The Nun and the Rockstar: Lessons in Captivating an Audience
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We can take inspiration from witnessing the methods employed by the greats. Hence the mysterious title, the nun and the rockstar. Stick with me.
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Coping
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It’s important to develop ways of coping when you’re down. I suppose each method will be unique to the individual, the situation, and the options available. But here’s a quick list of some of the coping methods I’ve used over the years… I hope they might be helpful to anyone out there who’s stuck in the doldrums, as I have been.
Read MoreTV and the Over-Committed Student
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TV will not help you with your studies.
It will not build a network.
It will not provide those once-in-a-lifetime stories college years should provide.
All that being said, I still believe that college students should watch TV.
Read MoreWhat I learned taking college classes in prison
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I spent hundreds of hours in the Oregon State Penitentiary, first as a student, then as a teacher’s assistant and program coordinator. But that first day, on entering the prison, that Dostoevsky quote was certainly on my mind. What did this massive building say about our society? And how would I fit into the smaller microcosm of the classroom?
Read MoreHow On-Campus Jobs Transformed My Student Experience
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I would encourage all college students to think broadly about their job options at college. Consider what interesting things you might witness on the catering team for your university events company. Think boldly about how your skills might apply in various departments on campus—research, IT, writing, organizing, networking, etc. Be careful, of course, to maintain your focus on your academic goals. But get out there and find out just how broad your opportunities are.
Read MoreThe Benefits of being a "Broke College Student"
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It is both cliché and generally accurate to assume that most college students don’t have much money lying around. This can be a serious limitation during your college years (and, with student debt, possibly a debilitating factor later), but it can also be a hidden opportunity.
If you learn to live on less for your daily expenses, then while you’re in college and for the rest of your life you’ll be able to prioritize the things that are actually important to you.. You choose your own priorities.
Read MoreHow's College?
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"How's college?" Is just about the worst question you can possibly be asked as a college student. The answers are just too complicated. But you will be asked, and so you need an answer, and a strategy. Here's a place to start…
Read MoreSmall Town, Small School, Big Opportunities--Guest Post by Rebecca Rothkopf
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One of the most beautiful things about going to school in a rural area is the strong connections that form between students, faculty, and staff members. Stellar academic work and students actively involved in extracurriculars really do get noticed. The purpose of college is to challenge yourself and grow. The faculty and staff get that, and can serve as a solid support system if you are willing to reach out.
Read MoreChore avoidance technique No. 37
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Student life is taken up with a series of exciting opportunities and new ideas. It’s all about the classes, homework, networking, writing, researching, friendships, relationships, events on campus, and all the clubs and sports and opportunities you can cram into your days. You’ve got four years for all the fun and personal development you can possibly cram into that time.
And, of course, there’s all the time-demanding stuff that’s way less fun as well—the stuff that comes with being a grown-up person in the world.
Read MoreReading for Fun as a College Student
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For those who truly love reading for pleasure, college can be a bit of a shock to the system as they suddenly have to re-calibrate all the reading they would like to be doing with the reading they have to be doing. Sometimes, of course, these will overlap: some assigned readings have proven to be life-changing texts for me, and ones I have carried with me and re-read over the years.
Read MoreAttending campus events
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Here's easy advice for attending campus events: go. Go as often and as attentively as possible. Your campus will offer lectures from visiting scholars; academic conferences; book launches; student-led events and speakers; political talks and rallies; and so much more. Never again are you likely to be surrounded by so much action, and for so little cost in anything but your time.
Read MoreBe careful what you write...
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Once you’ve “put something in writing,” it becomes a powerful tool that can be interpreted and misinterpreted in all kinds of ways you might not intend at the time. I’m not talking about rude YouTube comments or other semi-anonymous online places (although I wish people would act more reasonably in those communities as well). Specifically, I’m talking about what you write as a student in your emails, texts, and facebook messages to the other people in your life.
Read MoreResolutions
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I don’t believe in resolutions for a new year. But I do believe in setting goals, particularly goals that are on a specific timeline and that have achievable stages to completion. And, since January marks the start of a new semester for most students, it’s a good time to make some new goals for the upcoming period of time.
Read MoreThanksgiving far from home
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When I came home for Thanksgiving my freshman year of college, it was the first time I really experienced going back home after being away. I had previously gone on family vacations, or a couple of week-long adventures of other kinds and then come home. But moving to college is moving away, and the experience of returning was a very strange one for me.
Read MoreWriting things down
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You will want to remember your college years. Good, bad, complicated, inspiring, whatever. You will someday want to remember who you were hanging out with sophomore year and how it happened that the whole gang ended up at a hot springs in the middle of the night that one time. The good and the bad, both.
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