Christina Smith is a Business Management, International Business and a Political Science triple major here at West Chester with a love of learning. At 31 years-old, her experience serves as an example of taking your time to achieve success.
“My journey to West Chester was kind of bumpy. I went to school when I was 18 years old. I went as far away as I could to get out of my house. I didn’t really know too much about college. I didn’t know how to study or read because I always did really well in high school giving minimal effort. When I got to college, it was complete culture shock. I got an awesome 0.03 GPA and I was put on academic probation.”
“That was a large part of why I left school, but I also left to help my family. I continued working and finally went back to school when I was 26 after getting a promotion at my job. I told my boss that I wanted to go back to school and she rescinded the offer and set me up with the scholarship to go to Bucks County Community College.” “When I went there, I hit the ground running. I excelled and graduated with a 3.8 and a scholarship to go to any state school in Pennsylvania.”
Being in college at 18 vs. 31, Christina has developed the most effective way to approach her school work.
“Now that I’m older, I know that when there’s a task that needs to be done, you need to take steps. You need to make a plan and implement it in order to achieve success. You can’t just expect things to get done. I see a lot of younger people put too much on themselves at such a young age. Breathe and enjoy life. Life seems really short when you’re going through it but it’s okay to take things step by step. Now I’m about to graduate with three degrees and less than $10,000.”
Christina loves WCU and the opportunities it provides, and she hopes to provide similar opportunities to young people in her community.
“After school, I want to get a law degree, but my biggest goal is to open up a business in my community. I really want to be an entrepreneur and give younger people the opportunities that I was not afforded.”
Katherine Mash is a second-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in computer science. She can be reached at KM854840@wcupa.edu.