Hi FOCUS,
I have to be honest, you made my entire week when I opened the card signed by many of you the day of the FOCUS Ice Cream Social. This year I got to know many of the incredible and motivated students that make up this program. From Cookies and Conversation to winning at UNO, I had a blast this year. Thank you for allowing me to serve as the FOCUS Coordinator!!
Many of you have come to know me as the “FOCUS dad” with the charactaristically horrible dad jokes. I just have one thing to say to that; fair – thanks for putting up with it! As the nickname would suggest, I can’t leave without offerring a couple pieces of advice. First of all, know that every single one of you is capabable of achieving all of your academic and professional aspirations. You are here for a reason and you are intelligent. With that being said, the second piece of advice I have to offer is that you don’t have to do everything alone. Use those support systems you’ve built up. Carleton is hard enough to try and go at it alone. If you don’t have one quite yet, I encourage you to seek one out. Seek out out your peers, professors, or David next year; they are all great resources to get you through Carleton in one piece!
Thank you once again for a great year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me in the future. Shoot me an email at polaniae16@gmail.com, or just add me on Facebook if you want to stay in touch!
Best,
Ernesto Polania-Gonzalez