Life-Calling as a Required Course by Elizabeth

Life-Calling as a Required Course by Elizabeth - June 2018 Scholarship Essay

During my first semester at college, I decided not to select a major just yet, but to sign up for the pre-declared program instead while I figured out which school I should enter. As is required at my university for those without a major, I took the class called “Life Calling”, designed to help students learn more about themselves to see which major they would fit best. We spent most of our time taking personality tests, trying out different learning methods, and discussing the similarities and differences we discovered in ourselves and each other. At the end of the semester, all the info we compiled about ourselves was put into binders with essays we’d written about what we’d learned. This taught me so much about my own psychology and others’. However, I learned the most from the spring break trip that the program offered that was geared towards pre-declared students; it was funded by a local company and the purpose was to show students various jobs offered within a few of the larger cities nearest to the university. We toured the companies’ facilities, talked with employees in varying positions, and took special time to talk to managers of different departments and ask them what they looked for in job applicants. This trip opened my eyes to so many jobs I didn’t know existed, and then talking to the people who worked in these positions made me realize how normal it is to work a job you never considered while in college. I recalled my Life Calling studies and compared what I’d learned about myself with what these employees said about their work experiences, their strengths, and weaknesses. Doing this made me see college in a whole new way; I had been hesitant and apprehensive about choosing a major for fear of choosing the “wrong” one. Now I viewed getting a degree in Any program as a way to open doors that would otherwise be closed to me, not as a limitation to only one specific pathway. I think this is a very, very valuable lesson for young people to learn, and is something that I feel a majority of young people in school really struggle to rationalize. Many, dare I say most, of us, go through our college career with a totally inaccurate idea of ourselves and end up making life-changing decisions based on these inaccuracies. I would love to see Life Calling as a required course for all students because I believe it’s important in one’s college experience to learn as much as you can about yourself so you know how and especially why you act and think the way you do. I also think it’s vital for a student to see working people in action so they have a more grounded idea of what working a job looks like, and so they can learn to respect people in all positions within a workplace.