Grades, grades, grades.

CUC just posted their second semester grades online. No doubt there were tons of anxious and nervous students trying to avoid logging into MyCUC. It's scary when you click the link for "Grade Report"...who knows what might show up!

Undoubtedly there are high school students who are nervous about the same thing. Worrying about the SATs/ACTs, AP tests and grades makes lots and lots of stress.

But, here's the thing: as long as you try your best, who can ask for more of you than that? Forget about the scholarships, pressure and competition: just do the best you can do.

My parents always used to tell me that they would support whatever grade I got, as long as I put hard work and effort into it. I wasn't naturally gifted at math, so often I'd study and study and still not do very well on a test. My parents would always say, "We know that you studied really hard for this test. It's okay that you didn't do perfect: as long as you tried, that's good enough for us."

And it should be good enough for you too! If you know you did your best, you can't beat up yourself over a not-quite-perfect grade or score.

Just remember high-schoolers: you have a whole summer of fun ahead of you! Just get through the next couple weeks, okay?

Good luck!

Labels: Jaclyn Wile, student blog

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Are you a high school graduate? Are you about to be?

I'm sure you're tempted to take the summer off before college, lounging around at home watching MTV and the Travel Channel.

But beware: as fun as that kind of summer sounds on paper, just laying around gets boring.

Keep your mind active and your bank account full with a great summer job. Not all jobs have to be tedious, and you may be able to make pretty good cash only working part-time.

Check out some of the following jobs:

Tutor
- A lot of kids have to take summer school classes to improve their academic skills or to retake classes they failed. If you are really interested in history or English, you may find yourself loving a job tutoring younger students. Plus, it often pays well, especially if you can show them a grade report and sample work you've done.

Camp Counselor
- If you like hanging out with kids and meeting other students your own age, a camp counselor might be a great job for you. It gives you a chance to be outdoors and to influence the lives of younger kids. Plus, you're promised at least one day off a week, so you won't have to be bunked up with the youngin's all the time.

Hotel Receptionist
- If you work as a hotel receptionist, you'll make fairly good cash and you might be able to get part-time work. It's a good opportunity to interact with a lot of different people and become familiar with business practices.

Lifeguard
- I must admit: I was a lifeguard the summer after I graduated from high school. There were a lot of great things about it: the tan, the hours, the bathing suits, getting paid to yell at unruly kids...it was a fun summer job. Then again, it was also hot, tiring and boring some days (when it rained). Keep in mind that if you want to lifeguard, you'll want to join a lifeguarding certification and CPR class now!

Retail
- Retail is good for a couple reasons: you can either work full or part-time, get to make new friends, stay in an air-conditioned environment, and retail shops will also hire you back from summer to summer, or over holidays when you are home from college. If you work at a store you already shop at, you'll also save money with your employee discount.

What's your summer job? Let me know!

Labels: Jaclyn Wile, student blog

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If there's one thing a college student should always keep with them, it's a USB drive.

These little drives plug into your computer and allow you to transfer large files from one computer to the next.

This comes in handy when you have giant projects to print at the computer lab, or if you need to bring your homework to class.

Another cool thing about USB drives is that you can pick them up really cheap at places like Target (for less than $7) and use them to store your resume and portfolio on. When you go on internships interviews, instead of giving the company a "leave-behind portfolio," just hand them a neatly packaged USB drive filled to the brim with all the relevant pieces you showed them in your personal portfolio.

Want to see the Top 10 Weirdest USB Drives ever? Go here!

Do you have some creative use for a USB drive? E-mail me! jwile[at]cuc.edu.

Labels: Jaclyn Wile, student blog

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