Who are you and why are you here?

Entering into college this year, you make up the class of 2013. On the day you graduate you will do so with hundreds of fellow Sea Aggies, thousands of fellow Aggies, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of other American college graduates. By the end of the day most will have one thing in common: a college degree.

How does an employer distinguish between these black-clad tassel-capped masses? By degree? Perhaps. Especially if the chosen field is technical, like engineering or accounting. By grades? Possibly. Grades are a "proxy indicator" for success; that is, good grades suggest that someone is intelligent and is willing to work hard to achieve success. Certainly, when you graduate you want to have good grades, as a lot of people will use them to make the first cut.

Yet, grades aren't enough. Even if you whittle the group down to those with a 3.0 or above you would still have thousands of graduates to choose from. In truth, your success will be largely based on who you are, or who you become while you are in college. When you graduate with your "good grades" (whatever that means) you want to be able to tell your potential employers what that means: Hopefully it will have meant that you are intelligent, diligent, well-organized, an effective communicator, emotionally strong or mature, able to overcome learning challenges and face adversity, that you are personally responsible and ready for the challenges ahead.

Better yet, you want your professors to say that for you. From the moment you enter college you are proving and improving yourself. Your college professors want you to succeed and will be your best advocates when you graduate. Start impressing them now.

Today you are excited about college. Along the way you will face many challenges and might forget why you are here. In case you think you are here for a college degree, think again. You have got to get much more than a college degree while here or you won't be able to distinguish yourself from the thousands of other people with college degrees t hat come before and after. So why are you here? Think about it. Write it down. Look at it when times are tough. Don't ever lose sight of your goals, and make every day count.