Personal Responsibility

Personal Responsibility
Elizabeth Mwewa
Gen/200
03/09/2013

Personal Responsibility

Personal Responsibility is important to one’s education success. This means been responsible and taking accountability towards one’s goals to achieve academic excellence. It requires commitment, integrity, and positive attitude to attain these goals as the results is pure joy.
Ron Haskins, who is the co-director of Center on Children and Families, Budgeting for National Priorities, wrote an article entitled, “The Sequence of Personal Responsibility”, states “Personal responsibility is the willingness to both accept the importance of standards that society establishes. Also means that when individuals fail to meet expected standards, they do not look around for some factor outside themselves to blame.” (Haskins, 2009, para.)

Personal responsibility to me means been responsible and accountable in goals to achieve academic excellence. This can be through commitment, integrity, and positive attitude. I should not blame others people when I do not meet objectives as I have to strive to meet deadlines in class work and assignments by dedicating time, energy, and resources. I should be able to consults my professors and academic advisors when I need help or do not understand assignments and also use the resources available on the university web tools. In colleges, personal responsibility is among the first teaching the students are taught like in this class. In The College of Wooster, Ohio, as reported by Baker (2011), the class of 2015 will be informed of codes of conducts and individual responsibility as outlined in the Wooster’s Ethic, which states that students must uphold academic and personal integrity as well as honest and trust in all academic endeavors.

Ron Haskins clearly illustrates what personal responsibility means to individual behavior and the importance of standards that community has towards that. He wrote that “every person has a responsibility to be accountable for his or her own actions and not to blame family, friends, economic status, or society in case of failure. It has an overview of personal responsibility in education which shows that students must study hard and learn as much as in courses that press against the limits of their capacity. This requires commitment and academic integrity to be success as without the college education most young people are destined to a life of marginal employment and income”. (Haskins, 2009)

The relationship between personal responsibility and college success I achieved recently is when I graduated from Hutchinson Community College with an associate’s degree. I was hesitate to go to back to college especially, because I thought I was old and did not want to face academic challenges. I was born and grew up in an African country, moved to the USA in my adult life with my son. I had worked in the banking profession for over 14 years in Africa, and after settling in the USA, I decided to change my career to Health care. I knew nothing about the healthcare in the USA apart from what I had done research on. After I got a job at one the largest healthcare company, I knew that within time, I would want to start education in health care as all I had was banking and financial education. I had to motivate myself and within a short time I started my associate’s degree in Healthcare Information Technology.
The joy of my academic success was evident during my graduation, in which my mother flew from Africa to be part of the celebration as I was the first in her family to obtain college degree. My son who is my biggest supporter in my pursuit for academic excellence had the biggest smile when I received my degree as he had witnessed the hard work and sacrifice I had to go through to be where I was then. This is vice-versa to me on him too.
The relationship between personal responsibility and college success has also extended toward my career advancement. The previous classes and the one’s I am taking in pursuit of the bachelor’s degree have and will play a tremendous role on my job performance, communication among my co-workers, time-management, and planning skills.

Preliminary plan to practice personal responsibility in my education starts with creating and adhering to academic calendar, which I have pinned on top of my study desk and another at the fridge to remind me on assignments due dates and what else need to be done. I have also set timeline on completing assignments to avoid procrastination. When I achieve my objectives, including reading and submitting all the assignments before the set timeline, I have decided to reward myself with renting the latest movie to watch with my son. Because my son has also decided to join me on the same reward schedule with his school work, we are working hard to make sure we do meet our timelines.
In conclusion, as Haskins writes, “The demise of personal responsibility occurs when individuals blame their family, their peers, their economic circumstances, or their society for their own failure to meet standards,” (Haskins 2009). I believe that one’s success in college or any type of education requires discipline, commitment, dedication, family and the community support.
As reported by Christian Bellantoni of The Washington Times, “president Obama in 2009 asked the nation’s students to take personal responsibility for their future and to put their best effort into their schoolwork, by urging them not to let their family, country, and mostly themselves down. (Bellantoni, 2009).

References
Haskins, Ron. (2009, July). The Sequence of Personal Responsibility. Brookings Institute. Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2009/07/09-responsibility-haskins
Bellantoni, C. (2009, September 9). Obama Urges Responsibility In His Pep Talk: Adjusts To Last Week 's Furor Over Approach To Students. The Washington Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/410129873
Baker, Becky. (2011, August 11). New Students Learn About Respect, Responsibility, Relationships. Daily Record [Wooster, Ohio]. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/885010118

References: Haskins, Ron. (2009, July). The Sequence of Personal Responsibility. Brookings Institute. Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2009/07/09-responsibility-haskins Bellantoni, C. (2009, September 9). Obama Urges Responsibility In His Pep Talk: Adjusts To Last Week 's Furor Over Approach To Students. The Washington Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/410129873 Baker, Becky. (2011, August 11). New Students Learn About Respect, Responsibility, Relationships. Daily Record [Wooster, Ohio]. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/885010118