Nearly every day in Instructor Diane Perez’s second hour 3A Spanish class, a Prince Royce song would be interrupted by Cassie Ramirez bustling into the room. She would throw her backpack to the ground, drop into her seat, and pull out her phone, disregarding everyone around her.
Ramirez was one of those people who just didn’t care about school. She was often late to class, hardly ever did her work, and underperformed in her classes with C’s or B’s. She only had a 2.8 grade point average.
“I really didn’t know what Cassie was going to do after high school. I assumed she would go to college, but I doubted she would do very well. She’s such a fun person to be around, but she never seemed the type to exceed in academics as well as she is now,” said former classmate, Jr. Christina Martinez.
Despite her rough last year of high school, Ramirez managed to find the motivation to do well at college. She worked hard during her freshman year at Baker College and earned a 4.0 the entire year. But what was the difference? How did Ramirez find the motivation to do well?
“I had a really bad roommate who partied and totally disregarded her school work. She got in major trouble all the time and it made me realize the type of person I didn’t want to be. So initially, she motivated me to be a better person overall, not just academically,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez is majoring in criminal justice, so one day, she’ll be a cop. The classes she takes include Intro to Corrections, Law, Criminal Justice, and Self-defense. “The classes are smaller, so there is more one-on-one with the teachers, which helped motivate me because I wasn’t afraid to ask questions,” she said. She was particularly motivated by a tour of the Brooks Correctional Facility and by shadowing a probation officer.
“I didn’t really have any motivation in high school, I was just a social butterfly. I would just do the minimum amount of work so I could get done faster and talk more. I felt like the classes I took were pointless, so I didn’t care to do my work. I honestly don’t think I learned anything. But I’m really interested in my major, and I absolutely love what I’m learning, so I’m doing really well. That’s the real difference, you have to want to learn in order to truly succeed.”
Through hard work and effort, Ramirez managed to find the motivation to perform well in college.