Iactually started going to was
Boathouse.
It's an on-campus organizationand going to that, just meeting
countless people, I've actuallymet the people that I'm gonna be
(16:52):
moving into an apartment withat Boathouse.
So going to that has allowed meto open up more.
And I also joined a fraternity.
I joined the Kappa Sigma.
Hanging around people like thatand like-minded individuals has
just opened me up to where, ifI'm hanging around anybody, I'm
myself.
Now I'm not anywhere near asclosed off as I used to be.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I think that's a really interesting thing.
Now, what is Boathouse?
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Boathouse, it's a Christian student organization.
Boathouse, it's a Christianstudent organization and we go
out on Lake Tyler on Tuesdaysand it is from like 6 to 10 pm.
We get a dinner, just kind oftalk and hang out for about an
hour and then there is a worshipservice and a sermon given as
well.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You know, I think it's important for students to
recognize that there is aspiritual element to the growth
you're going through.
There is a spiritual element tothe growth you're going through
and I know there is for me asan adult in my profession is
definitely has aspects to it andI'm really pleased that
universities take time and givespace to that kind of
(17:53):
opportunity.
Ashley, are you doing anythingalong those lines?
Is your identity changingbecause of the things that
you've been involved in?
Anything along those lines?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Is your identity changing because of the things
that you've been involved in.
If it has, I haven't noticedit's a short version.
I kind of came into collegefeeling pretty solid about who I
was.
I was very fortunate to have,you know, parents who spent
basically my entire childhoodtrying to give building blocks,
so that by the time I was 18 orready to go to college, like we
were not done growing but had agreat foundation.
(18:22):
And that's because you werehomeschooled.
Well, probably yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Now you went to public high school and you went
to public high school, mary.
So I do think that there's abig difference between learning
who you are when you're workingwith your family that closely.
Now some people their familiesare driving crazy, and it's real
(18:47):
good to be in a public school.
And I will say this that myexperience with homeschool
students has been generally thatyou are pretty self-aware, and
you certainly have been that way, and we've been lucky enough to
be able to find a work for youthat fits too with what I think
your professional identity.
Lucky enough to be able to findwork for you that fits too with
what I think your professionalidentity is going to be one day.
So that's been pretty handy foryou.
Developing purpose when youhear that phrase, what does that
(19:21):
make you think, mary?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
well, with the context of college, the only
thing I can think of is career.
What's the end goal?
How are you going to make money?
That type of purpose and youhave that figured out already,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I think I have a pretty good idea.
Yeah, yeah, and I hope it's thesame thing you said last time
we talked college professor,english college professor I
think you really are well suitedto that.
You have the kind of motivationand the intellect to do it.
But also you are pretty good atfocusing and you know ruling
out some of the stuff that'sinterfering with that serious
(19:56):
research stuff that we have todo.
So I think it'll be reallyinteresting to watch you develop
that research stuff that wehave to do.
So I think it'll be reallyinteresting to watch you develop
that.
The trick for you, I think, isgoing to be deciding what part
of English studies you want todo, because it's a huge field.
Are you going to do American?
Are you going to do world?
Are you going to do British?
So that'll be a piece of whatyou do.
And I guess, moving frommedicine to electrical
engineering, you've got purpose,starting to get a little more
(20:18):
focus for you too.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
electrical engineering you've got purpose
starting to get a little morefocus for you too, huh yeah.
So I don't exactly know whatpart of electrical engineering I
want to be in, you know,because that in and itself is a
very broad field.
There's like power grids youcould work on cars almost
anything that you can think ofessentially needs an electrical
engineer, because almosteverything we have now has
electronics in it.
(20:40):
It's a broad category, but it'snarrow enough that I think like
I have a goal of what I'mworking towards Just getting to
work with leading technology.
Honestly, that's something thatI get super excited about is
hearing about new technologies,and the fact that I could be on
the edge of guiding people tonew technology like that.
(21:00):
It gets me super excited.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
That's fun, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
And also, you know, I mentionedbefore the career conference.
When that comes around in,usually October, there will be
electrical engineers invited.
But I know that all of ourdepartments are trying really
hard these days to steerstudents toward, if not an
internship, then opportunity tocommunicate with and talk to,
and sometimes even follow,professionals in the field.
