A Freshman’s Path to Success: Study Strategies, Managing Stress, and Maintaining Motivation

Creator

Claudia Gallagher

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Creation Date

11-2025

Description

I chose to facilitate a lesson on a freshman's path to success, which focuses on study strategies, managing stress, and maintaining motivation for first-year college students. All three of these things were challenges I struggled with during my first year of college, so I can understand and relate to what they are going through. My goal was to help students recognize how different college learning is compared to high school, understand effective study habits, and develop practical strategies to stay motivated and manage stress throughout the year. Research supports the importance of these topics — as Aljaffer et al. note, “Global research shows that study habits impact academic performance and are the most important predictor of it.” I feel as though it is a common struggle for many first-year students to adjust both academically and mentally. “Although schoolwork is still doable while students struggle with mental health, it can feel as though they have to prioritize one over the other in order to keep their grades” (“Stressed & Depressed: How College Students’ Mental Health Is Affected by Online School”). I designed my lesson to be interactive and self-reflective so that students can take what they’ve learned and apply it to succeed. First-year students often struggle with time management, heavy workloads, and stress, which can negatively affect both their academic performance and overall well-being. By providing students with helpful resources, I hope to encourage them to study more strategically while staying motivated and maintaining a healthy balance under stress. These skills are not only essential for their first year of college, but they also lay the foundation for effective study habits, stress management, and sustained motivation throughout life.