Carpe IU

My brother is a Purdue graduate. He moved to Dallas last Wednesday to begin his career at a construction firm as an assistant project manager. A typical start for any fresh graduate, right? Not so typical is that with only one preliminary interview and a couple of tanks of gas, he drove to Texas a few weeks earlier without any hesitation and came back needing to sign an apartment lease and with a big shiny number to show his family.\nThere is a lesson to be learned in this approach. IU is known far and wide as a great institution for higher education. In its 2007 rankings of top national universities U.S. News & World Report placed IU in the 70th position. There is no doubt that a diploma from our esteemed university can go a long way in the business world. \nHowever, a piece of paper bearing the letters "I" and "U" will only take us so far. What we get out of our degree both depends on what we put into it while at school, and how assertive we can be in a job hunt.\nHomework can be completed relatively quickly and without much effort in many instances at IU. The same is true of passing certain classes. The fact that in those certain classes I could have passed with a high grade having never cracked open the textbook, is no fault of my professors or assistant instructors. They are only able to test us on the most important material, which they have concentrated on in lecture. The fault lies (and it most certainly is a fault) with the student who chooses not to crack that book. Passing means little when an employer asks you to apply a skill practically, and the best you can do is spout off a theory verbatim from what your professor told you.\nAnd of course when graduation rolls around, seizing the day or "carpe diem" should remain a key focus of all alumni attempting to make it in the business world. The astonishing aspect about seizing the day for alumni from IU (or any other major university for that matter), is the ability to go and achieve goals so readily -- with a little initiative and the quiet confidence that comes with knowing one graduated from an institution that prepared that person for a wide variety of complicated situations.\nSo as all of us, freshmen to graduate students, make our way through the everyday interaction with academia that IU provides, remembering that our hard work will eventually pay off, no matter how thankless our efforts seem now, should drive us to success. Taking on work that will result in the betterment of education, interacting as is intended with the material presented in classes and having a little fortitude in attempting to find jobs, internships or other opportunities will result in a more marketable resume. Opportunities are always around at IU academically, socially and economically. Carpe diem.