(21:24):
What about you, ashley Purpose?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
I had kind of a similar experience to what
Dominic was talking about, whereyou come into your major and it
feels specified, but it'sactually rather broad when you
look at the actual careerapplications of it.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
And both of you are in fields that are changing all
the time.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Yeah.
So I was fortunate to have alot of the basics done in high
school.
So I came in and got right tothe coursework for Mass Comm and
I found out very quickly a lotof these things about myself.
I was like, ok, news is notgoing to work for me.
I cannot work in news, and itwas because of the resources
like the Career SuccessConference and the core classes
(22:03):
we had that were, you know, newsemphasis and mass comm just
realizing that my personalityand the things that I value and
find gratifying in doing workare not always the most
prominent in a particular fieldor subset of a field.
But what I realized becameimportant to me was that I
really like project-orientedwork and work that helps
(22:26):
somebody.
Whatever the project is, it'snot about the person who's
making it as much as it is whoit's for.
So audience-oriented work.
And the other thing that's heldup is that I still love
entertainment.
I love podcasts, I love movies,I love fiction books.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
What's wonderful to hear.
All three of you seem to havefound something you enjoy
studying, and that's the key.
The thing that always makes methe saddest is when I've got a
first year or sophomore studentwho's studying nursing because
they thought they wanted to be anurse and now, oh my goodness,
I don't like being around sickpeople, or, oh, I really hate
anatomy, or I just don't want todo the math, and then they feel
(23:05):
stuck.
And what I'm happy to see isthat in your case, dominic, you
saw pretty quickly and youshifted.
In your case, ashley, you'rekind of in the right field, but
you're not sure which part ofthat field, and you're working
on that the last question, orthe last competency on the list,
(23:32):
and it's not going to be thelast thing you do.
But it has to do with integrity, and I think integrity is
partly being true to yourself.
But one of the things I waswondering is now, everybody
knows that in high school, lotsof kids cheat and in college
guess what A few people cheat.
Here too.
I've noticed, for example, withthe advent of AI, that I can
(23:54):
get an AI answer to a prompt ona homework assignment or a
partially AI written essay.
It's very, very tempting whenyou see other folks messing
around, and I was wondering ifyou have had to confront any of
those circumstances yet, or ifyou had some thoughts and
feelings about it.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, I think AI.
There's two sides to it,honestly.
One, it is one of the greatesttools you could ever use.
I used it to help me study forchemistry and I passed that
class with, I believe, a 100.
It's one of those things whereyou can use it and it'll help
you understand everything somuch better.
But at the same time, it's soeasy to be like, man, I really
(24:39):
don't know what this problem is.
It'll just spit the answer outand you can be like, oh, I
really don't know what thisproblem is.
It'll just spit the answer outand you can be like, oh, I'm
learning it.
And then suddenly you get tothat exam.
Or, if it's an online class, ifcertain people start using it,
you may not even notice that,like suddenly you didn't know
what you did that entire class.
Ai literally took that classfor you, and so I think those
(24:59):
are the two like main sides toAI and it just comes with, I
guess, probably just teachingpeople that this is a powerful
tool, but if you use it thewrong way, you're not helping
yourself in any way.
You're just setting yourself upfor failure.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
How are you going to pass the exam if AI took the
course for you?
How are you going to show upand know the stuff?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I have a strong stance on AI, so in high school
I never touched it.
I was scared of it, even thoughI saw my peers use it and I saw
that without me using ChatGPTspecifically, my work stood out
and I was able to excel incertain classes and it gave me a
confidence in my academicability and it gave me agency in
my work me a confidence in myacademic ability and it gave me
(25:44):
agency in my work.
So when I came here, most of myclasses I never took tests.
They were all essays, allwritten things, and knowing from
high school that my work wouldstand out if I didn't use it, I
would find myself gettingfatigued when I would work.
I couldn't think of things andI used ChatGBT just as a
brainstorming assistant and ithelped me so much.
I would see how it would thinkand then I'd saw how my brain
(26:05):
would think differing opinionsand then a brand new idea would
be created.
So, similar to what Dominic wassaying.
It really depends on who usesit and how you use it.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
I'd like to add on to AI in writing.
Whenever I took English 1301,that was a big thing that that
class really was focusing on.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Oh, and that was with Michaela Murphy.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Yeah, so that whole class really was almost learning
how to use AI in writing theproper way and she even gave us
like examples.
She was like go ahead, have AIwrite this paper and see how bad
it is, honestly, because forthe level that college writing
needs to be, ai just can't do it.
