Students face the stressful decisions that come along with leaving the U of G and venturing into the big wide world
Victoria Michalowsky came to the University of Guelph to get her undergraduate degree in fine arts; she assumed that eventually she would become a teacher. Like many other students before her, Michalowsky changed her mind and suddenly had no idea of what to do after she left university.
“I didn’t want to [teach] anymore but I didn’t know what else to do and to be a practicing artist never really was an option for me,” said Michalowsky. “I’m in fine arts because I love art and I figured I could become a teacher if I wanted. The art world really isn’t for me so that wasn’t an option.”
So Michalowsky, now in her fourth year of a major in fine arts and a minor in English, did what most other university students will have to do at some point. She made some big decisions. Eventually Michalowsky decided to take on the stressful process of applying to graduate school for Information Sciences and pursue a career as a librarian.
“It’s still really hard because I hate applying to grad school. I hate it. It’s a lot harder than applying to university,” said Michalowsky. “It’s more expensive. You have to have the references…and all of my fine arts classes don’t count towards my admissions because they’re not academic. All my marks rely on the courses that I figured would be secondary which kind of sucks.”
Michalowsky arrived at the decision to pursue a possible career as a librarian based on a careful consideration of her interests, past experience and qualifications.
“I worked in a library in high school and I really liked it,” said Michalowsky. “I also work in a museum when I go home during the summer so this program will allow me to either go into a library or become an archivist or work at a museum or a gallery. It combines everything I’ve liked about the jobs I have had. Plus I really like books and English is my minor.”
This kind of assessment, according to Jill Ferguson, a career advisor for Co-operative Education and Career Services at the University of Guelph, is among the strategies that they suggest to students who are trying to decide on a career path. Ferguson suggest, however that the most important thing for any person to do when making these “big decisions” is research.
“One thing that I highly suggest that anybody does when they’re looking at doing research or informational interviews with people that are in the industry that they would like to get into is talk to them about what a typical day is like. How did [they] get started? What are the career options or paths that somebody in this type of work can get into,” said Ferguson. “[They should] do things like that so that they are coming into it informed as opposed to ‘That job title sounds good.’ So they’re coming at it knowing what that job actually entails on a day-to-day basis.”
Justine Baskey, a fourth year English student at the University of Guelph, is taking another path that many students leaving with their undergraduate degrees choose to take. Baskey is planning on teaching English overseas; hopefully, she says, in either South Korea or Dubai.
Aside from the desire to travel abroad, Baskey sees a year teaching English as a much-needed break and a time to decide what her next step will be.
“I’ve been in school since kindergarten and haven’t taken a break from high school to university,” said Baskey. “I just think I need some time to be something other than a student… I need time to situate myself and decide who I am and who I want to be as opposed to going right into more schooling and finding out several [thousands of dollars] later that I don’t want to do what I’m studying anymore.”
No matter what their next step will be, both Baskey and Michalowsky seem in agreement that finally leaving the University of Guelph will be an odd mix of exciting and frightening.
“I thought I was okay with it but I’m kind of getting a little bit scared because I really like Guelph,” said Michalowsky. “I’m worried about learning a whole new campus and a whole new routine. It’s like I’m leaving high school again except more important in a way. Once I get there, I know I’ll be okay but it’s the anticipation and the waiting to see if I got in [to graduate school] or not that really scares me.”