College is a truly transformative experience for most students. It’s a unique time during which young adults are able to endure the process of growing up in a nurturing environment. When many students get comfortable with their college life, they fall into the mundane pattern of focusing on class, social activities, and sleep. Although these are all essential aspects of college life – and believe me, I engage in them often – college is also the time to plan for the future. Although the future may seem like a foreign concept to the majority of students, the reality is that college ends pretty quickly. One day you’re driving to campus with your parents to move into your freshman dorm in South Quad, and the next day you’re organizing stoles and decorating your graduation cap. When college does come to an end, it should be a bittersweet moment in which students realize that, although they’ve grown to love the life they’ve known for four years, they’re on to better things in the future.
Before students make it to graduation, they need to make sure that they’re spending enough time in college planning for an excellent future. There are three steps that DePauw students, and students in general, can take to help ensure a great future.
- Take advantage of amazing professors. As a DePauw student, we are fortunate enough to go to a small school where it’s very easy to build strong relationships with professors. Make sure you reach out to professors in general, but especially the ones who are in the same career field you’re interested in. They have a lot of experience, connections, and advice for how to be successful.
- Join clubs and organizations that will help you in the future. Claiming that you’re busy is not a good enough excuse to not be involved at all on campus. We’re all busy managing everything that college throws at us, but it’s important to find the time to actually practice your passions and potential career interests. No one is asking you to overcommit yourself to ten organizations, but you should find at least one organization to join that makes sense for your life goals. For example, if you’re planning to be a radio announcer, you should be involved in WGRE. If you’re planning to be a poet, you should be involved in Enlightened Voices. If you’re a person of color and planning to be a medical professional, you should be in SOCIS (Students of Color in Stem). The list goes on and on, people!
- Network, network, network. Make sure that beyond getting to know your professors, you’re also getting to know your classmates. Step out of your comfort zone and build a relationship with the person who sits behind you in class that you never speak to. A lot of DePauw students will end up being very successful in life. Don’t waste your time not getting to know the next president of the United States who could be sitting next to you in geometry.