Chemistry Major | El Camino College
Q&A: Chemistry Major – Mmeridi O (2:51)
“My major is chemistry. My end goal is to be a pharmacist.”
The first path to be empowered as a lady is to go to college, to get education. That’s one thing that can never be taken away from you because it’s something that it’s in you. It’s already imbued in you. So going to college is the first step to success as a woman, and also, those big dreams you have can come to pass because if you go to college, you hear ideas on how to make your dreams come to pass. That’s how important college can be. It’s very, very influential.
As for me personally, I was going to a community college. I’ve made a lot of connections, actually, and how best way to connect with people and the best way to communicate with people irrespective of where the person’s from or what kind of religion you have. So going to college, for me, has actually provided me with so many ways, especially coming from Nigeria.
What I looked for was how good are they really at at my major and also the connection they have with different university. In a community college, they have a very high transfer rate to different UCs or different Cal State and even private colleges, so you check out the school or college you have and also the acceptance rate and the rate whereby student actually graduate. The environment is also very important.
First, you think about the impact. It’s not just going to impact you. Is it going to impact the society. Is it something that in 10, 20 years’ time, is it still going to be useful? Another thing is passion. If you’re passionate about something because, oh, a major in different chemistry can be very challenging, but are you passionate about it? What you’re passionate about makes the dream come to pass.
Motivation is very, very important, and also, the people you hang out with, are they also motivated towards their academics? Because me, actually, I tend to study more when I work with people who are actually very smart and very [inaudible], actually. So I see the motivation in them, “Ah, that’s totally how to think about the book.” I was like, “Oh, wow. Oh, she’s serious. Why not become serious, Mary? [Do you want to?] study as well? Come on, she’s doing this. She’s doing great.” And studying last-minute, I tell you, it never works. It never, never works.
What you say to yourself is very, very important than what someone else told you, so believing in yourself is the key to all these things I’m telling you. Going to college, it takes faith, believing that, “Oh, I can do this. I can do this.” A lot of people can encourage you, but if you don’t encourage yourself, what I’m saying is not making sense. So believe in yourself, stay focused, and say you can do this.