As I continue to reflect on the things I have learned throughout my time in PLA, I was recently reminded during an accepted student program that I was helping with of another important lesson: use your resources as a first choice, not a last resort. While I wouldn’t say this lesson was solely taught to me through PLA, many of the conversations and opportunities I have had in PLA classes and activities has certainly demonstrated this idea to me further.
During this accepted student program, I was a panelist answering questions and providing insight into the Penn State student experience for high school seniors accepted specifically to my college, the College of Comm. Asthe program ended, they asked us each to go around and say one thing we wish we could tell our freshman self looking back on what we’ve learned. Having just spent the last 30 minutes telling these students about the endless opportunities I’ve had through Penn State and programs like PLA, I was quick to know that my piece of advice was make sure that you take advantage of all the opportunities presented to you, and use your resources to do so. I think this piece of advice was really important for me to share because I know that having the mindset of using resources as a good thing would have relieved a lot of stress for me in my first year of college.
When I first started as a freshman, I immediately got involved in a lot of clubs. One of them was Lion Scouts, and throughout training and still now while I give tours, I tell families all about the endless resources Penn State has to offer. But, when it came time for me to actually take advantage of them, for some reason I saw them as a last resort. Specifically in the context of landing a summer internship after freshman year, I thought that I needed to do it on my own. I don’t know exactly why I felt this way; maybe I thought that it wouldn’t mean as much if I didn’t “earn it” or that using connections was cheating and not fair, but what I learned really quickly is that part of why I love being a Penn State student so much is because of the people here, and that expands beyond just my current peers. There are so many alumni out there who truly want to help current students, and as I grow closer each day to my own graduation, I completely understand why; I know that when I’m an alumni, I’ll want to help current students in any way that I can too.
But freshman year Emily didn’t think like that, and I spent a good amount of time and undue stress trying to figure out how to get a summer internship and start building relevant experience when the only experience I had at the time were two or three broad communications courses. When I finally decided to seek out advice from my college’s internship office, I realized just how silly it was that I hadn’t gone there as my first step. They were so incredibly helpful in helping me narrow down the types of internships I was looking for, finding Penn State connections if there were any, and in reviewing my resume and cover letter before I applied. I knew immediately that I shouldn’t have seen seeking out help as a thing that meant I couldn’t do it on my own, but was rather an important step in taking advantage of the resources available to me.
I’m so grateful for my college, PLA, and Penn State as a whole for the resources that I’ve been able to take advantage of over the last four years, and all of the opportunities I have had because of them. I’m also glad that it only took two semesters for me to realize that it’s ok to ask for help when you need it, because resources are here for students for a reason!
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