(26:47):
It can't follow simpleinstructions most of the time,
knowing how to use it at thesame time, like she taught us
how to use it a lot and I reallydo appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Ashley, you want to add to this conversation?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, I definitely agree with what both of y'all
are saying.
My background, you know comingto the AI and then cheating with
AI and all that sort of thingwas kind of different because I
had a toaster of a laptopgrowing up, like I didn't have
the technological tools to cheat.
Most of my homework was paper,pretty much all of it.
So when I came into college,first of all, don't join the
(27:20):
group me's, don't join the thegroup me's, don't join the class
group me's.
It's a trap.
But with using AI, I had beenlike Mary was doing and just
staying away from it because Ifrankly just had never bothered
with it before.
And I came into a class that Ijust finished and we had this
really intensive researchproject at the end of it where
(27:41):
she let us pick what project wewere going to do, what topic we
were going to research, so longas it was related to one of the
texts we'd been engaging.
And I was like, well, I wonderif there's a neuroscience
backing for whatever this mediatheorist was saying.
And I was like maybe I could dothat for my project.
She was like, maybe you coulddo that.
Yeah, that was a mistake, I knownothing about the brain and I
(28:02):
realized very quickly liketrying to break down these
studies to where I couldunderstand them was like way a
bigger task than I could handleand what I realized is that AI
is great for comprehension, likey'all were talking about.
So I could give it thesestudies and the specific
sections where it was like 99%jargon, I could be like explain
(28:25):
it to me.
Like I was dumb, like I knewwhat none of this meant, and it
could do it and I was able tofinish that project.
I feel like I have a way betterunderstanding of the brain now
and was able to actually developlike my own stance on the
project and overall it was justa fantastic tool.
But then I also understand thetemptation to cheat with it,
(28:45):
because when you're up at like4.15 am trying to troubleshoot
with your little chat GPT likewhat is this person actually
saying in this study?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And it offers oh, I know, Would you like me to write
this for you?
That makes me crazy when I seethat.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
You know it's just trying to offer what the next
logical step would be to givemore assistance, like is there
anything else you need from me?
It's just part of the way itworks, but it is so tempting,
you know, when you've been upthat long, when you're working
that hard, when your brain'stired and it keeps offering,
every single time it goes.
Would you like me to write aparagraph?
Would it goes?
Would you like me to write aparagraph?
Would you like me to write alittle paragraph?
What I noticed is when I keptsaying no, it would make the
(29:23):
request smaller.
It's like would you like me towrite it as a paper for you?
Would you like me to write aparagraph for you?
Would you like me to write asentence for you?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Please let me help you cheat.
I know the other thing.
It's a great study tool if it'sconstructed properly.
And here's what I learned howto do.
A colleague of mine who hasspent three years investigating
how to use it, created aprotocol for an AI teaching
assistant.
I can load in all my ownknowledge base, the stuff I
(29:55):
teach, the texts I teach thedirections I give my policy
statement, my research projectassignments, all that sort of
stuff.
That's a knowledge base, andalso my policy statement with
what to do and when to do it andstuff like that.
And it created a TA that was sogood that the students were
just raving about it.
Very first thing that we did totest it was.
(30:16):
He said, what do you have to doto make an A in Dr Ross's
English class?
And it read my policy statementjust to a T.
Well, she really likes classparticipation.
You better be sure you do yourclass preparation assignment
ahead of time, but it's okay ifyou're a little bit late,
da-da-da-da.
And when my colleague who gaveme the template for this, he
sold it to me by sayingCatherine, I have tested this
(30:38):
with live teaching assistantsand the bot is better.
Whoa, have tested this withlive teaching assistants and the
bot is better, whoa.
So that was very interesting tome.
However, I'll give you a perfectexample.
I'm reading this my newfavorite novelist, augusta
Webster Ward, and I knew therewas a chapter there that I
wanted to reread and I asked itwhere it was.
Chapter 16, and here's thequotation.
(30:58):
I went to chapter 16, it wasnowhere near that.
It had just made it up.
Another thing that's funny isthat sometimes it will give you
the names of articles that don'texist, and so you have to be
very, very, very careful.
But it's a good tool for a lotof basic stuff.
So I don't want anybody tothink that AI is evil or
(31:19):
cheating, unless you use a cheat, and we're all going to be
tempted to do that Now.
Tricky stuff, you know,everything you put in there is
becoming public information.
