Leaving home, buying books, furnishing a new room, scheduling classes and making new friends are just a couple of stressful problems for incoming students.
For freshman Chantel Hubbard, she has to improve her soccer skills, learn new formations and try to find playing time for one of the top college soccer teams in the country.
Surviving won’t be easy.
“Right now I’m just pretending like I’m at a really long soccer camp,” Hubbard said. “I’m not even thinking about school yet.”
Hubbard, who graduated from North Torrance High School a couple of months ago, is confident but still worried about the challenge of balancing school and soccer. Luckily for her, she is on a team that is full of teammates that went through the exact same thing last year.
The LBSU women’s soccer team featured eight freshmen starters in 2005, and they know how hard it is to do well on and off the field.
“The transition was difficult,” said sophomore forward Kim Silos, who led the 49ers in goals last year. “At the end of the year it was very hard, because that’s when midterms are and it’s also when we play our most important games.”
The stress put on the freshmen could be seen on the field. The 49ers lost three of their final four games, which included a shootout loss to UC Riverside in the Big West Tournament.
“I think we hit a wall near the end of the season,” said sophomore midfielder Hayley Bolt. “There were some nights I just lost it, with all the stress with school and soccer.”
Natalie Messina, a fifth-year senior, is one of the few veterans on the up-and-coming women’s soccer team. Her advice to Hubbard is not to be afraid to ask for help from her teammates.
“I get excited when someone asks me for help with school,” Messina said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, I liked that class,’ and I am able to help them with their homework.”
Silos and Bolt said the only way to survive is to be organized.
“Get a calendar,” Bolt said. “You have to have one. Also, communicate with your teachers and keep an open line of communication.”
The Center for Student-Athlete Services (CSAS) helps freshmen get through their first year at LBSU. Their freshmen program, HEADS UP, has junior and senior students mentoring freshmen, helping them with school and athletics.
“It is our most popular program,” said CSAS Director Gayle Fenton. “They are able to learn from each other, and become better students.”
Another hurdle for sports athletes is they have to complete 40 percent of their degree by the end of their sophomore year to stay eligible to compete.
Fenton also gave advice that probably all CSULB students should listen to.
“If I had to give one piece of advice I would say go to class, go to class, go to class,” Fenton said.
For Hubbard, the next couple months probably won’t be her easiest, but at the very least she won’t be going through it by herself.
“I’m already living in the dorms with the other freshmen,” Hubbard said. “It’s like having five new best friends. We are all a little nervous, and we’re still getting used to the dorms, but so far everything has been really cool.”