Does C.W. Post prepare students for the real world?
Kathleen Joyce
The goal of going to college is to be prepared for the real world of jobs and to learn about the fields students are going into. College also helps a student to grow into an adult and to choose the future that he or she wants for himself or herself. But does our college, C.W. Post, prepare us for these things? After we graduate, will we feel comfortable enough to submit our resumes into the hands of employers? Students feel the pressures of school and thinking about the future, but some feel that more can be done to prepare us.
Alumni and January 2011 graduate Elena DiMarco thinks Post prepared her for the real world and is happy to have gotten her education here. “As a journalism major, I definitely feel that Post prepared me for the outside world,” says DiMarco. “I had great teachers who pushed me to do my best work and made lifelong friends who continue to support and encourage me in all that I do.” DiMarco found her way into the workforce after graduating. “I have a part time job that is perfect for my current living and financial situation, and I wouldn’t have gotten it if I didn’t have the education and tools I received at Post.”
Alumni Wilbert Adams, who graduated in 1993 from Post with a Bachelors in Criminal Justice, reminisces about his time at Post. “It was a long time ago,” says Adams, “but I definitely liked the atmosphere at Post, and I still come to visit the school all the time.” He jokes that he never went into criminal justice after school and instead did public relations. “I bartend and serve right now. It’s not the school’s fault. It’s just what I wanted to do,” he says.
Recent Alumni Nick Parker, who graduated in May 2010, had nothing but nice things to say about Post. “I’ve learned, like John Mayer says, ‘there’s no such thing as the real world. It’s just life.’ Do I feel Post prepared me for life after college? Yes, and for one clear reason: You get out of it what you put in. I loved my broadcasting classes, and most of all, I found another home at WCWP, where I worked everyday of my college life, and now, I’m an On-Air Personality for Z100 New York and WALK 97.5, it’s a dream!”
Full-time student Dyana Buttacavoli, a public relations major, thinks Post could do more to prepare us for the job world. “I don’t think Post prepares us at all,” says Buttacavoli. “I’m terrified to start an internship/job in pubic relations because, after three and a half years of studying the field, I still feel like I don’t know anything about the major.”
Director of Graduate and Alumni Services Jason Cascone shares what the Career Development Office at Post does. “It’s a fairly new office with a new format. The new format will tell how we’re doing, since we’ve only been doing this for about a year now. We haven’t had enough students go through the process to get enough feedback. We would like to hope that they are [prepared]. It’s something the student has to look for on their own,” he explains. He goes on to say that it used to be the advisors that kept the students on track, but now, with the new format, it’s the students’ responsibilities to start their resumes and to figure out what they want to do with their degrees. The new format is a more “holistic” type of counseling.
The future starts here, but it doesn’t end here. Your professors and academic counselors can help point you in the right direction of your career path. C.W. Post now offers a course called Experience Enriched Education or EEE. The program meets once a week for four weeks and gets juniors and seniors acquainted with how to write a resume and what to do when going for a job interview. In this course, students are asked to sign up on a website called Jobnet.com, which helps a student individually find a job or internship in his or her field of study. Signing up has a fee, but the opportunities that could come are priceless. The idea of finding a job independently is a good thing; it teaches a person how to really be in the outside world. People won’t be walking with you hand in hand for your whole life; after high school, people are on their own. There is only so much that administrators can do for tehe good 10,000 students that are enrolled in the school. The only person you can depend on is yourself. The more you push forward, the farther you will get.
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