Figuring out what you’re passionate about can be tricky. For some students it comes naturally, but for others it might take a bit of research and a lot of questions. In today’s Vlog Susanna gives helpful tips for figuring out what your passion is and explains why knowing matters.
Transcription:
Welcome to another edition of the CollegeMapper Vlog. Today we’re talking about: what is your academic passion? I think that you can start thinking about this topic as early as freshman and sophomore year really. You should be thinking about it in Junior year, depending on the types of colleges that you want to apply to.
But I think colleges are interested in knowing what you’re interested in. What do you like? What intrigues you? What makes you want to ask questions? So, I think it’s good for you to have some idea about what you like, what you might want to major in, what you might want to do with your life. That way, when you go through the application process, you have something that you can talk about. No one’s going to hold you to it, but you have an idea of where you stand currently.
So, one of the ways I guide kids to think about this is I say, “Well, are you more of an English/history person? Are you more of a math/science person? Let’s start there and get our feet on the ground.” From there we sort of brainstorm the possible careers that you could go into from those two areas.
Another way I think is really great for you to begin exploring your passions and interests is through internships and job shadows and even just having coffee with professionals. So, if you think that you might be interested in being a veterinarian, ask your veterinarian if you can come into the office one day and just talk to her for a half an hour and ask what it’s like to be a veterinarian. So, maybe she would even let you job shadow her for half of a day, or a full day, or a week. You could learn a whole lot that way and perhaps you would even stumble upon something that you’re quite passionate about yourself.
So, just get out there and start to, you know, put the feelers out and figure out what you yourself might be passionate about. I don’t think freshman and sophomore year is too early for that. And you certainly, probably want to be thinking about that Junior year. So, take care guys, bye!
