I want my college to teach me how to teach myself. With the dawn of Google, a majority of the questions we face can be solved by clicking a couple of buttons. Information is in abundance nowadays and that’s something that can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. Every question that could be asked by a professor about a person, place or thing can be answered with the tiny encyclopedias we have in our pockets. Still, while we have so much knowledge at our fingertips, many people aren’t aware about how we can use it for things beyond the bland recital of facts. Millennials today are more tech savvy than any generation before them. But despite having all of this, we still suffer from similar pitfalls that our parents and their parents have: self-value.

We’re taught so much about the outside world so frequently that we forget to look at ourselves, not in the self-depreciating way that so many of us deal with, but a healthy acknowledgement of all the pieces in play and a basic understanding of what your actions have on the other parts of the machine. These are things that can’t be answered by books or Google searches. Students today may be far more adept at navigating computers than their parents who type in call caps but we’re equally easy to sweep up in bandwagons about GMOs or puppies than making the decisions for ourselves.

College hasn’t done much help with doing any of these things- individual professors have. Throughout much of my experience, I’ve been pushed along by professors ushering me towards getting warm and cozy with a corporation- not to say that it’s necessarily a bad thing. I feel as if we should also promote cultivating a healthy mind that can seize an opportunity and jump into the field without latching onto the coattails of men and women in business suits. Seeing what value that you have alone and using that and growing your own brand, yourself above pushing it towards getting the highest position in someone else’s company. I’m not saying that there needs to be a class about understanding about how to be an entrepreneur, but rather more classes that can teach you how to use the skills that you’ve gained in your major to accomplish things and be successful by yourself. Millennials today are more empathetic than many generations before them, and for that not to sizzle out as we grow deeper into adulthood, we need to have the tools to use that energy to stand amongst the giants that came before us.