Written by Hayden Lara
On January the 6th, the school brought back some of the 2024 graduates to Algona High School for a panel in the PAC during TAS. Abby Brooks, Ashley Cantu, Morgan Kelly, Riker Brindley, Sydney Seebecker, Maggie Wartick, and Faith Zeller came to talk. The graduates talked about budgeting money, balancing time with school and work, note taking, friends, campus life, and roommates and boundaries.
For balancing time, the suggestions were all about recording your schedule. They recommended something like a calendar, physical or on a screen, to keep track of assignments, tests, days you work, and outings. This is to balance and make your life easier, as stress can quickly build up if surprised by a test.
On the topic of making time with friends, it’s very important to make time with friends and have a good support group to keep coming back to while dealing with the hardships of college. The panel mentioned that professors don’t care about you, you’re far from family, and you’re now studying for hours on end, that’s why it’s good to take a break and meet up with friends for a refresher. At the same time, make sure to not go out with friends so much that your grades start dropping or you get burnt out, self time and studying for college is still important.
With friends or roommates, panel speakers mentioned it matters on the person and who they are, if you truly want to be friends with them or not. With both, it does matter to bring up boundaries. Whether it’s the food in the fridge, room space, or bringing people back to the dorm, it’s important to bring all this up with your roommate, to set some standards and rules in the room and what’s acceptable and what’s not.
Megan McPeak said, “The past year graduates were very informative about college.“ All of Algona High School wishes the best to past graduates wherever they go. Also, a big thanks for coming to the PAC and giving out advice to the seniors and juniors that will no doubt help them all in the coming future.