The empowering endgame

Colin Hannifin
Columnist

I love VCU.  What strikes me most is its diversity.  Not the kind of diversity you can simplify into demographic numbers – though those are impressive – but the diversity of minds.

VCU has allowed me to meet individuals with new and exciting thoughts and ideas. I’ve been blown away by the people I’ve met here, but one over-arching question about the student body has always left me wondering: Are VCU students preparing for the next stage of their lives?

I’m not sure.

VCU is an incredibly diverse place. At any given time, we can go watch our peers become someone else on a stage, unmask themselves at a poetry reading, put their soul on show at a gallery. We are, as a university, filled with incredible and undeniable talent and potential.

The question is: What’s next? What’s next, after college? I fear that a lot of students don’t know that answer. As a generation, we’ve been sold the idea that a college diploma is a sure-fire way to a good job and happy life, but we’re quickly learning that it’s not so simple. In the process, we’re racking up student debt that we’ll be paying off for years.

Many VCU students, and other students around the nation, are lacking any concept of an endgame: a plan of what they want to get out of college, not only personally, but also professionally. I know too many students who are counting on the ability to get a job after they graduate, diploma in hand, instead of finding a job now, instead of building up experiences in internships, saying “no” to challenges and opportunities to have a free Saturday night instead.

This is extremely disappointing, because there is no better place to study something with a job after college. For instance, I am an accounting major, and have a full time job lined up for next fall, after graduation. But my major hasn’t determined my every collegiate action – because of the diversity and sheer size of VCU, I’ve been able to participate in non-accounting things in a casual manner. I don’t have to be an English major to enjoy reading and discussing the classics or a music major to appreciate orchestras.

We’ve all been sold the idea that college is a place to discover and define ourselves, but not at the expense of our future. Too many of us are piling up student debt for the ability to party and live the “college life.” Many of us have incredible opportunities right in front of us, but don’t take it. It’s crippling both ourselves and our generation.

I beseech you to take a step back and consider your endgame. After you walk across that stage, and have that diploma in hand, where will you be? What are you going to do? If you are relying on a job just opening for you, an uncle with a business, or your old retail gig, you aren’t preparing for the future. Instead, look at yourself, and what you want to do, and find a way to do it.

Every degree doesn’t need to end in a cubicle, but to be worth the tens of thousands of dollars we are paying, it does need to allow you a job and a future. Take those internships and those tougher classes, because those will pay off in the long run. The responsibility isn’t on the university, it’s on us as students. Sure, we can live for today, but we can’t forget about tomorrow.