To become successful in academia, it is important to become innovative and unique.

Students
have always been taught by their mentors the value of taking a body of knowledge and having
the ability to critique it and form their own opinions. This lesson has been passed down
throughout the generations. I believe that it is important to uphold the integrity of individuality
because otherwise, students would stop learning how to think for themselves and become
dependent on others. If students become dependent on the work of others, they will always need
to depend on others. With that being said, students would ultimately never obtain their highest
potential of success. In academia, this is known as plagiarism. As a student, there are many
stressors that we deal with on a daily basis. For some, it is difficult to balance all of these.
Therefore, some individuals feel the need to take shortcuts.