Sebastien Mehegan
Administrative Executive Editor
One of the biggest challenges that college students face is knowing what they want to do for the rest of their lives and choosing classes accordingly.
A study released by the U.S. Department of Education said about a third of first time college students will change majors within three years. Keene State College has systems in place to accomodate for students still deciding on their future.
Keene State College (KSC) allows for a day during orientation for first-years to sit down with academic advisers to choose their classes for the next semester or to declare their major.
Academic Adviser Gloria Lodge said during this time the academic advisers will choose two classes for the incoming first-years and will then allow the students to choose two more.
Lodge said before she signs the perspective student up for anything she’ll ask some leading questions to steer them in the right direction.
Lodge said, “I’ll say ‘what do you want to do, what interests you? What did you enjoy most in high school as far as classes go? What would you do for a job or career if you didn’t have to worry about how much it pays?”
Lodge said, “There are some people who have a psychology degree and they are high up in management position and make six figures.” She added it depends on what interests you, who you connect with and what you find for jobs to help you move up. “If someone is undecided they are assigned to an adviser in the [Academic and Career Advising] Center and we invite them to come and talk to us a couple of different times in the semester,” Lodge said.
“If they come in and say ‘I’m undecided but I’m leaning more towards this’ we can at least recommend the classes for them to take to get them started on the right courses.”
Lodge said she went to college for social work which she then converted into human resources. From there she moved on to being an assistant vice president of a bank for human resources. She said she came to work at keene state because she likes working with people one-on-one.
“The most important thing is to keep an open mind.” Lodge said.
KSC Career Adviser Beverly Behrmann said she personally helps, primarily, juniors and seniors look for jobs and internships for when they graduate.
Behrmann also said because she has experience working overseas she plays a big role in helping students either work or intern out of the country.
Behrmann said, “One of the philosophies I hope to instill is to cast a wide net, and keep many possibilities open.”
After behrmann graduated with a degree in history she went to japan and taught english.
She has worked carpentry and now works at Keene state College.
“It’s really good to develop skills and know what you’re good at and know what your interests are, and does that match what you want to do as a vocation.”
She said she’ll sit down to talk to students about what they see themselves doing and how they could transition from different careers where they might still use the skill they learned at KSC.
KSC Alumnis Ryan Murray graduated as a Sustainable Product Design and Innovation (SPDI) major and a management minor in 2016.
Murray said, “Right after college I got a job at Gemini Valve as an engineering technician.” After that Murray Bought a pizza shop close to his hometown.
Ryan said he wanted to buy the shop because it was the place he worked at in high school, he worked at dominos in Keene and he had his minor in management so he knew how to lead and was familiar with risk analysis.
He said he saw that it was for sail and said “Why not.”
Behrmann additionally commented on the fact that in the past very few freshman and sophomores have come by to be advised, however the number has been growing recently.
Sebastien Mehegan
can be contacted at
smehegan@kscequinox.com
