Samuel Farmer

In high school, it didn’t take very much for me to do well, so I didn’t develop study habits. When I started as a physics major, I wasn’t doing too well. I was procrastinating and didn’t have the discipline I needed. I knew I was capable of being curious about what I’m learning, but I was just struggling with waiting to do my assignments the day before they were due. I got to a point where I needed to make a change, so I decided to switch my major to psychology because I already had a lot of interest in that, and I can see myself having a career with it. I did an AP psychology course in high school and that is where my interest in it started. I’m a sophomore, but I just changed my major from physics to psychology last semester. Now I’m majoring in psychology and I’m minoring in political science.

I’ve had so much support in getting back on track. By meeting with my advisor, Nebraska College Preparatory Academy (NCPA) and talking to people about how things are going, I’ve been able to make plans for my next steps. I also talk to my professors more. If I don’t do well on a quiz or an assignment, I make sure to meet with my professor to talk about how I could do better in the future. Every time I meet with the director of NCPA, I feel like I can get back into the mindset of “I can get this done.” I have a lot of passion for trying to solve some of the problems I see in the world, and I want to be successful so that I can go and have a positive influence on the world.

It has been harder to get involved on campus once the pandemic happened. It became easy for me to stay home. I’m from Winnebago, Nebraska, a reservation town about two hours north of Lincoln. NCPA is my family on campus when I can’t go home. During the pandemic when we couldn’t meet in person, NCPA staff would still have little things for us in the office, like treats or new notebooks, so that we could come in and grab something and have a chance to talk to them. Spending time with NCPA makes me feel like I have a home away from home.