Everyday, students at the UA face many complex situations that they must handle in order to succeed.
Some believe that as new students continue to come to the UA, there is need for them to have the skills to multitask and handle a variety of new situations.
“Overall, I think students these days are very involved in their communities and they are bringing a set of skills that help them make the transition to college, and I expect that to continue,” said Patricia MacCorquodale, dean of the Honors College.
In addition, relying upon their peers and talking with faculty members can also help new students find success.
“It is useful for new students to get to know faculty members and other students and a lot of research from around the country has shown that this really helps students to make the transition to college.” MacCorquodale said.
As students go through the rigors of the school year, there are additional challenges from a mental health standpoint where they may need additional assistance.
“We help students to get back on track,” Debra Cox-Howard, Outreach Coordinator and general counselor for UA Counseling and Psych Services, said. “For a lot of students, they are going through adjustment issues and their ability to discern and prioritize often gets skewed.”
At times, the ability for students to remain focused as the semester goes on can be prove to be difficult.
“When students come into CAPS, we have a questionnaire that they fill out and self-score and from that we see their levels of anxiety, possible substance abuse and their overall level of well-being,” Cox-Howard said.
As a result, some students are showing that as their academic work load increases, they may be in need of more assistance to get back on track.
Over the past few years, the UA has awarded nearly 9,000 degrees each year. These numbers appear likely to rise as the university continues to enroll more undergraduate students each year.
As more of these college students graduate and enter the workforce, they are having to learn to adapt to an evolving job market and have pointed thoughts on their own generation.
Recently, a study has shown that millennials do not hold a generally positive opinion of their generation as a whole.
In a Pew Research Center survey conducted this year by the American Trends Panel, millennials were asked to express their opinion on their own generation. Among those who were surveyed, approximately 24 percent believed their generation to be responsible, 36 percent believed it to be hardworking and 15 percent believed their generation was willing to make sacrifices in their lives.
In addition, Forbes reported in May that nearly 44 percent of millennials with college degrees were in “low-wage, dead-end jobs.” And as of October, the labor force participation rate for the country as a whole was approximately 62.4 percent, the lowest point since 1977.
Recent college graduates and others within the millennial generation have struggled to gain traction within a competitive job market.
As a result, the plethora of challenges that students at the UA and across the country are facing may actually help their ability to succeed within their careers after graduation.
Follow Sebastian Laguna on Twitter.
