The world is filled with opportunities, and I never truly realized this more in my life than I do now as I am almost graduating. The first main thing you should do by your senior year is create your LinkedIn profile. This allows you to connect with people, and most jobs or graduate programs will view your profile, so get that out of the way. Your school should have opportunities or some portal you could look through for jobs or internships, like St. Edward’s has Handshake. Attend the career fairs that your school offers because those are great ways to network with people, and see what different opportunities are available for your major type. Many companies have jobs that seek an array of majors and backgrounds, which I learned primarily through career fairs. A career fair is actually where I learned my path, and figured out I want to continue studying so I can become a nurse practitioner. I am reapplying to St. Edward’s in hopes to attend the nursing program to get my BSN. I then want to return and get my MSN to become a nurse practitioner. My biggest obstacle right now is starting my personal statement. This is typical for any post-graduation application, and it is basically an essay you write telling why you want to go to the school of choice, and/or why you want to pursue that concentration of study. It is hard to answer that question and hone in on a concise answer. I am starting off by throwing ideas out as to why I want to pursue nursing at St, Edward’s, and then I will clean it up from there. It seems as though answering why you want to do something for the rest of your life would come intuitively, but it really is extremely hard to articulate the answer and make the answer different from what everyone else would say. Something else that is recommended that I am going to be taking advantage of is getting some experiential learning in before you make your way into your post-graduation schooling. For example, I will be doing a summer internship with a familiar OB/GYN to see what that specialty is like and if it is my passion. It is great to immerse yourself in the setting you think you want to be in so you do not waste your time. Most of all, keep your mind open to all options that come your way and seek out different opportunities, and do not be scared or intimidated for what may come next. The fear of the future can overcome you and hinder you.
