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If someone were to take a peek into Gina Roby’s school bag, they might think that two people were using the same bag. From a certain point of view, she essentially does the work of two people for one class.
“I bust my butt taking notes in every class. Even if it’s a PowerPoint display, I write down everything it says and everything the professor says,” Gina relates of her zealous note taking.
No one would likely be able to decipher her essay book…unless they took a look at her second notebook.
“In the second book, I transcribe what I think I’ll need and throw out what I don’t feel is necessary — I still have a written record of the entire lecture. The first book is crazy, then there is the neater one,” she said. “I learn by doing. I like to hypothesize and test out every theory.
As an older student, Gina said, “I am going to do everything I can to ensure that I don’t feel stupid.”
“Rest assured, if I get a 100 percent on a test, then I worked for that 100 percent. If I get an 80 or a 90, that’s what I deserved,” she said. “I take courses that you can’t coast in and I don’t like cramming. It’s like a newspaper — I want to have that ability to read it all over again.”
Part of doing all she can to ensure she gains everything she can out of her classes is utilizing the tutoring services available on campus.
“In Statistics, which I’m taking this semester, there are a lot of formulas. I go to tutoring and I like what it does for me — I feel a lot less dumb when I leave,” she said with a laugh. “On one test, I used all of the formulas we had learned in one problem — apparently you weren’t supposed to use them all. I can write for days, but math, I’ve always needed a little push. Still, with a little help, I’ve always managed to pull off a B or an A.”
In Political Science C052, Foreign Governments and Politics, Gina is in more familiar territory — essay writing.
“We had to write a paper stating our opinion about whether democracy would flourish in Iraq and back that opinion up with facts,” she said. “Iraq is currently a population without an economic base; there is no large middle class, which is necessary for the democratic process. In order for democracy to take hold, the country must remain stable and they have to maintain a stable middle class.”
In Human Resource Management 083, Organization and Management, the discussion has centered on a new type of workplace where teamwork is the order of the day.
“It is not a workplace I’ve ever experienced and I don’t know if it’s necessarily realistic today. I don’t want to see young people going out into the world and ending up disillusioned by the reality they may face. Working together is a lot like living together. In order to become a society of team workers, we have to learn to live together,” Gina said. “If you’re not experiencing diverse cultures in your life, how are you ultimately going to be able to be part of a team? You truly have to like people of all cultures and backgrounds — that is something that I think has to be talked about.”
In Legal Studies C001, Law in Society, Gina has spent months researching a topic that has been at the forefront of the news quite a bit lately — the Electoral College. She has a folder with a massive amount of information on all things related to the subject to show for it.
“I researched the battleground states, why they were battlegrounds for the 2004 presidential election and how they could affect the election outcome,” she said. “I’m still working on balancing the book in this course with the lectures. The book is very detailed while the lectures and tests seem more informal. I’m not quite sure how I’m doing at the moment, but I’ll continue to do my best.”
Though a Human Resource Management major, “my strength seems to be in history, studying other countries, and law,” Gina said.
“Yes I’m studying human resources, but I think it’s important to look at every issue globally,” she said. “I think that’s a key element to the profession.”
Gina’s come quite a long way from her first year back in a college classroom, “when I just had to convince myself that I belonged here.”
“I owned my own business for 20 years. It was hard to get used to being in a situation where I wasn’t entirely in control. I read a lot of slave narratives in the first year and came to appreciate the freedom that I have just to walk on campus,” she said. “I’m getting good grades and I’m doing all of the work. I’m convinced that I belong here now.”
No matter what, Gina said, she knows she’ll be a member of the Ambler campus for some time to come.
“It’s still humbling. The courses are harder than ever, but I’ve never been a quitter so far,” she said resolutely. “I’m not scared any more. I know I can finish and do well.”
This is the second part of an “A Year in the Life” series featuring Gina Roby. Gina, who lives in Philadelphia, was a sophomore pursuing a degree in Human Resource Management at the timeof the series.
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