Madison Troxell

I wish someone had taught me to prioritize responsibilities much earlier in my college career. It took me quite a long time to figure out how to balance many deadlines at one time. Something very common for my classes is that I have a few assignments for a couple of weeks and then I have too many things to count all due within a week. Learning to work ahead and prioritize completing certain responsibilities before others is so important to maintain a good balance in college.

If I could give any advice to my freshman self it would be to explore every facet of college life. As a freshman, I was hesitant to try classes out of my comfort zone, join extracurriculars, and create relationships with my peers/professors. College is all about having new experiences and growing from them. Reaching past your comfort zone is so helpful to maturing into your full potential and it’s not nearly as scary as it may seem.

I chose to transfer to WVU at the beginning of my sophomore year because I needed to throw myself to the wolves. My previous college was a college of about 1500 students and it was five minutes to my house. That college worked at the time, but it was so comfortable, even too comfortable. So, I chose WVU, a place where I knew no one and was five hours from home. I needed to be in a new place to keep growing after high school. This thinking continued into my choice of the Chambers College. Coming into WVU, I had to choose between majoring in political science and economics. Political science is a comfortable topic but not my passion. Economics is a more difficult experience but a strong passion. This gave me another chance to go through a challenging academic experience and gain some amazing rewards from Chambers College and WVU.