We hear students say all the time, “I am not sure if I am in the right major.” Sometimes students are not even sure they are in the right school. How do we as educators help them discover themselves? College, for many students, is a journey of self-discovery. They leave high school as seniors with great expectations for an adult life; that fulfills their dreams and a job that fulfills their material needs. In this changing economy with greater competition for those great jobs many students are graduating feeling like little fish drowning in an oil filled sea.
We fail these students when we prepare them only for the test. We fail them when we only give them the material for the class. As educators we have a fiduciary responsibility to teach our students to think for themselves. We need to give them the skills to problem solve, the freedom to take calculated risks, and the ability to be creative. Walt Disney, Beethoven, Einstein were all creative out of the box thinkers.
However, they were also loners. The other gift we can give our students is the gift of networking. Teach them that school is not only about the information, but also about the connections you make there. We encourage students to have independent thought, but in doing so we can neglect the importance of team building skills. Successful people get ahead based more on who they know than what they know. Ask any politician or CEO why they play golf.
It is easy in academia to forget how the real world works. We are isolated in our research. We have to work hard to stay current on trends in our field. Some colleges will not even hire instructors who have not been working in their field over the last five years. It is not enough anymore to just have the appropriate number of credit hours in the subject area you teach. You need education coupled with experience, so why would we send our students out in to the world without offering them the same skills?
Many colleges have incorporated elements of internship into their graduate requirements. Many students are lucky enough to turn these internships into full time jobs later. It is the ideal connection between education, experience and networking. It is important that colleges are combining these with real live advisors who can mentor the student during this process.
We need to also strive to incorporate these real life experiences in each individual classroom, so that our students are reaching out to the community. They are expanding their horizons and in doing so they are also helping to do the outreach work for the college that brings new students back through our doors.
There is no better public relations than word of mouth. It is our job as instructors to help the students promote themselves. It is our job to promote the college. What better way to do those two things than showing the world the product we produce and allowing them to experience the brilliance of their education as they glean experience.
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