Diploma Diversity: On the Ivy-Covered Fence
By Cassaundra Brooks
Many parents frequently urge their children to attend college, stressing the importance of education and perhaps pointing out key benefits, such as better jobs and higher wages. However, many high school students have restrictive visions of academic life. They expect college to be all work or all play: a chance to build a better life, or a chance to put off responsibility for a few years. With these mindsets, they fail to realize the momentous potential of the opportunity that lies before them.
Balance is key. “Experimenting” has gained such a negative connotation that parents threaten, caution, or beg their college-bound teenagers to play it safe. But experimentation can be a wonderful thing.
Experiment with classes! High schools demand the basic subjects, but colleges throw the door wide open to areas that students never before have had a chance to explore. Occasionally, college freshmen have considered their majors, but even so, minds can change. Say, for example, you enter college as a biology major. Perhaps your interest in the subject deepens with each class you take. But there is also a good possibility that one of two things will happen: you discover you don’t like biology after all, or you find your interests slipping away toward an entirely new area that you may have never before considered or even heard of. Five of my friends who focused on psychology had each begun college with a different major. Another graduated with a degree in speech pathology, something she knew little about before our sophomore year. Degree programs should contain room for sampling new classes. Just make certain you stay on track with your core classes so as not to fall behind.
Experiment with extracurriculars! Follow your love of reading to the Literary Club, or your affinity for airplanes to the Aviation Club. Do you like sports, but aren’t a star athlete? Try intramurals, or club sports. Maybe you don’t know much about sailing or Latin dances, but what better way to learn about such activities than testing out a no-pressure organization or club that accepts all levels of experience? Whatever your points of humanitarian or environmental concern, you can usually find an organization in which to volunteer. Interested in politics? Run for student government. It is important to tailor your college experience to yourself as an individual. Music, theater, art; history, science, math, English; religion, politics, sports, medicine; there is something for everyone.
Experiment with programs! Studying abroad may just be one of the most underappreciated college experiences. For people who have never before traveled outside the country, traveling abroad might sound a little scary or overwhelming. However, nothing can take its place. Thankfully, many universities offer a variety of programs, and some students do just as well planning a trip on their own. Typically, you can choose from a long list of destinations and time spans. Go for a semester. Go for a summer. Go for spring break. Just go. You not only see, taste, and hear magnificent new things, but you also meet fascinating people, open your eyes and mind to other cultures, and create within yourself a stronger sense of independence and personal strength. And start early in your college career, because the longer you wait, the harder it is to make it work with your schedule—and you just may want to take more than one trip!
Internships are another fabulous way to gain life experience. Whether you decide to continue on with school after your first degree or choose instead to join the work force immediately, you eventually will need to secure a steady full-time job. Of course, you will want to use the education you just spent years (and a fortune) acquiring, but the degree you earned often constitutes only part of your appeal to potential employers. Depending on your desired field and position, you will also need experience. Internships provide a means of gaining that experience with little inconvenience to you. Internships can be a foot in the door, and can help you eliminate or highlight jobs of interest. If you are so fortunate as to obtain a paid internship, wonderful! But if not, though you may have loans out or bills to pay, taking an unpaid internship while still in school is far more practical than trying to once you’re out.
And if traditional academic education does not appeal to you? Your parents may dream about you becoming a doctor or a teacher, but you long to work as a mechanic, a massage therapist, or a chef. In fact, aren’t you the one your parents and friends call on to help fix the car, or rewire the stereo when they blow out the speakers? Trade schools offer education, training, and experience in multiple areas. In addition, students are prepared to step out into the job market with confidence and a set of skills that make them valuable to potential employers—as well as to themselves, with a rather nice salary. There’s always a demand for tradespeople. Who’s going to call an economics major to solve their plumbing problems? And as long as there’s electricity, people are going to need electricians.
Everyone is different. We all have our own interests and personalities, strengths and weaknesses. Use your education not only to secure your financial future, but also to learn about and strengthen yourself, to build your confidence, and to help you capitalize on your interests and talents. Use it to learn about other people. The rewards are great, and you will have shaped yourself into a person who is positioned to benefit the lives of others and make your mark on the world.