The Career Services Center is a great tool for any and every student to utilize!  Programs such as LinkedIn, resume workshops, career counselors, peace corps, and programs to help prep students for life after college in the employment field are all available.  As soon as you walk through the doors, the entire staff are extremely helpful.  Just tell them what you are there for and they will guide you in the right direction.

LinkedIn is a way for current students to connect with alumni in different career fields from all over the country.  It allows students to ask questions and gain an idea of what they may or may not want to do in the future.  The resume workshops and tutors are there to help students improve their resumes and give a great impression to possible employers right from the get go.  They will answer any and all questions for you, and sit  down and work on it with you.  An impressionable resume is essential to any job interview!

The career counselors appear to be absolutely wonderful (especially for DUS majors like me) ! Students can walk in at any time during hours to speak to a counselor.  Then you discuss what your interested in, what you are and were involved in, and what you see yourself possibly doing.  Afterwards the two of you examine a list of possible careers, based on that conversation.

Located within the Bank of America Career Services Center is also a Peace Corps advisor and representative. If you are interested in traveling the world and volunteering/ philanthropy, the Peace Corps can make it happen.  There are  many different options and ways to become involved and to take action.  If you have any questions or wish to explore deeper into a certain aspect, feel free to talk to the representative. Her door is always open.

The programs available for student prep include seminars and advice on how to dress for success, interviewing, taking advantage of career days, info on government employment, Nittany lion networking, using online resources, managing your presence, requesting references, and job search methods.

With a Penn State education, degree, and utilization of the Career Services Center, a job offer won’t be far from graduation!

For more info, check out their website at http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/career/

Around here there are three very popular ways to get the down-low on what is happening on and off campus: 1) Daily Collegian, 2) Onward State, and 3) Penn State News. All three provide students and the community of State College, PA all they should know about events, activities and what is up and coming here, on campus and downtown! Yet, each are different.  Neither of the three, all provide ALL of the same information.  You may be looking for information about THON on Penn State News and realize that you can only find updates within Onward State.  Or perhaps you like to hold a physical copy of your morning paper, then the Daily Collegiate would be the best bet for you (especially if you are a student- its FREE with a swipe of your handy-dandy student ID).  Plus all three websites provide an easily accessible search box, that allows anyone to look up specific articles…saving your time from sifting through the archives of ‘What’s Going On at Penn State’.

The Daily Collegian (accessible digital and print) provides information on every sport from football to club,  a section completely devoted to the Arts, and columns written by students for students in the Opinions section.  You can find featured photos from almost any and all events that occur on campus or off, and read top stories being talked about across University Park, and see advertisements for businesses around campus~

Onward State offers information and updates on a wide range of topics: THON, Athletics, Sandusky Scandal, Student Life, Downtown, and much more!  The homepage alone provides articles about the most popular and relevant information.  I can even find information about new clubs on campus- never heard of before.  Plus a list of hot spots downtown, deals on apartment and other living options through their advertisements, and order food from favorite late night food places!

Penn State News has a more structured design to it.  There, you can find helpful updates, tools and info on research happening or completed, news in academics, campus life, impact of the school, athletics, administrations, and arts and entertainment happening on campus or downtown.  Plus readers are given the option to narrow their searches by campus or college.  Here, you could even find articles about the world outside of our Penn State community.

Ultimately any of these three resources have the potential to open your eyes to something new, and then give you all the information you need to know.  But you will never know, unless you look!

The Information Cycle I attended on Monday was much more helpful than  I had ever expected.   Amanda’s tips and guidelines showed me ways to make writing research papers much simpler, and stress free.  I will definitely be taking advantage of the topic tool, to help me explore and narrow my writing ideas down.  The Library Open House was even more beneficial as I got to explore several of the floors, and other branches of the library on campus.  I gained knowledge about the different resources available to me as a Penn State student.  Such as the study rooms and how to make a reservation for a room, also about the Tech Tutors to show me how to use different programs.  I found where to make videos for a class, and a room where I can practice making a public speech.  The most interesting library I visited was the News and Microforms Library!  What was most surprising was how preserved and how far back the library keeps newspapers, films, and articles in history.  Plus how easily transferable those documents could be put onto a flash drive or moved into your email.

The Library Open House didn’t take too long and it was a great way to learn my way around the two parts of the Library, as well as venture off to other parts of the campus that I haven’t seen yet.  In the end, I got a new water bottle, and another t-shirt to remember the day!

The first two weeks as a Penn State University student have been a whirlwind of emotions.  Living in a new place, without your family and knowing absolutely no one is terrifying!  My first two days were the worst. I talked to no one- literally. It can be hard to meet new people, sometimes.  But after our floor dinner, and before convocation, I finally began to come out of my shell a little bit.  I found out that I wasn’t the only one feeling lonely and kinda depressed.

Finding my way around campus was not as scary as I had made it out to be, and neither were the classes- most of them at least.  Homework started to come in, and so did the stress.  But after the first weekend and making some great friends, I began to relax some more.

This second week has gone by even faster, and now I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year has in store!