Personal Responsibility and College

Personal Responsibility and College Success

"Responsibility is not something you do-it's a way of thinking and being. When you are truly responsible, you believe success or failure is up to you, even if you work within a team or are blindsided by unforeseen circumstances" (Galindo, 2010). Individuals are responsible for their own success and failure as it is depended on their actions and decision making abilities at a given point of time. No one else can be held accountable for another person's success. For the individuals who achieve success and remain consistent at it, have certain good habits which they practice. One of the very vital and often sidelined is Personal Responsibility. It is what differentiates an adult from a child. When an individual knows that only they are responsible for the outcome of their decisions and that they are the sole owners of the results of their actions, are said to be the ultimate performers of Personal Responsibility. It is full of maturity. Making excuses and pointing fingers at others are traits of personally irresponsible people. There are many ways in which personal responsibility is acquired, but a main source is an individual's upbringing. A good portion of life is spent growing up and learning is done at home. In the beginning parents are the teachers and children learn a lot from observing and grasping abilities from the home environment. If the parents are themselves disorganized socially and financially, it's hard for them to cultivate personal responsibility into their children because they have never practiced it.

College is a place where personalities are built and where students are thrown into real world stimulations to prepare them for the future. According to a survey, striving for excellence, Cultivating personal responsibility and academic integrity, contributing to a large community, taking seriously the perspectives of others and Refining ethical and moral reasoning, should be the 5 main areas of focus in colleges (Dey 2008). An individual who comes out of college not only makes decision for himself but also for the entire community. Their ethics and reasoning abilities will shape the future of people involved with them, as they will be future leaders in their community. This task can only be accomplished if individuals are personally responsible and able to stand on their two feet. "Among the five dimensions, cultivating personal and academic integrity received the most support, with 70% of students and 90% of campus professionals indicating that they strongly agree that it should be an important institutional focus and if used in a wrong way it can lead to failure" (Dey, 2008). It is clear that the students and faculty support the idea of being personally responsible and having strong ethics. It is not something that can be taught and drilled into heads, but certainly should be addressed and be made