In my freshman year of college I started my first paid internship. I am now a graduating senior and I have over four years of experience with top entertainment companies listed on my resume. To me, those years I spent interning were my training grounds – those years were basically my college.
Interning can go both ways, you can find yourself being the coffee girl or you can find yourself going above and beyond expectations, acquiring hands-on experience and skills.
In addition to on the job experience and social skills, you also gain a great network. This is imperative if you want a link to that dream job. When you are an intern, there are countless people who are willing to help you. You have ample opportunity to speak to professionals and have one on one informational meetings to ask anything you like – whether it’s how that person got to where they are, what their responsibilities are, or even just advice on how to move forward in your own career. Interning can open doors for you. It truly is an invaluable experience.
Now, here is where my question comes in: What am I still doing in school? My experience was done without the help of college. So, at the moment I don’t really see a great return on school with all the costs I’m incurring. There are a lot of costs associated with college. Is it really worth it?
People expect you to focus on school, graduate with high honors, or major in subjects that result in “in-demand, high-paying” jobs, and as a student, you can trick yourself to thinking you need those things.
But in reality, sometimes what’s best is for you to just follow your own heart and go with the flow of what is thrown at you. School can be a hindrance from achieving success or even “harshing your mellow.”
I meet so many students who say with disgust, “she can’t meet for group projects because of her work schedule” or professors who generalize about student’s jobs and say, “put school first, work comes second.” This creates a connotation that working while in school is a bad thing or not possible to do.
Ever since day one, we have been taught that college is going to take us places. But, what truly is an education? You can learn useful things almost anywhere. Is everything that is taught in school really the cream of the crop in what one learns? Are all those things useful in the real world? Is getting an A because you crammed the night before only to forget the information the moment you bubble in that letter on the scantron truly learning?
I view college as a business. Students are paying a lot of money for a degree that is supposed to give us a good-paying job. But now, they say a degree isn’t enough.
You have to differentiate yourself through experience, awards, activities, and volunteering. How can one be well rounded and succeed? The burden seems to be all on the student and how well they can balance their load.
The one thing college is supposed to help students with the most is getting a job. Bring tuition and textbook prices down so we don’t have to add student debt to our list of things to worry about after graduation on top of finding a good paying job. Teach us significant information such as execution, and not just theory, so we know what to do when we are in a real job.
Make students feel like college is actually worth something other than the meaningless bureaucracy that it appears to be. Show us how we can do it all and have it all as college is supposed to do. Otherwise it’s not helping us; it’s hindering us. Isn’t college supposed to help us get a job, not keep us from one?
Patricia Gamus is a senior business major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
