___________________________________________________________

I would like to introduce you to our new Academic Advisor who is taking over for Osvaldo Cruz, who left to start his own business. Her name is Jacqueline Fuentes. She comes from a Cuban-American family, speaks both languages perfectly and has a Masters of Science in School Guidance and Counseling from Saint Thomas University. Please take the opportunity to welcome her when you see her in our office.

Many of you are aware that Florida National College has individual courses and academic degree programs online. This Distance Learning component of the college further provides students with the convenience of requesting that their schedules be arranged depending on their current needs for each semester.

A student has the option of taking courses fully online. The students who take this option do so for the convenience of being able to study from their computers at home, with a flexible time schedule. By doing so, they avoid the traffic commute from work to make it on time to the classroom on campus. They also can spend the time at home with their children and family while they complete their courses online. Other online students enroll from all over the Country, and we even have a student who works in the US Embassy in Africa.

Our on campus students study most of the time in the classroom, but there are times when they like to take advantage of the convenience of taking one course online and one in the classroom. By doing this they can accommodate their job schedule better. Other times their jobs require that they travel on business trip and by taking two courses online they don’t have to put on hold their education to do so. Most hotels have internet connections and laptops prices have gone down, making them affordable to most of us.

How can someone enroll at Florida National College, as a fully online Distance Learning student, to take advantage of the conveniences mentioned above?

Just contact Manuel Mares at the Office of Academic Advising by sending him an e-mail at: mmares@mm.fnc.edu. Make sure to include your contact information and he will get back to you as soon as possible and assist you with your career choices and guiding you through the enrollment process. Discover why Distance Learning is truely the Key to Opportunities!

College Life is a new experience to many students. Here at Florida National College the Academic Advising Center’s doors are alway open for our students and members of our community to come right in and ask any questions that they might have concerning their careers, education, jobs, and their future. Many of our students are locals, others are international students, and many others are national students who with the miracle of the internet study with us but live throughtout the country.

We realize that many of you might have questions to ask of which others would also benefit from the answers. For this reason we are adding this new Post so that you can post your questions under “Comments,” and both these and the answers to these will be posted here. So go head, if you have a question for us … just ask (write your questions under “Comments”).

Many of you are becoming aware of the importance of obtaining your textbooks as soon as you know your schedule in order to be ready for your first day of classes. There are several options for obtaining your textbooks.

The first one is purchasing them from the FNC Bookstores located at the Hialeah and South Campuses. Just bring a copy of your schedule to the bookstore and they will tell you what your required textbooks are. This information is also found in your course syllabus. It is very important that you obtain the correct edition of the textbook. To make sure you do, double check to see that you have the correct ISBN number of the textbook.

The second option is to purchase used textbooks from one of our FNC students who have them for sale. To do this, simply go to the My FNC Portal and click Student Services and then click Used Books. There you will find the names of the used textbooks for sale, along with the prices and phone numbers of the students trying to sell them. You are also able to sell your used textbooks using this system as well.

The third option is to buy the textbooks online: new, used, or e-textbooks. This option is very convenient especially for distance learning students who are taking all their courses online and find it difficult to go to the bookstore to purchase their textbooks.
There are several websites that sell new, used, and e-textbooks online.

To search for best deals you can go to the following price comparison search engines websites: BigWords.com , CheapestTextbooks.com , and BooksPrice.com.

Here is a list of other websites where you can purchase books online:
CheapestBookPrice.com / AllBookstores.com / Biblio.com / AbeBooks.com / A1Books.com / BookFinder.com / ValoreBooks.com / Textbook411.com / Amazon.com / Half.com / CollegeBooksDirect.com / isellmytextbook.com / CampusBooks.com / Abebooks.com / CheapestTextbooks.com / Cash4books.net / CollegeBooksDirect.com / E-Campus.com / Borders.com / Barnesandnoble.com / Textbooks.com /

Here are some websites that have textbook rentals:
Chegg.com / BookRenter.com / CampusBookRentals.com

The latest in book sales is Digital Copies of Textbooks, where you get your textbook in electronic format. The advantage of these is that they are less expensive than the print version, but the downsides is that they can’t be returned or sold, and some subscriptions limit access to a semester or two, and copyrights prevent printing more than a few pages.

Here are links to purchase these textbooks in electronic format: CourseSmart.com / Cafescribe.com

I hope the information provided can help you in obtaining your textbooks on time and contribute to your success in your education at Florida National College.

Many of you have been wondering when you would be able to have access to print your new schedule and check your grades from courses taken. Well now you can, through the new FNC Student Portal. Besides this, you will be able to post used textbooks for sale, change your address and phone number, make payments, view your financial aid information, print unofficial transcripts, access blackboard, access student forms and publication, as well as a few other things.

But before you can have access to all the above features, you first need to create a new account. You do this by going to www.fnc.edu and clicking My FNC, then click: Student Portal Homepage and Create a New Account. Click here for more details on creating your new Student Portal account.

In order for you to be able to retrieve the confirmation link you must have a valid email on record with FNC. Please visit the Office of Academic Advising if you don’t or are not sure you do and we will be able to input your email into the system

Soon we will be having our FNC graduation. Its meaning will be different for each graduating student, but all will share in the sense of accomplishment and joy that comes from realizing a goal in ones life. It is also a celebration; of the culmination of the time and effort the graduates have devoted, as part of their busy schedule and other responsibilities, to advance in their careers and to seek a better quality of life for themselves and their families.

