As a Jindal Career Management Center career advisor, I work with students each day who are going to college classes, hanging with friends, preparing for tests and just trying to figure out how to make it all work. Admittedly, it is a big transition from high school, where, although there was some free time, things were planned and required more often than not. In college, it is up to you.
I know a new alumnus, Fredi Garcia, who graduated with a BS in Global Business degree last May. Fredi did these things too, but he also did more than was expected. Not only did he do more, he took risks and stepped out of his comfort zone to reach heights that he never imagined. He took a college assignment and pushed further.
After a paper he had submitted was initially declined, Fredi reworked it several times with a professor, resubmitted it and saw his research published in the Journal of Technology Management in China. He presented his paper at an academic conference of professors at Harvard University and at the Cambridge (England) Business and Economics Conference last July.
After that, he worked on another research paper discussing global business, strategic management, global strategies and what multinational corporations need to do; not only to sustain but also to maintain a competitive advantage over their competitors. He applied and was accepted to present the new paper at the 13th Global Conference on Business and Economics (GCBE) held in Oxford, England, last November.
Fredi has a quiet demeanor and is the first person from his family to graduate from college. He is a role model for his generation and all those to follow. He visited me numerous times in the career management center to ensure he and his résumé were more than ready for interviews. He took feedback and worked hard to improve, and he received a full-time job offer with the management trainee program at Sherwin-Williams before his graduation.
Was he scared? Yes.
Did that stop him? No!
Go for it. Do it! Reach greater unexpected heights, just like Fredi Garcia did.
