Jewish Theological Seminary of America Top Questions

What should every freshman at your school know before they start?

Ariel

I have always been very focused and by my senior year I thought I knew what I wanted to get from these 4 years. I thought that everything was about getting the perfect grades, scoring the best results on a test, everything was focused on the academics. And then I took a gap-year and my whole perspective on things changed. I realized within that year that while getting good grades and working your hardest does matter, it is not the only thing that matters. The year gave me time to reflect on the lifestyle I had ,and I realized that one has to enable themselves onself to be an active participant in society; to be able go out into the world and volunteer and use my knowledge to help others, and travel, and pick up knowledge from your surrondings that was just as important as a classroom education. I would tell senior year self to make sure not to lose track of that. College is demanding and the hours are long,but you cannot let that prevent you from entering the world. It is easy to get sucked into the bubble but it's more rewarding to break free.