Achieve your goals
Focusing on study, internships will pay off for grad students
It’s not surprising if a New Year’s resolution has already gone by the wayside. But even if you’ve started to make positive changes and hit a bump in the road, you can always start again. Brandon Jackson, a fifth-grade teacher in Arlington, knows what it means to work hard and balance life with graduate school and a full-time practicum. He has some advice for grad students who want to make the best of this new year: Buckle down and minimize distractions.
“Grad school is a lot of work, and the less extracurricular activities you have, the more you can focus on your work,” he said. “There will be plenty of time to have fun and hang out once school is over, but this should be a time to really focus on school.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, last fall 20.5 million students were expected to attend American colleges and universities, an increase of 5.2 million since fall of 2000. Of that, about 3 million students enrolled in postbaccalaureate programs.
NCES also estimates that by the end of the 2016/2017 school year, colleges and universities expect to award 798,000 master’s degrees and 181,000 doctorate degrees.
So to get the most bang for your buck, finish strong in 2017.
Jackson, who graduated with a master’s degree in spring 2016, had a unique challenge because he enrolled in an accelerated program to finish his degree faster. This meant he had a full year of a student-teaching practicum along with graduate coursework.
“I would go to work every day from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and then have class twice a week and every other weekend,” he said. “It was important for me to work with my classmates to get the work done, but it was even more important to be focused and pay attention during my student teaching.”
For Jackson, his most valuable learning experiences came while student teaching. Though the fullyear internship experience added an extra challenge to his schedule, Jackson recommends graduate students in all fields conduct in-thefield training so they are prepared for their jobs in the real world.
And he recommends getting support from friends and family in order to make the most of coursework.
“I had some time-management challenges,” he said, “and even with a good system, it was a challenge to get everything done that I needed to do.”
So, he made sure that his family and friends knew that his “number one priority had to be my school work.”
Having family and friends understand his priorities helped minimize social distractions so he could buckle down and get to work.
Finally, Jackson urges graduate students to make the most of their internship experiences.
“I thought my student-teaching learning experience was far more valuable to my career than the actual classes I took,” he said. “Not just inside the classroom, but through the networking and relationships that I built.”
Through the experience he received great advice and help along the way. Not only did he learn how to be better in the classroom, but he also developed relationships with his grade-level team and others, along with advice on how to prepare for an interview.
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help and advice,” he said. “Just like in most fields, a lot of times it is about who you know. I feel like I was able to get my foot in the door for interviews through the word of mouth from the school I did my student teaching, and my experience got me the job I have now.”