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4 College Leaders & Young Professionals
How Entrepreneurship Empowers Student Leaders to Stress-Out Less
By: Maria Pascucci, Founder & President, Campus Calm™
In a New York Times article, Brian Van Brunt, director of counseling at Western Kentucky University and president of the American College Counseling Association, was quoted as saying, "More students are arriving on campus with problems, needing support, and today's economic factors are putting a lot of extra stress on college students, as they look at their loans and wonder if there will be a career waiting for them on the other side."
"Wondering if a career will be waiting for them on the other side" is part of the problem because that mentality can lead to students feeling powerless to meet the transition into the workforce ahead. Teaching entrepreneurship in the classrooms will go a long way toward reducing stress of college freshmen, and all college students. Why?
1. Teaching entrepreneurship gives students a sense of empowerment and ownership over their strengths, passions and career explorations, alleviating the recession-caused fears of whether or not someone else will hire them;
2. Instead of feeling pressured to compete with friends/classmates for existing jobs, students can be encouraged to collaborate and leverage each other’s strengths to create jobs of the future;
3. Entrepreneurship is about experiential learning and growing comfortable with taking risks, making mistakes and learning from them quickly as you move forward. That’s the best lesson in resiliency I can think of!
4. Entrepreneurship teaches young people that success is about passion, persistence and relationship building. In an era when far too many students are led to believe that it’s all about test scores, letters of recommendation and GPAs, this will go a long way toward reducing stress.
I speak from experience as a former summa cum laude college grad. Launching my own business while in my twenties empowered me to realize that I could chart my own future and be directly responsible for the success of my company. Yes, it’s scary but it’s also a great confidence booster. Recession-proofing myself means that I take complete responsibility for my success or failure and learn new skills every day, leveraging the strengths and talents of others in the process instead of worrying about what I’m not “good enough” in. How many students are taught to zero in on their deficits instead of celebrating their strengths? Example: You get your report card. You have four A’s and one B-. What do you focus your attention on first?
Grades are important, but we’re taught that if we don’t get an A, we’re doomed to failure. This all-or-nothing thinking is also propelling so many students to stress, overextend and overachieve.
We also need to lead by example to teach our young people that taking care of our health makes us better, stronger, wiser people and greater assets to the companies we work for, whether it's our own companies or not. That means making sleep a priority, as well as committing to positive stress reduction therapies like exercise, yoga & meditation, face-to-face connections with friends (instead of texting and facebooking exclusively) and also being brave enough to ask for help if we're struggling. Comments? I'd love to hear them!
Story Callout: Are you a college student or young professional who believes in the power of entrepreneurship? Do you have an idea for the next great business to create a job for yourself, and possibly your friends? Share your story with us! We may feature it on our website, or in an upcoming Campus Calm Connections newsletter issue.
Ever after in faith of ourselves,
Do you resonate with Maria's story? If so, you're the person Maria's speaking to in her book Campus Calm University. It's designed to empower you to give up the exhausting pursuit of perfection (whether it's grades or body), and instead embrace the real steps to success, health, happiness and leadership. Chapters teach you how to be a lifelong learner, infuse your career search with some PG passion, love yourself, embrace risk, focus inward and surround yourself with a network of positive people who can help you reach your goals. And much more too!
