Finding My Way and Jahquan Hawkins

What is Finding My Way about?

Finding My Way is a college success guide. It provides students with tips, tools, and strategies to not only survive in a higher education world but to thrive in that world.

I was a first-generation student myself, so I didn't have a blueprint for how to be successful in college. Being in the industry since 2004, I thought it was important to provide the next generation of college students with a guide that they can reference. If they run into a snag or if they simply want to familiarize themselves with the environment before they start that journey.

Is this guide useful for both young and older college students?

The information is applicable to traditional and non-traditional students.

It's important that we understand the language of higher education because we use a lot of jargon and many acronyms in higher ED that people don't use in regular conversation. It's important to understand what resources you have at your disposal as a college student and how to address issues when they come up. Be them personal or educational and how to navigate that space and continue to work towards your educational goals.

What inspired you to write this book?

Failure. I performed well through K12 and earned a full-ride scholarship to Wayne State University. Within two semesters I was in jeopardy of losing that scholarship, my other forms of financial aid, and of being kicked out of the university because I was on academic probation. My cumulative GPA at one point was 1.7.

It was because of some very well-intentioned great individuals who wrapped their arms around me that I was able to turn my trajectory around and ultimately become a college graduate two times over. Even earning my master’s degree at Eastern Illinois University. It was because of that experience, that I felt that it was important to pay it forward. When I was able to experience success in higher education and ultimately become a higher ED professional. That was the inspiration behind the book.

Would you say there is a large difference between high school and higher ED?

It’s a huge difference. The language, responsibility, level of instruction, and expectations from the instructors change from one course to another. Ultimately all those things intersect at the same time for 17 or 18-year-olds coming out of high school can be very challenging and daunting to juggle.

As a first-generation college student, I couldn’t go to my parents and ask, “Hey, how did you all do this when you were going to school?” I think the biggest thing for me, in terms of bumping my head against the wall or failing multiple times as a student, was being afraid to ask for help.

I was embarrassed to ask for help because up until that point in my educational career, I didn't need a lot of help in order to be successful. That was a new skill I had to learn. I consider asking for help and leaning on others to be a skill that you learn over time. I had to learn the hard way, after being on academic probation, that my success not only in education but in life was going to be a joint effort with other people.

Did you know who you had to ask for help? Or did you have to also learn where to ask for help?

The funny thing about it is I knew who to approach, but I felt my ego wouldn’t allow me to approach those individuals. My instructors talked about the supplemental instructors and the tutors on day one. They talked about the academic support center at orientation. I made a conscious effort not to take advantage of those resources. I thought that I could just figure it out and it led me to a very bad place academically in my freshman year. It wasn’t until I had already been knocked down a couple of times that I realized you had to swallow your pride and seek help when you need help.

I talk about taking advantage of your school’s resources in the book. You must make an investment in your success as a college student, not just monetarily through your tuition but also through your time, energy, effort, and sacrifice. That means that you're going to sacrifice some fun and time with your friends, your girlfriend your boyfriend, and whatever the case may be, but it's all in the spirit of wanting to be a better person. That way when you do spend time with those individuals, you're better equipped to be self-sufficient, more well-rounded, and contribute more to those conversations and experiences because you did complete something that you started. That’s a very important component of being a well-adjusted adult.

What are the biggest struggles that new students are facing?

The first one would be the one that I had to navigate, which was asking for help. Understand that although your degree is going to have your name on it and it will be your journey, you're going to have to bring some other people along the way to complete the journey with as little impediment as possible. You can trust others with some of your most vulnerable thoughts. For example, I've never been good at math. Now I've got to go into the math lab and explain that to someone and then ask them for their help in navigating this math class in order to graduate. That's a very difficult thing for people to do, especially in certain cultures. I think that's a major hurdle that our students face, alongside time management.

Time management is something that even adults who've earned credentials, have work jobs, and raise children still struggle with if we're being honest with ourselves. At the end of the day, we only get 24 hours. Whether you're a working mother of two at 40 or you're a student just starting college at 18, you're going to have to figure out how to manage your 24 hours. When you've got so many new pieces of stimuli pulling at you, “Oh, why don’t you come to this party?” “Why don’t you join this club?” “Have you thought about doing research?” “What about study abroad?”. All of these things are going to have to fit within those 24 hours or 168 hours a week. Until you master the art of managing your time, that's going to be an ongoing struggle.

What is your area of focus as a Higher ED Professional?

I’m in Administration at Oakland Community College. I currently serve as the Dean of Students for the entire College. I’ve served in several other roles leading up to this current role. I now deal with student disciplinary issues.

One of the shifts that has taken place post COVID, is that a lot of our students are also struggling with mental health issues. Either being underserved in that area or not served at all because familiarly there's a stigma associated with even acknowledging that you have a mental illness. Students might not have the financial resources to get proper care.

Community colleges are safe spaces for families, especially if the family has a student who is vulnerable and needs a space where they can spend time and be productive while the parents are working. I can understand superficially the ideology behind that as a parent myself, but logistically and practically that can be very challenging for the student. Now they're thrust into a learning environment that they may or may not be properly equipped to adapt to. It's a diverse environment, so they are there with other students who have their own idiosyncrasies, their own land, their own level of maturity, and so forth. We’re seeing that many of our students are struggling with that, and their families are struggling with that because there isn't a perfect spot necessarily to place someone who may you know be dealing with a social anxiety disorder or who is mute and other things that make that child special but may not necessarily be conducive to the learning environment.