You're teaching the bots, ifyou will.
I think it's a tool like acalculator, and I'm glad that
you all understand that thereare limits to using it.
What's your best advice to abrand new first-year student,
(31:55):
mary?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I mean, I think throughout this whole series, my
advice has stayed the same,because it's something I tell
myself constantly and it's okayto struggle, it's okay to find
college is hard, especiallycoming from someone who all
throughout their academic life,everything's been somewhat easy.
I've been able to excel, I'vebeen able to do everything.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And you are a perfectionist.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Definitely, to say the least, yes.
So when you come to college,purposefully it's designed to
make you mess up, it's designedto make you learn things through
struggle.
So when you tell yourself, ok,struggle is normal, I have to
get over it, I have to know howto move on with it, everything
becomes so much easier and youallow yourself to learn so much
more.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So definitely my advice would say make struggle a
normal thing and be comfortablewith it.
I don't think we sit back andthink, oh, how can I make Mary
be really miserable and scaredand nervous about herself?
But you're right that whenyou're doing hard work, it is a
struggle.
If it weren't, it wouldn't beworth doing.
You actually almost alwayslearn more from making the
mistakes than you do from beingperfect, so that's a really
(33:02):
healthy thing.
Be okay with not being theperfect person in the class.
There are always going to besmarter people around.
What about you, dominic?
You've probably been thinkingabout this a lot because of your
getting trained for thisprogram.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I would say have fun College.
It's one of the last times thatyou're going to be able to just
have random things happen.
You know, like I've taken justrandom trips that we planned the
day of, and it's lots of funand as long as you just be
yourself and enjoy it like it'llbe worth it.
But you should always workharder than how much fun you
(33:41):
have.
You know, have fun, work harderthough.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
You know I'm getting ready to go on a big research
trip and I just finished goingto a conference and working very
hard to get this paper readyand, like you, I would work,
work really, really hard andthen every now and then I'd say,
(34:05):
OK, it's time to go watchJustified, or it's time to go
walk the dog or do somethingreally silly and enjoy it while
I'm doing it.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
What about you, ashley?
What are you going to add tothis?
I would say my best advice wasgiven to me by Dr Stroyfert,
who's the dean of the HonorsCollege, and, to sum it up, it's
be curious and then verysimilar to Mary failure is the
best teacher.
What Dr Schroepfert said whenwe were having our convocation,
you know, the new freshman classwas coming together and he said
(34:31):
the attitude of this onestudent in the Honors College
that he thought was veryoutstanding and that has tried
to apply as a attitude for thewhole Honors College, was I
don't know, but let me figure itout.
And that has changed the waythat I approach pretty much all
of my coursework interactionsand, I think, changed really the
(34:53):
opportunities that I've beengiven as well, because when I
was working for Michaela, I was,you know, in the digital design
studio, pretty much just apersonal assistant and one of
the things that came up thepodcast was still a volunteer
project.
They were like, hey, do youwant to edit podcast episodes?
I said I don't know how to dothat, but I could probably
figure it out.
And then, like 10 billionfailures later, here we are and
(35:17):
we're still producing episodesand now it's a job and I love
doing this job and we're goingto a conference in July.
You know it's crazy the rippleeffect that that kind of an
attitude can have by just sayingyou know what?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
let's try it, let's try it.
You know, as I watch studentsover the years, it did seem as
though students got moreintimidable and more intimidated
and less out there.
And I think all three of youare saying you know, get out
there and live this time and usethis time, work hard, play hard
and have a good four years, orthree and a half years, in
(35:54):
college.
I can't wait to see what youall say in your junior year.
Well, thank you so much.
We'll see you in a couplemonths.
Be safe this summer and also,if you come up with any good
podcast ideas, let us know.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
If anybody has any questions about freshman year,
sophomore year, college for Maryand Dominic, you can always
contact us through our Gmail orleave a comment.
If you're listening to us onYouTube, that'd be cool.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
All right, we'll get those questions to you.
Thanks for coming in so well.
That was pretty interesting.
I enjoyed that.
I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
This has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
Thank you so much for listeningin with us today, and if you
have questions about collegelife or any of the topics that
we were talking about today,please send us your questions to
ADRquestions at gmailcom.
We'd love to hear from you.
In the meanwhile, we'll see youin the next episode.
Thank you very much.
This is Ashley Wortley signingoff.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Bye-bye.
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