The first week of BYUI was interesting because almost all my roommates are friendly and older than me. There is this one guy who is very talkative and sometimes makes me run out of social battery, but I would say that he’s still fun to talk to. Honestly, it’s better than having no one to talk to.
My first experience at school was nerve-wracking because I was part of the minority, meaning there were mostly Americans rather than Asians. However, they all seemed to be pretty kind to me. My first class was BIM (Building Information Modeling). In this class, we are tasked with picking a project for any house we’re interested in, and throughout the semester, we will be designing it using an app called Revit. Going into class, I was surprised because my teacher was walking behind me and already knew my name. He said, “I’m just walking behind here over Zach,” which caught me off guard.
After class, I went to work, which made me nervous since it was my first time on the job. Even though there were a lot of people, my boss and coworkers helped me overcome my nervousness, and I was able to get through the day. As the week went on, I got pretty good at the job and didn’t need to ask my boss for help anymore when taking deposits from students. There were still times when students asked questions I didn’t know how to answer, so I asked for help, and my boss was always willing to help me out.
After work, I had a long class from 4–7 PM, which was my framing systems class. I was shocked when I first walked into the room because the workshop was huge and had so many tools, some of which were pretty dangerous, like saw machines. I picked a spot and sat at a table, and someone else sat with me. His name was Cooper, and he was around the same age as me. We talked about where we came from, and he told me he worked for a marine biology company and had been to Indonesia. I told him that I lived in the Philippines, and luckily, we ended up becoming groupmates for basically the whole semester with two other people. In this class, we were tasked with making a scaled house out of wood. I was scared because I didn’t know anything about construction, but one of my teammates had seven years of experience, so he taught me a lot. I asked questions and tips about why he did certain things while we worked on the group project.
The next day, I had English class, and I immediately didn’t like the teacher, so I decided to leave the class and switch to another one. I changed my English class to math because I didn’t like how the English teacher taught and how slow he was with technology. His teaching style felt old school and made me sleepy.
My framing systems teacher, Lopez Sal, taught us something important in class: FAIL—First Attempt In Learning. I really loved the way he taught because he genuinely cared about his students.
One thing I noticed about most of the teachers at BYUI is that they really want you to succeed. Unlike some colleges where there are “terror” teachers, this school focuses on student success. Even if you’re falling behind, the college provides many ways to help you improve, such as support centers and free tutoring.
Overall, my first experience at BYUI has been fun. I feel lucky to be here because most of the people I’ve met so far have been kind, and my roommates are chill and feel like older brothers. They aren’t shy to talk and can easily connect with you through shared hobbies.
Yours truly,
Zach Sy
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