It's a different space now than even when I was in school or even 10 years ago. We must be more adaptable as higher ED professionals. Historically higher education was designed for a very specific group of individuals and now that we've opened it up, especially post Michigan Reconnect Program to a diverse array of individuals. Now, it's the institution having to adapt to the student more so than the student adapting to the institution. Otherwise, we're going to lose all of those students and there won't be higher ED institutions. I think that both universities and community colleges struggling with that. Community colleges were probably on board with being adaptable a little bit quicker because we are with these communities, they’re in our name. We serve the community in a way that our university cannot and will not however, because we serve the community we also encounter students that have more challenges.

It's gratifying working in that way because you can see the direct impact of the decisions that you make especially when you're in administration.

I've been at OCC now for 14 years, prior to that I came back home from Illinois after grad school to work for Wayne State University. Having both a university and a community college background has helped us serve students and understand some of the challenges that they face. We have a lot of guesses that come to us as well from the universities students who want to take credits at a lower tuition rate, which makes sense for the parents, make sense for the students. They try to compare the two environments and I'm constantly trying to explain to them that the environments are different. However, that doesn't mean they are less than.

I think the ideology of some of our university guest students is that “Oh well if I come here the courses are going to be easier.” Where our instructors can be just as challenging as university instructors. Even though the class sizes may be smaller, or you may have more access to the instructor. Which technically in my estimation would make the class easier and the content is still going to be the same, but still can be very challenging. Many of our university students have a hard time grasping that.

How can Community College benefit students before starting University?

Absolutely, and that's the goal. Everything is much higher, groceries, rent/mortgage payments, cars, everything is higher. We’re all looking for opportunities to bathe, but still get quality. I think that's what the Community College offers individuals. The opportunity to get a quality education, but not break the bank. I love the fact that our instructors are really focused on teaching and learning, as opposed to research, getting published, getting tenure, and so forth. I'm not saying that across the board, some of my greatest mentors in higher education I met at the universities. I did research for one of my mentors in the School of Psychology at Wayne State and those opportunities can be awesome as well. At community colleges however, our instructors really roll their sleeves up and focus on teaching the students and having them understand that their life is going to impact their work and they can be flexible, adaptable, and compassionate.

There's no such thing as a cookie-cutter student or cookie-cutter section of the class because many of our instructors teach several sections. One student might be challenging and another one might be the best student you ever had in your life. But you’re teaching them all at the same time and it’s your responsibility as the instructor to take on that responsibility to get them all across the finish line.

What is the best advice you can give to students navigating college life?

Asking for help.

You have to ask for help. I have a chapter in the book entitled, “How Strong is Your Squad?” It’s a reflective chapter for what I didn't do. It challenges students to evaluate the people who have the most influence in their lives. Co-workers, family members, friends, classmates, instructors, and mentors, and make sure that the individual that has the most influence over your life also has the best intentions for you. You should evaluate that circle of individuals, at least, once a year to see who needs to stay within that Circle, who may need to leave that Circle, or if you need to make some exchanges relative to those individuals.

In building a good team everybody can't go, everyone is not going to win with you. When I speak with students, I use the book as a college guide to facilitate College Success workshops with students. When I talk about that specific chapter my message to students is that: Yes, your success is a team effort, but your team is not static and is going to change as you change, evolve, and grow. Your success is a team effort, and your team is not static. You have to be adaptable, and you have to be willing to make tough decisions as to who's going to be within your circle of influence.

I tried to make the book relatable. Students, when they’re fresh out of school or returning students. We have a lot of students that are returning now with the Michigan Reconnect Program that the governor signed off on. Now if you're 25 or older you especially go to college for free. Those students not only need college lessons, but they need life lessons. I published the book in 2016. Everything that I put in the book, I wanted it to be applicable to life as well. I've had nontraditional students who read the book who are my age who said, “You know what, the book was so relatable. I was able to apply the tools, not only to my College Experience but also to my life experiences.” That's what made the book valuable to me. I think that's the best review you can ever get from a reader. The skills that they learn are more applicable to multiple environments.

What is the best advice you can give to students navigating college life?

Asking for help.

You have to ask for help. I have a chapter in the book entitled, “How Strong is Your Squad?” It’s a reflective chapter for what I didn't do. It challenges students to evaluate the people who have the most influence in their lives. Co-workers, family members, friends, classmates, instructors, and mentors, and make sure that the individual that has the most influence over your life also has the best intentions for you. You should evaluate that circle of individuals, at least, once a year to see who needs to stay within that Circle, who may need to leave that Circle, or if you need to make some exchanges relative to those individuals.

In building a good team everybody can't go, everyone is not going to win with you. When I speak with students, I use the book as a college guide to facilitate College Success workshops with students. When I talk about that specific chapter my message to students is that: Yes, your success is a team effort, but your team is not static and is going to change as you change, evolve, and grow. Your success is a team effort, and your team is not static. You have to be adaptable, and you have to be willing to make tough decisions as to who's going to be within your circle of influence.

I tried to make the book relatable. Students, when they’re fresh out of school or returning students. We have a lot of students that are returning now with the Michigan Reconnect Program that the governor signed off on. Now if you're 25 or older you especially go to college for free. Those students not only need college lessons, but they need life lessons. I published the book in 2016. Everything that I put in the book, I wanted it to be applicable to life as well. I've had nontraditional students who read the book who are my age who said, “You know what, the book was so relatable. I was able to apply the tools, not only to my College Experience but also to my life experiences.” That's what made the book valuable to me. I think that's the best review you can ever get from a reader. The skills that they learn are more applicable to multiple environments.