My PA and LAP Clubs Journey

 My PA and LAP Clubs Journey

    Hello everyone:) I'm Betül. I am a student in Psychology Department, but now, I am in the prep class. Moreover, I am a member of the LAP Club and an advisor in Peer Advising Program. Firstly, I want to tell you about myself as a learner. I always like to learn and discover new things so I always search, read, and listen. Learning is endless. Every new day, we learn something new. Peter Drucker who is an Australian author and a lecturer says that "Learning is a process which continues during the life to keep up with changes and the most urgent task is to teach people how to learn." I've learned how I learn in the LAP Clubs and PA Education. Now, I want to tell my story about LAP Clubs and then PA Education.

    At the beginning of the year, I was a new university student and felt excited. I was searching for ways to improve my English skills all the time because I was new in the prep class. While I was searching, I saw a presentation video for the LAP Unit. After I watched it, I decided to join this club. I never forget my first day at the LAP Clubs. Everybody was speaking English fluently. They were B+ level students, but I was at the A+ level. I felt like a baby who knew nothing. I wasn't able to understand the teacher or the students, but that day, I spoke with a foreign student and we became friends. We didn't have to speak English, but I believe that If you don't push your limits, you don't reach success so I always try to speak English as much as I can. After the first session of LAP Clubs, I felt very self-confident and enthusiastic. I decided the join all of the sessions of the LAP Clubs. We were speaking about self-confidence, getting to know about ourselves, our learning skills, time management and learning how to learn, etc. In addition, I had a lot of friends in the LAP Club. We opened a new speaking club with only friends and decided to go somewhere just to speak English on a day of the week. This improved my speaking and social network. Nowadays, everyone wants to speak English clearly but they do nothing about this. If you do something and improve yourself, you can step out of your comfort zone. After that, you see that you will be better than previously. I thought that I was just babbling :) While my LAP adventure continues, I want to mention the PA Program. One day in the LAP Club, our Learning Advisor told us about the PA program. I didn't want to join it because all of the lessons would be in English. The lessons would be delivered by two mentors one of whom is a native speaker, and I was scared not to understand her. That reminded me of my first day at the LAP Clubs. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it. I said to myself "Think about the beginning of the LAP Clubs. You thought that you wouldn't succeed, but you did! You succeeded! This program will help you improve and make yourself better." Then, I decided to join it at the last moment and I went to the ILC where the PA training was conducted. That day is one of the happiest days of my life. I started a new adventure with the PA Training. I learned to communicate effectively with people, understand their emotions and help them. Moreover, I met many people here and made new friends. We listened and understood each other. There is no judgment here. PA Education made me better and stronger.

    To sum up, PA Education and the LAP Clubs have affected me in a good way. I can see this in my life, communicating, learning and growing relationships. I hope that my friends and I will be good advisors and life-long learners.

What are you waiting for? Let's join us!

Betül Öztürk