Sharmel Alexander is a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Currently, she’s undecided but is interested in a Business major. Her interest in majoring in business is because there are not a lot of Black-owned businesses in her community on the Westside of Chicago. 

Sharmel went to high school at Rowe-Clark Math & Science Academy, and she compares her high school experience to college. “My transition from high school to college hasn’t been that much of a difference because you still have to do a lot of assignments. The biggest difference is the time you are in class because you go from having eight-hour school days in high school to only one or two classes a day throughout the week in college,” said Alexander. 

There have been a few highlights and challenges while navigating college life. “The highlight of my college experience is the freedom of making your own choices, you become very independent and have a lot of free time,” said Alexander. 

However, “The biggest challenge I have faced so far is my sleep schedule, organization skills, and college expenses. My sleep schedule is bad at the moment because I am not a morning person, so my 9:00 a.m. math class kills me. The first two weeks of class showed me that I am not organized at all.”

Another eye-opener moment for Sharmel is how expensive things are in college. “College is expensive and I’m not talking [only] about tuition, but college books as well,” said Alexander. “Finding used books or even books online has become my favorite skill, I’m doing anything and everything to save my money." Although Sharmel is finding ways to save and budget, she mentioned how Pursue Scholars prepared her for financial literacy. “Pursue Scholars help me prepare for college because at one of our workshops, we talked about budgeting money and how to save and I’ve been using the tips they gave us every day since I got to college.”

It’s been officially one month since Sharmel started her new journey and she’s already learned some tips and faced a few challenges of college life. A few pieces of advice that she wishes someone would have given her is, “It’s okay to ask for help when you need it,” said Alexander. “Spending money to treat yourself is okay sometimes but not all the time because before you know it, you will need something for class but don’t have it because you spent your money on Chick-fil-A or Wingstop.” 

As Sharmel continues to navigate the ups and downs of college, Pursue Scholars prays that she has a safe and successful first semester.