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My best advice would be to be open to seeing an adviser in the first place because I understand
it's hard to come in to a huge university with tons of students, and tons of faculty
and staff, and to feel like you have a voice and want to be heard. Some people can feel
lost on campus whereas advisers can feel like this beacon of hope and help you out with
all this different information you have to access and kind of interpret and I feel like
that's important for students to learn and then in later terms they can advocate for themselves.
One of the most important things i'll say to a first year student is don't feel shy,
or don't be intimidated just ask as many questions as you can. if you don't know where to go,
just ask someone and somehow or another you'll be able to find those resources.
While you're in school get some kind of professional experience, whether that's
in your career path or not. College is a great place to get your first job, maybe volunteer
somewhere, get internships or regular work experience in your career path. Taking advantage
of that opportunity is huge. You're building a huge network which can potentially lead
to jobs or other opportunities once you leave the university.
Well, I know that taking advantage of resources is really scary and the main thing we always
are telling people, like, either take a buddy or just go inside the space of the resource you
think you might need, because that's always the biggest deal of like I'm not really
comfortable with this space. So I know like I always try to get familiar with the space
or take a friend who has used the resource before
Refuse to be intimidated. PSU is a large campus and you're going to have lots of opportunites
to say "Oh, I could probably just not do this and hope that I'll have another opportunity
later." But the fact of the matter is if you don't so it now when it's right there
in front of your face, you're going to regret it later when you missed out on the chance
to do this, or gain this, or to learn this. So just refuse to be intimidated and take
everything in stride.