As a recent Graduate, I know all too well the dangers of college these days for a student.
IT IS TOUGH BEING A STUDENT
When I went from the corporate world and back to school, I was absolutely lost! I found myself wandering haphazardously around a part of my home campus called the “GC Field.” Mind you, it is not so horrifying now, but I quite literally had to ask a security guard to guide me to my car. He awkwardly escorted me to his small cart, promising I would be fine. It was in this rather embarrassing moment that I realized I was, in this particular case, not a thirty-three-year-old man. Rather, I was a student now, and I had resorted to the role of “lost Freshman coming through!”
BUT THEN THINGS GOT STARTED
So, fast forward a year or two. I found myself involved in student government, acted as an Event Coordinator for three student organizations, and I thrived academically. I am currently (as of the writing of this blog) a Graduate student, and I hold dear to my heart the experiences I have gained, the memories I have found, and the friends I have met. With that said, I found solace in knowing that perhaps I was not the one who was lost on that field. Students need help these days, and not just academically. There are peer pressures and social anxieties, but there are also opportunities.
WHAT I CAN TELL YOU NOW
I love my school. I want all students to do the same. College was once reserved for only 7 percent of the population, and it has now grown to a monumental requirement. What, then, did I learn? Well, I learned that sociality is just about as important as the academic side of things. We grow up here, and even at my age, I found I have grown up more in the last three years than I ever did in the fourteen years preceding it. I urge students to be more than just active academically. I find value in sociality, which I will touch upon below. We need to emphasize that more often.
STUDENTS ARE DISGUISED AS…
…well, as more than just friends. I performed a guest lecture at my campus and I made sure that everyone was aware of something I learned in my fourteen years as a Consultant: every person you meet on campus is a potential connection. Students are truly lifelong connection that must be accounted for. Take this as an example: the person next to you in a classroom may be a Venture Capitalist in five years, and in five years, you may want to start a small business. What opportunity would you have missed if you did not simply get to know them?
IT’S NOT JUST STUDENTS!
Here is the part where many will disagree: I learned more from faculty than I ever did from academic work. I made friends with my professors, my advisors, and because I was active in the social scene, and I was able to cultivate relationships with faculty members. They guided me to a point where I was performing lectures in classes on topics I never once thought would become useful; I was a Peer Mentor; I was a mentor for Business students; I taught a class…my point is this: if you do things right, you can be on the other side of that classroom standing before a mass of students, and you, can engage in such accomplishments.
WHAT TO START DOING
Start dividing up your time. 50 percent is academic and 50 percent is extracurricular. This means being active in social organizations, attending career fairs, and making good use of the resources at your disposal. As an example, many campuses withhold student success resources that are far more transcendental than any service I could possibly provide. To be frank with you, I have been offered three (yes, three) job positions at my own campus through these programs, and it was simply because I took the time to meet with them, to know them, and to make an impression.
That is the true purpose of student success.
TO CONCLUDE THE CONCLUSION
I do offer Student Success Coaching, which I tend to express much, much more of my time to recently. I am finding more and more students need help with other aspects of the experience, including anxiety, peer pressure, harassment, and substance abuse. These are all areas I wholeheartedly work in, and I leave you with this: whether you are a parent, a student, or a faculty member, I urge you to visit this page and set up a day to chat with me. If you want to make the most out of your college experience, you must begin to activate on a neuronal level the opportunities colleges withhold. Do not hold back. Take this advice to heart.