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From academic probation to Dean’s Honour Roll: How undergraduate student Natalie Fong turned things around
When Natalie Fong joined SFU, she started her economics program with the mindset many students do: finish the required courses, graduate, and get a job.
She showed up for her classes and did the assignments as directed. However, the transition from high school to university turned out to be more difficult than she anticipated. In her first few terms, Fong struggled academically and quickly ended up on academic probation. She failed one course and barely passed another. She says, “In high school, I did not need to actively engage with course material to maintain good enough grades.”
She knew she needed to try something different. To boost her CGPA, Fong branched out to take electives in other departments. “These elective classes allowed me to discover new ways to engage with course material,” Fong says. She took courses in English, Resource and Environmental Management (REM) and Political Science. This diverse mix of courses developed Fong’s passion for interdisciplinary ways of thinking and writing.
Taking REM 321: Ecological Economics was a pivotal moment for Fong—she realized that making her learning personal was her key to success. “It was my first experience studying the intersection of my degree with my passion for environmentalism,” says Fong. “I focused on understanding it the way I understand it, within my own life experiences.”
She blames her early academic struggles on her passive learning style, which is instructor-centered, merely listening to lectures and absorbing the information given to her. Instead, Fong flipped to an active learning style... She challenged herself to connect course content to her own life and apply it to real world examples.
Looking back, Fong says the biggest challenge of this time was “learning how to learn.” She blames her early academic struggles on her passive learning style, which is instructor-centered and meant merely listening to lectures and absorbing the information given to her. Instead, Fong flipped to an active learning style which is more student-centered and required engaging with the material and finding ways to make it relevant and memorable.
She challenged herself to connect course content to her own life and apply it to real world examples. She also started using learning tools like Quizlet and working through practice problems without looking at the answer ahead of time. “By beginning to trust myself and doing the hard work first, I was then able to see how close I was to the answer,” says Fong. “This built my confidence and showed me where I needed to improve.”
Overall, however, Fong says, “Taking an interdisciplinary approach to my economics degree is the primary factor that aided my understanding and connection to upper-division ECON course material.”
By the end of her degree, half of her grades in the last 40 units were A+'s, including her upper-level economics courses, miles away from the C-, D and F of her first term.
In the fall of 2022, Fong was the top student in ECON 302: Microeconomic Theory II, a notoriously difficult course. Her professor Shih En Lu says, “I've seen students turn things around from B’s and C’s to A’s before, but I don't remember seeing anything this drastic.”
Her economics background gave her an advantage over the other students when it came to fully understanding the economic terminology and concepts taught in her elective courses. “I realized I was bringing a different perspective than most students in REM,” Fong says.
Though she discovered her passion for REM, Fong stuck with her economics major. “I realized I was bringing a different perspective than most students in REM,” Fong says. Her economics background gave her an advantage over the other students when it came to fully understanding the terminology and concepts taught in her elective courses. "Being in that REM class reassured me that I knew a lot about economics despite my rough start in my ECON courses, and that my knowledge was valuable.”
Fong has now set her sights on graduate school in either REM or Urban Studies. "In both professional and academic roles, I hope to create systemic change around reducing our carbon footprint and our reliance on cars.”
Fong's advice to undergraduate students? “Try and go into classes with more of a curious mindset rather than trying to get a certain grade. Focus on truly learning and understanding the material and the grades will follow."
She also reminds students not to be discouraged by a bad grade early in a course. “Remember,” she says, “a lot can change throughout the semester.”