5 Ways to Make Students Better Professionals

How can you help the next generation of media professionals reach their full potential?

The media landscape will likely change more in the four years that current students are in college than ever before. They need help to be ready. It’s like stepping on the fast-moving sidewalk at the airport when you’re first learning to walk.

We’re working in the classroom to have them ready, but we need the complement of your real-world skills.

If you reach out, you will pay it forward. But there’s also payback because you’re going to be working with these young people. You’ll be training them … or training their replacements if they don’t work out. It’s in both of your interests for you to give back.

Reconnect with Your Alma Mater

Some of you will look back on college as the best time in your life, and some of you will be less nostalgic. No matter which, the place that trained you now trains the next generation.

Just letting the department know what you’re doing will be helpful. Having your name and address means they can call when they need your expertise. They might want to feature you in the alumni magazine. At Texas Tech, our Mass Communicator is a very professional publication, and I love reading about our former students.

Guest Present in Class

The single best class that I’ve ever led featured me in the audience. Texas Tech graduate and Hollywood director, producer, and writer Andy Fickman spoke to my class in Fall 2007.

They sat captivated listening to the Texas native talking about leaving Lubbock the day after graduation to find work in Hollywood. Tech doesn’t even have a film program, and he was competing against USC and UCLA film grads.

But Fickman’s Game Plan was the No. 1 movie in the country after it opened, and he brought street credibility that professors just don’t have.

Last spring break I went back to Las Cruces to speak to one of my former professor’s classes at New Mexico State. One of the great days of my life. It was incredibly fun to stand in that same room where I had learned so much.

I’ve already hit up several of my new Twitter friends to guest speak in my class via Skype this semester, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Thank you, and please keep it up.

And let me add the caveat that this applies even if you were a philosophy major in college. Find the local university department that corresponds to you and pick up the phone.

Talk to a Student Group

Even if you’re speaking to a class, you can still reach out to a student group. Or perhaps you just cannot get away during office hours. Each academic department has a student group in my college of mass communications. I know that our Tech Advertising Federation group or chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America would love to hear from you.

And students are more likely to engage with you outside the formal classroom environment.

College surely seemed like a long time while you were in it. But when you count up the hours with a calculator, they are precious few. Most of my students will spend more clock time thinking about advertising during a single 10 week summer internship than all of their advertising classes combined. It’s just the math.

We need help preparing them for the internship and the eventual career.

They’ll look up to you, and they’ll listen to you. Usually your advice overlaps quite nicely with ours. When they hear it from a second source, they’re likely to take it seriously.

Connect through Social Media

Students already dominate Facebook. A few program already are heavily involved on Twitter, and I assure you that Texas Tech will be in 2009. Get to know them.

From the many friends I’ve met on Twitter during the past month, I will return to the classroom more energized than I’ve ever been — and I’m a high energy guy.

Students would benefit similarly from your knowledge.

Simply interact when they follow you. If you see in their bio that they’re a student, you might reach out. Some students will be intimidated to just contact a professional afraid they’ll come across as an annoyance or a pest.

Lastly (You Knew It Was Coming) Write a Check

University finances are suffering. When you or your parents (for young readers) went to college, the state legislature picked up 80% of the tab, and tuition paid about 20%. It was affordable for students.

Now the politicians pay only about 33%. That’s a lot of money to make up. Students now pay for about 33%, close to double what they used to pay. And that leaves 33% that must come from grants and private donations.

Our college has been blessed with several large donors. But even a $25 check helps fund scholarships for students. And private money can help cover bills that public funds cannot cover. I’ve been amazed by how many things have to be paid for.

You may not be able to endow an entire scholarship in your name, but every dollar helps the next generation get a better education.

That’s it. Five simple things you could do. Is there something I’ve missed? I’d love to read your comments about ways you’ve engaged with the next generation.

Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com

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