Turn it around...

I'm not one to go on about myself, but I am, for all intents and purposes, an intelligent person. Until recently though my grades have not reflected this. Don't get me wrong, I haven't been a horrible student but I'm far any type of national honor society. Now let me tell you why UT Tyler has helped my turn this trend around in just 5 weeks (no, I'm not selling you a program).


Between this semester and the last I've gone from an unemployed part time student (6 hours) to an employed full time music student (18 hours, plus practice time). That's a pretty big jump. At the beginning of this term I tried to psych myself up but knew it was going to be pretty tough. Aside from required study hours (Greek Life) and a genuine love for what I'm doing again, the environment of UT Tyler is really what has sparked a large turn around. Now what do I mean when I say environment? I'm referring to the resources available to me in the Muntz Library at anytime. I'm referring to the peaceful, well-kept grounds that our grounds keeping team works tirelessly to keep in tip-top shape. I'm referring to the buildings that aren't falling down around students as they are at so many other "prestigious" universities (without mentioning any past schools I've attended).

But above all else, the most important part of this environment has been the faculty. Never have I had a group of teachers as great as the group I have this semester. Now I'm not saying the best teacher I've EVER had is at UT Tyler, but as a whole there are some wonderful people here trying to help students succeed. If they didn't care as much, I probably wouldn't either.

I want to give unnamed credit to the music department faculty as a whole, as well as a few other select teachers I have for core classes this semester. Think about your departmental faculty and what they may have done for you, or maybe even just a single teacher you've had here. Next time you check out a website like ratemyprofessor.com, do your favorite teacher a solid and write up a few lines about them. Next time a teacher hands out a teacher evaluation, do them a favor and take it seriously. If it weren't for them, where would you be?

-SD