My Starting Point – Mayra Ruiz Gallegos – FA100

Hey guys, It’s Mayra again. This is my fourth blog as I work through the Pharmacy Technology program at the Mesa campus. I’m now about 8 weeks into my program; I completed the introductory ‘Foundations for Achievement’ course (FA100) a couple of weeks ago and I’m excited that I’ve started my core program. If you’ve not read my earlier blogs, you can find them all using this link! 

So before I tell you about starting my core program, I just wanted to talk about the Foundations course – FA100 – now that I’ve finished it. A lot of you might just be starting, wondering why you have to do it

FA100 – Well Worth It!

Honestly at first I thought it was going to be a waste of time, but once I actually got into it, it really helped me get ready for my core program. Looking back, I think it’s a great way to start the program, especially if you haven’t been to school for a while. It gets your brain going, it gets you in gear, it’s a good refresher course to get everyone back into the routine of school.

It helped me with my organization, getting me back into a study routine; it’s a good intro and stopped me from getting overwhelmed, which is easy to do when you first jump back into school. I think that, like me, once you complete through the course, you’ll realize how helpful it will be for the rest of your program. You may think it’s a waste of time going in, but honestly it’s not!

A Taste of your Core Class!

During the FA100 course, they sent us out to our core class for a day, just to get us used to our teacher and classmates. We got to sit together, all my new classmates; we sat in the back of the room and observed a more advanced class. It was interesting to watch the teacher go over what they needed to study for the week, they took a couple of tests and then went though the results.

Towards the end of class, he came over to introduce himself and run through the things we’d be doing over the first six weeks; he told us how he manages class and what we’d be covering in our first core course.

From Baby Steps to Walking!

Don’t get used to thinking school is easy, because once you step out of that FA100 program, life at school gets much more difficult! I’ve only been in my core program, Pharmacy Technology, about a week or so now, and I can definitely tell the difference in work load and complexity!

Going from FA100 to your core class is a very big transition. In FA100 I got used to the teacher kind of guiding us like babies on everything we did. But once you get to the core class, it’s kind of like ‘you’re a big kid now, you’re going to have to do this on your own, but I’m here to help’.

You really have to study and everybody kind of goes at their own pace; we then reconnect when we take the test at the end of the week on Thursday, and go on together from there. You’re kind of on your own. Of course the teacher is there to help us if we have questions, but it’s very much down to us to study. Make sure that you use all your resources, because so far the tests have been very difficult. Definitely study and definitely get a good night’s sleep before you go into a test, because you’re going to need it.

Sometimes I do feel that I’m going to be a little stressed out, and that this could be a long eight months, but my teacher is very good about communicating. I do feel a little overwhelmed sometimes, but talking to my teacher really helps. If I tell him that I’m struggling with something or just not getting it, he’s like “ok, take a step back, it’s going to be alright, I’m going to help you.” And then he explains it differently, until I understand it better. Communicating well with your teacher is definitely the best resource for you; as long as you have your teacher with you, you’ll be fine.

Thanks for reading! Next time I’ll talk about the first weeks in my core program, and getting to know my teacher – Mr. Ron!