Work piling up? Social situations got you down? Feeling an overall sense of “eh?” Now that we’re all settled (somewhat) into the academic year, I think could use a pep talk, right? Who better to give it to us straight then WashU’s Her Campus’ favorite guest speaker, motivational speaker and coolest teach off campus (way off campus) University of Colorado’s Corey Ciocchetti, who is here to ring in the school year and rev you up for your best year yet! The best part is it doesn’t stop here. Read below as Corey gives us the Commencement speech of a lifetime, literally.
Welcome fellow students,
First timers to fourth years I invite you, congratulate you, and challenge you to take on this new year with one important word in mind: character. It may seem cheesy and trite, but actually “character” is the most applicable term that defines your four (or more) years at college. It’s what helps to find your academic, social, and professional self on campus and allows you to take your developed character farther than the safe grounds of WashU into the uncertain world that you could all seize if you let it.
Remember this is your last days of adolescence. This doesn’t mean after WashU you can’t play beer pong on occasion or participate in flash mobs, but this is the last time you have that community security blanket so closely tucked around you. Put it into perspective: if you get caught on campus with flagrant alcohol abuse, you could get any number of slaps on the wrists, but in the real world you could get any number of drinking infractions that can cost you money or jail time. Now is the time to improve your character. Start to make excellent decisions and not so-so ones.
Take care in our studies, don’t just memorize, monkeys can do that. Consider Bloom’s taxonomy of learning, you need to evaluate, analyze and synthesize information you come in contact with, not just blindlessly regurgitate it (doesn’t that sound awful anyway?). It’s a lot more beneficial to use the higher level of thinking than just memorizing, I figured out that the hard way. Once I got to law school, I realized I didn’t know anything about anything because I spent my undergrad years memorizing information on cruise control.
Start taking life seriously. Buy some professional clothes for interviews; you’ll be glad you start your closet now before you panic when an impromptu business opportunity or informational interview comes your way. Be a professional in the way you dress, think, and speak. The more you practice in college, the more it can pay off for you. Hand in your papers with dignity, proof read them two more times than normal to catch the ones that almost got away, build good habits like this and you won’t be the one telling the sad story at the bar of how you got fired for sending out a memo with a careless typo.
Seek out the teachers and people that interest you, stand out to them, go to their office hours, and contribute more in a way that will make you memorable enough to get an outstanding recommendation. Don’t be discouraged if your resume doesn’t have a ton of content, work to make it look right. Always be professional. This all goes back to character and I know it’s hard to realize, but we all are a part of something bigger, way bigger than ourselves and yeah it extends further than our friend groups, further than our colleges, and even further than our sororities and fraternities.
“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together,” this comes from an old African proverb and it holds a universal truth. If we capitalize on this idea of character and strengthen it throughout the year we can do great things, jumpstart our life, and find our path. You all may be in different classes, but you all are a part of the same generation and the character of the generation depends on each of us. Like Gandhi says, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” so why not start today?