Finding something you like to do is half the battle. While still in high school, this idea may seem far out of reach since most of your classes are not intended to inspire future career goals. Once you reach college, however, the skills you learn in the classroom can and will help you in future aspirations.

I find myself to be the perfect example of this notion. I am currently a senior at Penn State University with a major in Media Studies, which falls under the Communications school. A big focus of my major is media research. I have taken multiple classes where I have been asked to complete my own research project where I develop a hypothesis, create a study, find participants to participate in the study and finally interpret the results of the said study. This has all proven to be extremely useful in my “real world” endeavors.

Last summer, I interned with a minor league baseball team, the New Jersey Jackals. One of the interns’ responsibilities was to man the Fan Services booth and answer any and all questions that the fans might have. At the end of each game, we were asked to hand out questionnaires to fans in order to get their feedback on their game experience. Since I have been instructed, through my media research classes, on how to create a questionnaire, I noticed a few glitches on their questionnaire and notified my supervisor. I was then given the opportunity to create a new and improved handout using the skills I learned in the classroom.

The “Jack Pack”

In addition to just creating the questionnaire, I also assisted the front office in interpreting the results so that they could make changes to all reported inadequacies occurring in the stadium. I was one of the only interns that summer that was able to complete such a task and I attribute that largely to the knowledge that I acquired from my Penn State classes.

All in all, by not only being taught the best ways to conduct a study, but being asked to create one as well, has helped me in my internship and will continue to put me ahead of the competition for future job opportunities. Just remember, college is a place where memorization is not the key, but learning how to apply what you are learning is. I have experienced firsthand that learning comes from doing and I am so grateful for having such unique and wonderful opportunities to acquire such a strong knowledge base at Penn State University. For this and so much more I know I chose the right place to spend my last four years.