Caitlyn Lizana has survived five semesters at USC, so she knows by now how to take good notes, almost to a fault.
“To give you an idea of how my semester started, I realized that I forgot to buy a new notebook and my one from last semester’s completely full, so I feel a little unprepared,” the third-year environmental science student said Friday.
With the fall semester behind her, Lizana reflected, then looked ahead.
“It went pretty all right,” Lizana said. “I was a chem major, and now I’m an environmental science major
so now I’m starting to actually take environmental [classes] and having way more fun.”
After a fall semester filled with classes, exams, a hurricane and a month-long winter break, students like Lizana are returning to campus for the second half of the 2018-2019 academic year.
While students may reflect on the fall semester after the new year and the start of a new semester, Olivia Bracy, fourth-year marketing student, finds herself reflecting on the past three and a half years as she prepares to graduate this spring. One of her favorite moments from her four years at USC was studying and interning abroad.
“That was probably a changing experience for me, and I was able to then further my career goals and whatnot, and I think it pushed me to be able to get the job that I have now,” Bracy said.
Having a full-time job is exciting, Bracy said, but it doesn't stop there. She's looking forward to finishing up her time at USC with her friends before moving to Hoboken, New Jersey, for her career.
A new semester also brings transfer students. Jacob Titus, second-year political science student, is one of them, and he said he's looking forward to working with the football team.
“I’m actually going on as a student assistant for the football team. So that was the main reason I came over,” Titus said. “I played a couple years and wanted to get into the coaching aspect.”
Lizana said she's already thinking ahead about how she will use what she studies now post-graduation, but she's excited to continue studying what she loves in the spring semester. With a new major and 18 credit hours ahead of her, her New Year’s resolution for the spring semester is to be more organized so she does not feel so overwhelmed.
“I’m kind of terrified but kind of excited ‘cause I feel like I’ve been here forever,” Lizana said. “I’m kind of ready to not be in school anymore. But I don’t really know what I’m going to do yet exactly, but I feel like as long as I keep doing things that interest me it’s gonna lead somewhere.”
—News writer Prerana Shidhaye contributed to the reporting of this article.