I graduated. Now what? – Pursuing excellence in a gap year and for subsequent graduate school
By Paige Shellhammer UA’24 and Jim Stellar
People were discouraging me (PS) from taking a gap year. They would commonly say, “You will not go back to school if you take time off.” So now that I have done it, I disagree with that conventional wisdom. I’ve been to numerous career seminars and spoke with individuals in both the psychology field and criminal justice. Almost every single one told me that the job they work today is not the one they started with or even anticipated being in. This new knowledge stemming from experience in the workforce. It allowed them insight that their college courses could not offer which was “real life experience.” These careers ended up being better fits for them than what they originally planned.
Due to the discouragement I (PS) faced, it made me question if a gap year is what I should be doing. Although that may not be the correct path for everyone, it was the one for me. I knew if I immediately went back to complete my masters degree, I would not be nearly as invested as I am now that I’ve had the chance to scope the opportunities that are open to me now and the many more that will open upon gaining my next degree. Having a mentor that encouraged me and discussed the pros and cons regarding taking this year off, allowed me to make the correct choice for my future. Not one based on anyone else’s standards.
As we have written before about in this blog series, reflection is key. For example, Wordsworth says that “poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility.” While this phrase has many interpretations, in this blog series we see reflection as a product of the cognitive mind that runs in the neocortex on a structure and that produces symbolic logic, like language itself. But the emotion in Wordsworth’s statement, we suggest first runs in the limbic system, a part of the brain which communicates perhaps sparingly with the cognitive brain. As well as it needs to be re-represented in the cortex to allow for operations like cognitive planning that PS is doing here. To complete the thought, the word “poetry” in Wordswoth’s statement we see as the union of cognitive and emotional processes that develops into a career (or even a life) that seems worth doing. Of course, that is the goal of all college graduates and really all humans.
Let’s focus on the purely psychological properties of reflection. The base is composed of the neuroscience previously discussed. The first element towards understanding reflection is identifying activity within our limbic circuits. Achieving cognitive awareness can best be done alongside another trusted person who can facilitate constructive conversation. For some college students, like PS, that could be a faculty mentor. But first there has to be that trust.
PS and JS developed that trust when she took an independent study course with JS. That faculty-student connection blossomed into a conversation about her career and that led to a previous blog that we wrote together. Our point here is about connection with another person, perhaps not one’s first mentors (one’s parents), but someone who the student somehow found on their own who functions with a bit of that familial trust. Our idea is that this trusting connection allows the limbic system processes to surface more easily in cognition as opposed to the usual self-sensering that we all do. Just speaking some of these seemingly half-formed or uncertain ideas can help. Then there is the reaction from the mentor, and then there is further conversation while the limbic system keeps running and does a value assessment going along with the conversation cognitive content. This kind of a relationship cannot be programmed in a university or in life. It has to be discovered, organic, and comfortable for both parties. While it benefits the mentee, it also benefits the mentor as it produces human engagement and psychologists all know that that leads to a variety of health outcomes in life even in aging (see The Village Effect).
There is more to write here about the mentoring interaction between students and faculty in college and how it is different from teaching or advising (both valuable functions), what colleges and universities can do to promote it, and what are more psychological underpinnings of its operation. But those could be our future blogs. Let’s end with some reflections of PS. Continuing my (PS) education has to be my own choice to gain the proper fulfillment and excel in the manner that I strive for in my every day. Taking this year to further investigate career paths, opportunities, graduate schools, and even more simply, just grow as an individual, it has allowed me time for reflection. I was presented with the opportunity to perceive my many life choices from an outside point of view. This has only strengthened my choice of returning to college in the near future. Ensuring that I am returning for the right reasons and obtaining the highest amount of knowledge due to my passion of wanting to be there. Not just others beliefs that I should be there. Although I could have jumped right back into school, I do not think that path would have benefited me with my course load or even future career in the same manner that having this year to further myself has allowed.