At Florida National College we have graduating students from all ages in life. Young students who as they graduate are being placed in a job within their field, to gain further experience and start reaping the monetary and satisfying rewards of a career. Other students who plan to continue on further studies and complete their bachelor’s degree. And yet other students who are taking the opportunity of their newly acquired associate’s degree to find a better job and at the same time continue studying their bachelor’s degree part time. All these students have one thing in common: they will all be graduates of Florida National College. As such, they will always have access to the FNC Job Placement Office. There, they will be able to find out about new job opportunities within their careers available to them, polish up their resumes, prepare for a job interview, as they advance to a better job.

Click here and you will be able to have access to the Florida National College Job Placement webpage in the FNC website with many resourceful features. You can also visit them in the New Portal by clicking My FNC on top of the FNC website.

For ultimately, we study a career “to open doors for the future” and by doing so make our lives a lot better as well as the World a better place to be.

The Academic Advising Center is located in Room 140 at the Hialeah Campus and in Room 225 at the South Campus. Online students have access through Blackboard.

We welcome and encourage you to come visit any of our offices with questions or concerns, or just to talk about your future and how we can help you achieve your goals.

Hileah Campus Advisors & Distance Leanring Advisor Room 140
Osvaldo Cruz, MBA
(786) 364-9536
ocruz@mm.fnc.edu
Manuel A. Mares, MA, CSS
(786) 364-9562
mmares@mm.fnc.edu

South Campus Advisor Room 225
Lydia Hernandez, BA
(786) 364-9589
lhernandez@mm.fnc.edu

Many of our students are asked to write research papers and find themselves in need of help and assisstance with the formatting and style required of them. The APA (American Psychological Association) formatting and style is the one used by the social sciences. Click here and you will be able to read about how to write a paper using this style. Business students are also requested to use the APA style.

The MLA (Modern Langauge Association) formatting and style is used to write a paper within the liberal arts and humanities. Click here and you will be able to read about how to write a paper using this style.

Here I am including a Guide to Writing a Basic Essay. Click here to access it. It will take you through the steps.

College can be a new and challenging experience for many students. To help you better adjust to the college life here are some: “Tips to Help you Succeed in College.” Hope you find these useful:

1. Attend all orientations you can. The more you learn about the college, the better prepared you’ll be to handle any issues that may arise. Here at Florida National College a general orientation is given during the day and during the evening the Thursday before the beginning of each new term. If you weren’t able to make it during your first term attending FNC, make it a point to attend during the next one. An orientation is also given for online students or classroom students who wish to take an online class. Contact the Office of Distance Learning for dates or to request a personal orientation with one of its staff members. They also have a Blackboard Distance Learning orientation/training course posted online. Just click here for information on online training and orientation.
2. Get organized / Get textbooks. Have a calendar and write down when assignments are due and make a study schedule with a place and time to study daily. It is very important that assignments and papers be handed in on time, and that you have your textbook from day one to be prepared to complete your assignments.
3. Get to know your academic program requirements. Meet with your academic advisor or with your division head to review these with them and to request a program sheet so that you can follow your progress in your program completion. Also make sure to notify them if ever you are scheduled a course that is not part of your program.
4. Get to know and maintain good communication with your faculty. Make sure you have their contact information where you can reach them if ever you need them in case of an emergency.
5. Attend your classes. It is extremely important that you go to your classes and take advantage of all the material presented there. The faculty bring many examples from their experience in the field that you won’t find in your textbooks alone. You will also get a better insight of what will be required of you for the midterm and final exams by being present in your classes.
6. Meet with and get to know your academic advisor. The advisor is someone you can talk to about your career, your academic program course requirements, any academic concern you might have, any issues with your professors, and any other topic such as your future goals and aspirations.
7. Work hard to obtain good grades. The time you spend studying is very valuable, you might as well make good use of it and prepare to obtain good grades. Your GPA will determine if you graduate with honors: Cum Laude = 3.50 – 3.69, Magna Cum Laude = 3.70 – 3.89, and Summa Cum Laude = 3.90 – 4.0 . Students who graduate with honors will have it listed on their college diploma.
8. Avoid procrastination. Set deadlines and stick to them. Don’t leave things until the last moment. This will only create more tension in your life and affect the quality of your work negatively. Take responsibility for your actions and do what needs to be done first.
9. Take time to relax and enjoy life. Make time out of your busy schedule to spend with your love ones and do the things you enjoy doing. After all, “success is a journey not a destination.” We want to make sure we also enjoy that journey along the way.
10. Your attitude is very important in all you do. Make sure you always try to have a positive attitude. “Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.” The more you put into your education and expect out of life, the more you will get out of it!

Welcome to the Florida National College Academic Advising Center Blog!

The primary purpose of the Academic Advising Center is advising new and current students in the development of meaningful educational plans that are compatible with their life goals.

No matter if you’re a new student, a transfer student, or a returning student, you’re already made one of the biggest decisions of your life by deciding to attend FNC.

This blog will contain articles that will help you in your journey to realize your dreams.