{"id":397,"date":"2013-07-29T09:48:50","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T16:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/solesadmissions.wordpress.com\/?p=397"},"modified":"2013-07-29T09:48:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T16:48:50","slug":"my-advice-for-incoming-soles-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/solesadmissions\/2013\/07\/29\/my-advice-for-incoming-soles-students\/","title":{"rendered":"My Advice for Incoming SOLES Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

I graduated in May from USD with my M.A. in Counseling, with a School Specialization. I am currently living at home in Orange County, working as the director of a summer program, but will be moving back to San Diego in a few weeks to begin working as a school counselor at a middle school in El Cajon. I still cannot believe my good fortune of being hired, especially when I talk with colleagues who are still desperately searching for a position. I loved my time at USD and as much as I was ready to be done with school, I still feel twinges of nostalgia. USD is a wonderful place and SOLES is an incredible community to be a part of. I feel so thankful for my time spent there and the people I was able to meet. If I could offer any advice, it would be this:<\/p>\n

 
\n1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Get involved<\/b>! Get involved in any way that you can and in as many ways as you can. Yes, you will be busy. You will sacrifice sleep, television watching, and rowdy Taco Tuesdays in PB. But, the networking opportunities are priceless and you are supplementing your education in ways that will eventually pay off, even if it doesn\u2019t seem worth it at the time. You will meet people that will teach you, shape you, help you grow, and make you realize why you\u2019re here in the first place.
\n 
\n2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do something outside of USD<\/b>. During the spring semester of my first year, I took a Spanish class at Mesa College. It was a Spanish 101 class that that met on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I missed a lot of previously mentioned Taco Tuesdays and wine-night Thursdays, but I dramatically improved my Spanish skills, which allowed me to better communicate with families I worked with in my fieldwork placement. During my second year, I began volunteering with Big Brothers, Big Sisters and I joined a kickball team. Having these outlets and these opportunities to interact with San Diegans outside of USD were priceless. It made me appreciate the city in which I was living as more than just a place I went to school.
\n 
\n3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bond with your cohort<\/b>. You\u2019re not going to be best friends with everyone. That\u2019s a given. But, when you form relationships with people you\u2019re forced to be around anyways, it makes this whole grad school thing so much more worth it. How many opportunities do you have in life to be surrounded by people who have similar goals, visions, and ideas for shaping and improving the world? Whether you want to be a school counselor, teacher, MFT, non-profit administrator, professor, private clinician, or whatever other amazing careers SOLES grads choose, you\u2019re in a community of like-minded individuals, so embrace that and don\u2019t take it for granted. These are the people who understand best what you\u2019re going through, whether it\u2019s preparing for Action Research, applying for jobs post-grad, or embarking upon a SOLES Global trip.
\n 
\n4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Enjoy San Diego<\/b>! If you view San Diego as merely just a place where you go to school, you\u2019re missing out on a wonderful city with fabulous people, cultures, communities, restaurants, nightlife, scenery, and opportunities. Have fun while you\u2019re here! USD is a beautiful place, but if you limit yourself to just our campus and your apartment, you\u2019re only hurting yourself. This is a big city with something for everyone. Go out and find it.
\n 
\n5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Remember why you started this journey<\/b>. You\u2019ll probably grow tired of self-reflection after awhile in SOLES. But, remembering why you\u2019re here is what will propel you to keep moving forward when you\u2019re tired, frustrated, and ready to give up. Your experiences here will impact you in ways you won\u2019t realize until after you leave. When you\u2019re facing your laptop at 2 am, knowing you have fieldwork in five hours, and you only have two pages typed out, take a breath, remind yourself of what you\u2019re here to accomplish and that you\u2019re capable of accomplishing it, and keep going. Graduate school will be very challenging at times. You\u2019ll be physically, emotionally, and mentally drained in ways you have probably never experienced. But, it\u2019s only temporary. And when you remember how many people in our world don\u2019t have access to education (or basic needs, civil rights, medical care, etc.), you realize that these hardships aren\u2019t really as hard as we make them out to be.
\n 
\nWhile I could write many more pieces of advice, I\u2019ll end there. Make the most out of this experience because you can\u2019t get it back. Also, most importantly, treasure the sunsets from USD and the surf and turf burritos at JV\u2019s on Morena are huge, but also worth it.
\n 
\n\u201cKeep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose \u2013 not the one you began with perhaps, but one you\u2019ll be glad to remember\u201d\u00a0<\/b>-Anne Sullivan<\/strong>
\n\"389223_10151574138679792_1564344619_n\"<\/a>
\n–This post was written by Rachel, a Class of 2013 School Counseling graduate, Rachel was a SOLES Ambassador, to learn more about Rachel and the SOLES Ambassadors follow the link>><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I graduated in May from USD with my M.A. in Counseling, with a School Specialization. I am currently living at home in Orange County, working as the director of a summer program, but will be moving back to San Diego Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44170,89902,57163,71719,62805],"tags":[94087,76575,215,64348,347,71586,55897,23],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-and-outreach","category-advice-words-of-wisdom","category-living-in-san-diego","category-school-family-and-mental-health-counseling","category-soles-ambassadors","tag-advice","tag-cohort","tag-getting-involved","tag-rachels-posts","tag-san-diego","tag-school-counseling","tag-soles","tag-usd"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Advice for Incoming SOLES Students - SOLES Admissions and Outreach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/solesadmissions\/2013\/07\/29\/my-advice-for-incoming-soles-students\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Advice for Incoming SOLES Students - SOLES Admissions and Outreach\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I graduated in May from USD with my M.A. in Counseling, with a School Specialization. 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