The leaves are changing color, papers are due every other day and we have a presentation due next week that we haven’t even started (sorry professor). Sounds like we’re right in the middle of the semester. Often, it’s hard to remember that in the heart of this chaos, we still have a support system. It’s our professors, the ones who’ve constructed their entire career around the betterment of their students.
I’ve been fortunate enough to reach out to some of my most inspiring professors to ask, “What advice would you give your students?” This is what they had to say.
Joel N. Penney:
One piece of advice I would give to students is to develop a curiosity about the world around them. For instance, reading up on news or on a certain subject just for fun, or because you find it interesting, and not just because it’s for an assignment or someone else told you to do it. Curiosity can lead to all kinds of new ideas, opportunities, and pathways in one’s life and career – it’s also seen as a key attribute that contributes to productivity and success.
Here’s a link that talks about these ideas a bit more!
Larry Weiner:
The best advice I could give any student, or person for that matter, would be . . . so the world is made of two types of people: the doers and the talkers. Most of the people in this world are talkers, they never back up what they say with action. So, if you really wanna get ahead in this life, be a doer. If you promise that you’ll do something, make sure you do it. If you promise to do something by a specific time and date make, sure it’s done (At least by that time and date, if not earlier.) If you can actually master doing things that you promise to do, do them well, and even a little ahead of deadline, you can conquer the world.
Devon Gifis:
One piece of advice I always give my students is “Make a difference, not a statement.” I mean this in regards to doing something to gain attention, that does necessarily make changes. For instance, in 2015 a student from Missouri State University went on a hunger strike to raise awareness about racism on campus. His hunger strike did nothing but bring attention to himself, it didn’t stop racism. Instead of going on a hunger strike, he could have formed a Diversity Committee that would be charged with raising awareness, educating students, etc.
The other piece of advice I give students is that no job is beneath you. Each job is a stepping stone to your next job. You will learn something from each experience that you can use in your next job experience. Sometimes we have to pay our dues and work the dirty jobs to earn our way up to the glamorous ones.
I hope these tidbits of advice helped you in one way or another. These life lessons are only a fraction of the many things your professors can provide you with, trust me. They’re a resource for much more than an extension on next week’s paper.
Now, take this and go to office hours the next time you can. You never know what you’ll learn.