After years of living with their families, first-year student-athletes at Florida A&M University have had to adjust to living on their own while keeping up with their responsibilities.
Football players come from all over to play or the Rattlers, but only the ones who keep their heads on straight secure a spot on the team.
Carl Nesmith, a first-year sociology major from Jacksonville, is new to the area and has been trying to get used to his new way of life.
“The transition was hard at first, but I’ve gotten used to the flow of college with the help of the ASB program,” Nesmith said. “It isn’t easy keeping up with homework when you get out of football practice around 6 p.m.”
The freshman football players interviewed for this story said that their transition was challenging at first — but also rewarding as they have been putting in countless hours of study time and hard work to achieve their goals.
Jacory Jordan, a first-year business major from Jacksonville, has been star-struck with the lack of time and how he must balance his time management.
“I primarily focus on making sure I get enough sleep so that I can focus throughout the day,” Jordan said. “It hasn’t been too bad with me adjusting to feeding myself with me being able to have a car on campus.”
De’Andre Francis, a first-year architecture major from Miami, said that even though the transition from high school to college has been easy for him, he still tries to stay caught up with his classwork.
“Coming to college has taught me how to become more independent,” Francis said. “We have to have five study hours per week which kind of helps me with catching up on my work. Fortunately, I haven’t needed any tutoring yet but if I did need it I know where to go for it.”
Freshman football players on FAMU’s campus have had mixed emotions about the sacrifices they have to make in order to stay on top of their work along with being on a high-profile football team.
Now that everyone has had time to adjust to being on campus, these freshmen plan to take advantage of the opportunities they have while being a football player at FAMU.
They all agreed that as long as they keep their priorities in order, they will finish their first semester of college in extraordinary fashion.