Even though it is my second semester at Penn State, I have barely met with my professors after class time. I always feel awkward when I need to meet with professors since the professors are not likely to recognize who I am. In order to complete this activity, I have to schedule an appointment with three professors. It was a big challenge for me but after meeting with those professors, I become more comfortable and like to go to those courses more.

The first professor I met is my economics professors, Dave Brown. He is a nice professor who teaches his students patiently and interestingly. I brought my economics homework to his office and slightly knocked on his door. He smiled to me and asked if I had any problems for his class. Therefore, I asked him the problems I found on my homework. Then he asked me about his teaching. I took another economics class on last semester, thus I evaluated two classes and found his teaching style was more helpful for me. We also talked about the differences in economics as I have taken the similar economics class during my high school. He was surprised to me that we then talked about it for a long time.

I also schedule an appointment with my EGEE (energy conservation and environmental protection) instructor, Dr. Sarma V. Pisupati. I decided to meet with him because this class is an online course. Even though all of the materials are posted online, it was still difficult for me to understand some parts of the materials unless I met the instructor directly. The instructor was very professional and serious. I introduced myself to him, and talked about my goal in this course. I also asked him some problems on this course. He patiently answered to my questions, and then he gave me some suggestions on this course. He provided some tips to study for this course, which is very helpful for me. After meeting with him, I felt more confident on learning well this course.

When I met my marketing 301 professor, I, again, introduced myself and talked about my academic goal on this course. It was the most difficult class I have taken in this semester as the concepts are too theoretical to understand. The professor totally understood me as it is our first time to study in this area, thus she suggested me to relate to the examples we discussed in class while studying. She also shared to me her ways to study the materials. Her strategy was effective in helping me remember those theoretical concepts.

Overall, I found that meeting professor was not as challenging as I thought. Although I was nervous at the first time, the professors were nice enough to spend much time hearing my problems and explaining to me in details, which their behavior have comforted me a lot. This activity has helped me to overcome the barriers with professors, and I would definitely like to meet them when I had difficulties on those courses.