“La vida del estudiante nunca acaba porque la vida es un aprender constante. Mi recomendación es que sigan estudiando, que sigan indagando, que no acepten una sola opción sino que vean que hay otras opciones, otras soluciones porque precisamente de eso se trata la universidad–es adquirir unos conocimientos pero también es crear esa mente crítica, analítica, que te ponga a pensar más allá de lo que … realmente está próximo a uno y también que vean que lo que uno hace tiene un propósito, y todo lo que uno adquirió aquí en la universidad le sirva como un ejemplo para aplicarlo a la vida. Yo diría que ese es mi gran consejo, que sigan estudiando, aunque digan, no, ya no quiero estudiar más pero es que la vida es un aprendizaje y el aprendizaje nunca acaba, así que sigan hacia adelante, les deseo mucho éxito y que tengan una carrera fructífera, llena de tanto éxito que cuando yo, por ejemplo, los vea en la televisión o en la prensa, yo diga ese fue mi estudiante”.
Nadeska Mayens-Robles
Spanish Linguistics Lecturer II
“Important things you probably want to think about, or you may have discussed or thought about already–should be career path, then life choices. Also, environment or neighborhood or community you want to live in. So, some of these things you probably thought about already, hopefully. … Maybe planned some of these things out like internships, kind of finding your career path, some of that should be determined by your major. If you haven’t done that yet, you want to wildly scramble to figure out some sort of means of income, ’cause normally students you take out debt and then as soon you graduate, unfortunately, the government wants to see you start to pay some of that debt back. So, that’s where you’re going to need income to feed yourself, and, you know, be able to do things, as well to pay some of your debt back. … Also, higher-level education, so if you don’t have a super concise goal or path in mind, one thing that can be helpful is … graduate degree, master’s degree because it will push your loan into forbearance while you get higher level education, which may open up new markets and new opportunities. In art, especially in this field, keep making stuff, because literally the day you graduate it gets exponentially harder to make things. As art students of UTRGV, you have facilities and equipment, you have people that care about you. The moment you graduate, not that you are on your own, but you’re kind of on your own. So, finding that motivation … finding materials and different tools, it’s going to be difficult, but you gotta stick to it and you gotta keep making stuff.”
Alexander Comminos
Art Lecturer I
“Times of transition are always both exciting and scary, and I think graduation is particularly so at that time. I think if you’re graduating, that you should take such pride in your accomplishment, pat yourself on the back, give yourself some downtime, because you’ve been under tremendous pressure for years to accomplish what you’re accomplishing now. And after you’ve been proud of yourself and had some downtime, then when you embark on your new career, I hope it goes beautifully. But, if it doesn’t work out exactly the way you planned, don’t be afraid to acknowledge that and maybe head in a different or unexpected direction.”
Harriett D. Joseph
History professor
“I think in this day and age of a very competitive job market, it is essential that students go and seek an advanced degree upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree. It will give you a very competitive advantage in the job market and you’ll have a higher salary in the long run. It’ll pay off. Those that can’t earn the advanced degree or don’t go into an advance graduate school or professional school, should try to at least seek a career in which they would be happy. … Something where they don’t mind going into work every day because as real life begins, work begins, and it can drain on you.”
Justin Moore
Chemistry associate professor
