Being a part of George Mason University as a graduate INTO mason pathway student has been a blessing in disguise. I have learnt a lot of things in these past two months. It would now be embedded in my personality, my confidence has been elevated by the warmth and understanding shown by my pathway professors.

One of the significant skillset that I learnt in the USA was critical thinking. I was unaware that we are not supposed to follow everything we read, we have to question and analyze everything before following it. As one of my professors mentioned nothing is set in stone. This mechanism of thinking helped me built curiosity for topics and I developed a different vision to look at things. I channeled this in establishing a good EAP 508 research paper.

In the US institution intellect is not weighed on the ability to memorize, in all my classes I noticed students being very interactive with the professors, this kind of comfort padded their ability of understanding topics deeply. In India institutions follow an Ad-hoc structure of teaching. Back and forth conversations make education student driven.

The United States of America is a pot of cultural diversity. I observed profound acceptance in the society. Everyone seemed to be welcomed. Also the freedom of expression not just in thoughts but also in lifestyle choices, there is just so much diversity in people. It’s helpful because your thirst for knowledge can never be quenched as you can learn something new every day. The people here are very expressive. I really like the way they express their thoughts, all the professors use more hand gestures.

In my AIT 622 course class all my classmates were working people with years of experience and rich practical knowledge, attending that class and thinking Do I deserve to be here or what on earth is happening became a routine. Then I realized I have to take charge of the situation and that if I have a problem I need to fix it. I then started studying all the topics beforehand also making notes on  topics and this pre class prep was really helpful and I finally could sit in class feeling like an equal to others.

On my first day to Mason, I had a hard time finding the INTO Mason building. It was all over my baffled face that I was lost. When I was walking near the Fenwick library Miss Theresa Calcagno came up to me, I didn’t know who she was back then.   She smiled at me said you seem lost I uttered a big yes in my squeaky voice. She calmed me down as I was pretty late for my orientation. She apologized in behalf of the university. She then walked me to the INTO mason building. I was dumbstruck by her kind gesture. After a month or so I needed help for my EAP 508 research paper so my professor suggested me to take library assistance that’s when I again met Miss Theresa Calcagno. She remembered me and she was pretty pleased to see me again. From that short incident I learnt two things, firstly don’t be shy to ask for help, people in the college are ready to help us out and secondly there are so many resources in collage that we can make use of .