I
attended Full Sail ?04-?05 for there Recording Arts program with
the hopes of an education in audio production and most
importantly preparation to sell myself to potential employers based on
my strengths. I worked extremely hard durning the 13 months
of the program. Do to my lack of knowledge and
inexperience in this field going into the program, I decided
to strive to reach certain goals that would show my
strengths. My goals where to get A?s and B?s and
keep 100% attendance. At the end of the coarse
I was able to meet both of these goals even
with there policies. If you are 15 min late, your
cell phone rings in class or your out of the
room for 13 min or more, you are marked 2
hrs out. I was never late, never missed a day
and my cell phone was always off in class. It
was not easy. I made it early everyday, even in
situations where there was traffic or I was sick, broke,
starving and exhausted.
At the end of the program
I noticed that I was marked 2 hrs out for
the last class we had. This has happened before and
I was cretin it was just an error. I made
an appointment with the instructor to try to get this
resolved.
There where two instructors from this class at
the meeting. I sat down and said that I was
marked 2 hrs out but that I made it to
my labs and classes on time so I figured it
might me an error. Immediately one of them said we
don?t make mistakes. He then pulled out a piece of
paper and said yep ? My Name 2 hrs out,
left class to use cell phone. I said, ? This
doesn't make since, I wouldn?t jeopardize my attendance to make
a phone call. This infuriated the instructor who stood up
and said are you calling me a liar? I was
shocked and attempted to explain the situation but I was
told to get the hell out of the office. At
this point they where standing up and pulled on my
back pack loop forcing me to stand. They where both
in my face as if they where going to fight
me. Holding back tears, I tired again to explain that
I used the restroom that day and I took my
cell phone to keep track of the time so that
I wasn?t out longer then the 13 min. Before I
could explain this one of them yelled at me loud
enough for others in near by cubicles to turn there
heads to see what was going on. He yelled to
get out of his office again while turning me around
by my shoulders then pushed me towards the door. I
left in tears.
I brought this incident to one
of the counselors or someone there who dealt with issues
such as this. She advised me that there is nothing
I can do and that he is a ?Top Dog?
there. ? Its his word against mine? she explained. I
mentioned the security cameras surely captured it and mentioned that
this is not the policy, that my cell phone was
off in the room and never rang. She let me
know there was no hope of getting this fixed.
This didn?t seem right at all and was devastating to
me. Not only was it an assumption that I left
to use my phone, they never asked me about it
and physically put there hands on me which seemed wrong
in many ways.
I sat in the front row,
two feet in front of the instructors desk so thats
why he was able to see me take my phone
from my bag. I know someone else that had 100%
attendance and we where almost identical which our grades. He
ended up missing a lab because he misread the schedule.
They let him make up the lab and keep his
perfect attendance. The incident that happen to me also happen
to someone else around the same time so it was
not an isolated incident.
At graduation I had to watch
my friend who missed a lab, except his award for
perfect attendance with great applause. I sat there with no
awards, no acknowledgment of what I achieved other then the
degree.
This was devastating to me to say the least.
My biggest selling point of being 100% reliable
was taken from me. They took that form me because
now I don?t have the award and I am only
99.8% reliable. There are places like Skywalker ranch I wanted
to apply to but was told from day one that
they only except applications from students that have 100% attendance.
This was the reason I worked so hard to achieve
this. I don?t have the experience others have and this
was my standout accomplishment to give me confidence in interviews
and in selling myself to employers. This is what I
paid then to help me with and they took it
from me. When my job placement rep left a message,
I couldn?t call him back. I am so upset with
the School, I have not been able to call them
about there job placement program and or audit classes.
Not only did I feel they assaulted me robed me
of what I needed to confidently find a job in
this field. The program pushes you through the program as
one instructor termed, ? A potato chip factory. Some of
them would give answers to the test questions for the
mid term and finial as the corse training so essentially
your not learning, your just getting the info you need
to pass.
After graduation I didn?t know what to do.
I was lost and scared to apply anywhere. To this
day, 5 years later, I am still disillusioned and traumatized.