But, why college?

I went to my old high school to spend the day talking to students about my career choices; I did the unconventional thing: I chose to go to college right after high school even though I had the capability of going to university. This experience led me to gain work experience, and then I decided to take the plunge into university. I want to get rid of the stigma that college means you aren't good enough to get into a university. Stop it. The fact that you persevered through high school and made it anywhere says that you've got the ability to be successful in whatever you choose to do.

I don't know if I impacted anyone with my talk; I don't know that I can make it possible to "change their mind" on how they see the educational pathways, but hey, I was given an opportunity, so I better try to give back before being bitter about the system. After all, I don't want to be the one to ask why we're lacking interest towards the educational stream without even attempting to try and help clear misconceptions.

I was asked a fair question, and that was "after everything you've said, what are the reasons that you chose college? What's the disconnect that made you choose one over the other?" For why I chose college, there were financial reasons, wanting to know faculty and be known on a first name basis, class sizes that worked well, and to better understand why there's such a discouragement coming from the engineering-from-college aspect. Disconnect, though? It's not that one institution had a more-correct approach at teaching, or the other one just didn't encompass what I wanted. The whole idea of a disconnect in this situation is something that's perceived differently by everyone. I don't know how I can answer that question in a satisfying manner aside from the fact that I chose college, because I thought I could make it work for me and my future. That's it. It wasn't because I couldn't get into a university of my choice and it wasn't because someone told me I'm better off making that decision for my intended career path. Regardless of the path you choose, you're in a competitive playing field and you need to make an impression to be remembered.

I'm still dealing with people who evaluate skill level based on the pieces of paper framed on a wall. When you walk into a job interview, what's the hiring factor? As an employer did you pick me strictly because I had "University/ College of XYZ" on it, or because I fit the description of the type of person you need for that position? At a job, you fine tune that person's skills towards the job; in the real world, the fact that you want to make an impact is evident. Unfortunately, our high school students (maybe even some employers) think that the evidence of being interested in a field comes only in the form of graduating from a prestigious university alone. I'm not disputing or discouraging the theoretical knowledge, but I'm trying to say that success and interests can't be boxed in, just like the general definition of engineering isn't so clean cut. Everyone learns at a different pace and everyone has their own goals. Why do we constantly make judgments and try to level out two different pathways? Once school is over, I don't think it's fair to assume that the learning curve is over. We need to transfer and hone the concepts we have been taught and build upon them. That's what I did in college. I built a foundation, found that I can take on more building blocks, and went from there.

I told the students this: confidence is great, but in an environment where us generation-x children change jobs like clothes, we need to have that drive to learn, that determination to succeed, and that ambition to take a risk. That's the problem though- we take the risks, but as students, look for the ones we know we'll get a big nod of encouragement in (in this case it would be university, because that's the norm). Sometimes you need to look outside of the typical environment that you're brought up to believe is the only way, and find another way. We don't lead the same cookie-cutter lifestyle, so rather than weighing in on educational flaws, let's make a pathway that we can be proud of, and inspire others to do the same. My question to you is: why not college?