What to Do to Ensure Your Future: A Professor’s Excellent Advice

By Kelly Kinas ‘17

Professors. We all have them. We’ve had the good, the bad, the ugly, the monotone, the foreign accent, the adorable. The crazy thing is how none of us really keep in contact with them after we take the final.

I had the pleasure of leading multiple retreats for the New Members of all the Panhellenic Sororities on campus for my position as Vice President of New Member Education for the USC Panhellenic Council. This specific retreat was on October 5th with Professor Steven Lamy, the Vice Dean of the Dornsife School of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. 

Professor Lamy had some fantastic advice for the new members, so much so that I thought it was important to share with the entire student body. So here we go. What can you do to make sure your future is the best possible?

1. You need to participate in class

While some people think Professors are only caught up in themselves and their subject, PROFESSORS NOTICE EVERYTHING. If you’re on your phone, THEY KNOW. If you didn’t do the reading, THEY KNOW. From Professor Lamy, they know you didn’t do all of the reading. The least you can do is do one and ask a question about it to start class. Professors like it when you can talk about the readings and keep the class interactive. Do some of the reading. Go to office hours. The professors is offering them. Use them to your advantage.

2. Why? Your professor is a resource. 

What a lot of people don’t understand is that professors are great resources. Need a recommendation on an internship? Your professors probably know some people who could help you. Need a letter of recommendation to go abroad (WHICH YOU DO)? You need professors who will be able to speak to your attributes and know you as a person. Need a professional in their field to help you in any way? YOU HAVE UP TO 5 OF THEM A SEMESTER. LET THEM HELP YOU. 

3. Get a five year plan started now

You need to know where you’re going. Are you going to Graduate School? Are you going to apply for a grant or scholarship? Make sure you know how to get there. So many people have no idea where they want to go AND THAT IS TOTALLY CHILL. But just recognize that you need to go somewhere. Know that you want to go into Corporate Law but don’t want to go to Law School yet? There are a lot of programs that you can apply for that will take up that gap year and give your resume that extra POP.

4. You NEED a mentor

Whether it is a professor, an employer, or an older student, you need a mentor to help you through these difficult decisions. Someone who is intelligent, someone who has made these decisions before, or someone that you admire. A mentor will be able to lead you through the decisions that we all have to make at some point. You don’t have to go through it without guidance. This person needs to know how you dress your hamburger.

With these small little tips, you can change what your future will look like. Take the time to talk to your professors. Get a mentor. Make a five year plan. 

Fight on!