How Chess Helped Me

  Hello, my name is Rebecca Lelko, and I was part of Vivacity while I was in middle school and high school.  I just want to share a few ways that chess has helped me.  First of all, I got a scholarship to Texas Tech University for chess.  This obviously has greatly helped both me and my parents, as college is extremely expenssive.  There are many colleges that offer scholarships for chess, so I encourage you all to look into this opportunity.
  Also, starting college is very intimidating.  You do not know many people there, and everything seems completely new.  Being part of the chess team helped me make friends immediately and also let me get to know some older students who could help me if I had any questions.  When you go to college, the most important thing is to get involved, and joining the chess club/team is a great way to do this.
  I have had a lot of fun continuing to play chess in college.  Our team travels together to a lot of tournaments, and we even took one trip to play blitz at the bottom of a cave!  I hope that reading about my experience will help motivate you all to continue playing chess after you graduate.

Introduction and transition from high school to college

Hello guys. Since this is my first blog post, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Jianmin Pei, but you can call me Jason. I attended Vivacity chess club from 2003 to 2007. I stopped taking chess lessons when I was a junior in high school because I wanted to focus on my education more. During my senior year in high school, I went back to Vivacity as a teacher assistant. I helped Mr. Kitsis organize the club and sometimes teach kids chess. During my senior year, I was also a chess instructor at the Chinese school at Solon on Saturdays only. Mostly, I just teach kids the fundamentals of chess. Now I’m in college and I just started my second year.

That leads to my topic for my very first blog, the transition from high school to college. There is a lot of difference and similarities between high school and college. Similarities are you still have to take classes and listen to a person speak while you learn a subject. The difference is that you are truly on your own by the time you are at college. High school is free but college is expensive. Therefore, the students have much more responsibility. In middle or high school, you can do minimum work and still get a decent grade. However, that is not true in college. You really need to be on top of all the materials because the course goes by really fast. Professors do not review any old materials and they just keep going for new materials. That is the reason you need to get ahead in the game and not fall behind because if you do, you really have your work cut out for you.

So here are some tips for transitioning to college that have worked for me:

1.       1. Have a routine schedule

2.      2. Read ahead in all your classes

3.       3. Never skip any classes.

4.       4. Never cram for exams

5.       5. Take good notes

6.       6. Join clubs and other activities when you have the time.

7.       7. Don’t be shy and talk to your neighbors in your dorms.

That is about yet and hopefully that will help you with your transition from high school to college.