One of the Biggest Benefits of Higher Education
Going to college can change your life in many ways. From introducing you to new friends, careers, and hobbies to opening doors for new opportunities to making your childhood dreams possible, a degree can go a long way. Indeed, one of the biggest benefits of higher education is that it allows graduates access to the field that they love. While the numbers have shrunk some, many careers and jobs today remain behind a wall that can only be accessed via college.
Some, such as the fields of law, medicine, and other STEM focuses, will likely stay behind that wall forever for good reason. Notably, the people working in these fields may cause harm to themselves or others if they don’t know what they’re doing. Despite how much access we have to information thanks to the internet, we still can’t become doctors from Google and YouTube alone.
Most people today are aware of these benefits and thousands of young adults flock to colleges across the country every year. However, many don’t notice the smaller things they learn and gain throughout their educational journey. For one, they don’t realize how college helps people find their voices.
Looking Into the Benefits of Higher Education
Finding your voice doesn’t just mean knowing how to speak up. It means you have the words to say what you mean, share new ideas, and come up with new concepts. And it allows you to make a change in the world as you see fit. Basically, finding your voice means finding your power. You learn what you’re capable of, how to harness it, and how to make yourself known.
How you use your voice is up to you. It may simply allow you to self-advocate at work or in your personal life. Maybe it’ll help you see your own value, allowing you to move onto a new career or up at your current company. Or it might just allow you to change the world. Consider how many ideas you’ve had that would’ve helped you or society as a whole. Whether they’re political, functional, or scientific, we’ve all had that one thought pass through our mind that just makes you go, “Wow, that’d be awesome if it existed.” But most of us will simply forget that idea, thinking that we don’t know how to do it now, so we might as well just not think about it.
But even if you don’t have the skills to make something yourself, you still have the idea. You can share it with people who are capable of building your concept and forging it into reality. But you first must speak up, which isn’t always possible when we don’t have the professional vocabulary. Truly, a voice is a powerful thing, one that not everyone has.
One of the benefits of higher education is that it can help you train and grow. Keep reading to learn how college helps you find your voice.
It Gives You the Words
Notably, to speak your mind and express your ideas, you need to have the vocabulary to do so. It’s part of why education at every stage of life is important. Truly, we should all make an effort to continue learning long after we’ve left college so we may continue expressing ourselves.
One of the benefits of higher education is that this information – the vocabulary and rising trends – is put in one place for easy learning. You don’t have to piece together the facts on your own. College puts it all on the table with a certified expert to help students digest it. Thus, accredited institutions are the best place to find your voice.
Just knowing the vocabulary and experts puts you a step up above your competitors as it helps you communicate with other experts in the field. You’ll be able to show you know what you’re doing and talking about. And when you need something, you’ll be able to explain the issue in-depth.
It can also help you get to know yourself. Indeed, understanding your goals and analyzing your actions is difficult when everything remains in the abstract. Having the vocabulary to express your feelings gives you a certain amount of power over your emotions. For example, imagine a time when you’ve been so upset or so angry that you don’t know how to communicate it. You might have cried until you ran out of tears, punched a wall, or broke your own belongings. In some situations, just knowing how to express those feelings in words, to explain to someone how they hurt you, or to understand your own mind or even mental illness can help you get a handle on those feelings.
It Gives You Access
College also provides you with access to a lot of resources and opportunities you likely wouldn’t have had otherwise. Indeed, one of the biggest benefits of higher education is that it opens doors to research labs, expensive equipment, thousands of textbooks and research studies, and experts in every field. If you’re studying creative writing, your professors will likely be published authors, poets, or playwrights. If you’re going into medicine, your instructor will likely have several degrees and years of experience in the field.
You don’t often run into those resources on your own. And if you do, you’ll likely have to pay a pretty penny to access them or hire the expert. Truly, regardless of your study, you should take advantage of these resources while you’re there. You may even make a connection that takes you to new levels or a friend that you can turn to for advice.
These resources help you build your voice as you both continue to build your expertise and gain confidence in the field. Notably, knowing the words is the first step but getting firsthand experience and commentary gives you the chance to actually interact with the information.
It Provides You with Unique Opportunities
In addition to the resources, you will get many opportunities for growth, employment, and networking while in college. These types of offerings allow you to interact with your field outside of the classroom, build meaningful connections, and maybe even land a job after graduation.
Truly, another one of the benefits of higher education is that you get opportunities that you won’t run into on Indeed or LinkedIn. Colleges host events and speeches and provide internship opportunities, for their students. These events help students find their voice as they again build confidence, learn from the experts, discover new and unique concepts, and get firsthand experience in their fields.
It Helps You Develop Cognitive Skills
Another benefit of higher education is how it helps you develop your cognitive skills. Cognitive skills refer to your ability to take in new information, make connections, build focus, solve problems, and more. Basically, they measure how well you can learn and respond to situations.
In college, a lot of your time goes to studying, writing essays, and consuming information through lectures and readings. You also get feedback for each assignment you turn in. In real life, you rarely will receive detailed feedback on what you’ve done right and wrong. Truly, most supervisors will focus on what went wrong with a task or project.
Not only do you repeatedly go through this process, but you can ask questions and use the aforementioned resources to study confusing concepts on your own.
In the end, all of this work doesn’t just help you in your field. It helps you build cognitive skills, thus preparing you for continued learning at work and throughout your life. Improving these skills helps you find your voice as you’ll be better able to put concepts together, learn more, and grow as a person.
It Allows You to Interact with a Diverse Group
Another one of the benefits of higher education lies in the diversity of most college campuses. Engaging with people from different cultures and backgrounds and who see the world differently is important for several reasons. For example, it can help you understand the world better. If you only ever live in a small town and interact with people from that area, your way of thinking will be solely influenced by them. You won’t get to know what’s beyond the town boundaries beyond what you see on your tv and phone.
While social media and access to international news do help connect us, it does not immediately give you empathy or help you understand other peoples’ points of view. Otherwise, racism, sexism, and other types of hate would have ceased to exist with the advent of the internet.
You need to interact with other people, share ideas, and listen carefully to them to truly learn. College is one of the few opportunities where you will get the chance to find a hugely diverse population in one place. The people you meet there will help you build your voice as you get to understand people from different walks of life and with different ways of thinking. In the end, you’ll benefit from getting to know them and might make a few friends along the way.
It Lets You Pursue Your Interests
Finally, college helps you build your voice as it lets you get to know, well, you. Most people do not wake up every day with the chance to pursue their hobbies and interests. Some of us have been working since we were thirteen. Others were limited by what their parents allowed them to do or have in the house. One of the benefits of higher education is that it is a great time for self-discovery.
Students are shown new ways of thinking, meet new people, and are exposed to great amounts of knowledge. As a result, they’ll start to think about themselves and how they fit into the world. Many explore their spirituality, sexuality, gender identity, political ideologies, and more. Much like our toddler years, we’ll try on a variety of hats and immerse ourselves in unique experiences – some with better results than others. Ultimately, we get to know what makes us tick, what we enjoy, and just who we are.
This self-discovery helps us build our voice as we simply begin to build opinions beyond the influence of our family and parents. You take in new information and use it to understand the world as a whole and the person that you want to be. In the end, you’ll be able to speak with more expertise, confidence, and honesty than ever before.
Final Thoughts
Lakewood University is an accredited online school that offers a variety of degree and certificate programs. We have rolling enrollments and asynchronous courses. In other words, you don’t have to worry about missing a lecture or running late to class. If you plan on enrolling in college while working, Lakewood University offers the flexibility you need to earn your degree.
Don’t hesitate – reach out to our admissions department today to learn more!
