UCSB students set goals and lifestyle guidelines to get the most out of the new school year

UC Santa Barbara, Calif. - The new school year has started at UC Santa Barbara with thousands of students now back on the campus.

The AS board welcomed them with a free concert tomorrow and more activities coming up.

Sariya Dyson is a second-year student who is on the event team. "I am making the difference on campus like changing the culture of Isla Vista especially."

A fourth year student says she already sees 2024 in a different way than her first year. Joyce Chi compared the timeframe. "I came here under the impression it was a party school or whatever but people are still very social and friendly and very focused on their academics."

She said the students are engaging in issues on and off campus. "I think last year with all the protests it raised people's awareness."

Understanding what it takes to be a college student has been a valuable lesson in the balance of social life and academics. 

Giuseppe Falla is a third-year UCSB student who says, "It does look like studying and homework assignments (quickly) starts to pile up. It can be a little overwhelming."

 It also helps to pick the right friends said third-year student Josh Moreno. "People that, you know, I can rely on. And my support system here, I have a lot of great friends that I've met throughout the years."

Dyson said, there's good energy when she is in a group setting for activities or learning. "It transfers so easily because I am up mentally. It makes everything so much easier. I feel limitless."

From his home, Falla said, "it's a lot of family support, I would say, especially because I'm also doing this for them since I'm first-generation student here. There's a lot of support within the communities I found." 

The area in front of the library is traveled by thousands of students every day. It's a great location for clubs and organizations along with fraternities and sororities to reach out to the students to join up and enhance their student experience.

Setting a plan and staying with it is Moreno's goal. "I would definitely say I'm a lot more confident about where I'm at right now and also my future. Growing up, I actually ran a small business, in middle and high school. So I've always been into that type of stuff, you know, digital marketing business."

For Chi, she is a student is studying medicine and is on the campus radio station, it's been a good mix.

"When I first started out, I was really nervous, unsure of myself. I'm really glad that I found people on the radio station after my time, where I got so much more confident in my abilities, I learned to do things I never thought I could do. Both journalism and medicine have the same core principal of always being grounded in truth and communicating that effectively."