Greatness

Greatness

The common habits of excellent students are obvious; plentiful quality study time, reliable attendance and completing assignments on time are ideas nearly everyone has acknowledged will build a good student.  Greatness, however, requires even more than this.  Greatness must be worked at; to be great, one must not go through the motions of study. To truly excel in class, the student must love his field; to this end, students must be encouraged to stay on top of current events, apply studies in everyday situations and create situations for practicing their field in school sponsored clubs.

            The student should try to stay on top of current events in his field of study.  Many well recognized professors keep blogs to try to issue their opinions to a wide audience and collaborate with their peers.  Keeping in mind that these are not peer reviewed, these blogs are a great place to keep on top of the field, and see even more perspectives than just the professors at the student’s school.  The original idea behind universities was to foster an environment of learning for both student and lecturer; with modern technology, this environment is no longer contained on campus, but is spread worldwide.  Keeping up with various blogs and tweets not only enhances learning, but it also enables students to utilize theories learned in class as they mentally critique other professionals in their field.

            This also allows students to attempt to apply their studies as much as possible.  This is a great time optimization exercise, since for all practical purposes a student can be studying while doing almost anything.  The student is advised to try to apply his theories and techniques to as many real world scenarios as possible.  Certainly this advice is better for some fields than others; social sciences can apply to almost anything, while computer programming skills are only really useful at a computer.  However, most majors have at least some real world application; an engineer could try to work out how various devices work, an economist could evaluate policy or an art major could try to mentally recreate the techniques used to make a renaissance painting.  This could be done in many areas by almost every major and should be exercised as much as possible.

            To this end, students would be well advised to become a part of school organizations that are field specific where possible.  If one is not available, students could consider creating one.  Having even a few people to bounce ideas off of, as well as discuss current events outside the context of formal homework and classroom study could be the difference between a student battling through a mediocre semester and discovering a passion for his field.  This not only translates into better grades, but it also allows for networking with peers, fostering the aforementioned learning environment.  Most important of all, it may help a student learn to love his work.

            By practicing these habits, a student who aspires to greatness can become that.  These techniques, among others, can become ingrained in the student even easier than normal study habits; because once a student enjoys his field these habits are no longer work.  A student who cannot wait to get home and read the latest musings on the economy by a University of Chicago Nobel laureate will go the extra mile to understand what the author is trying to say.  A student whose computer malfunctions will dig deep into both the code and his knowledge to fix it.  A student who loves going to honor society meetings will search for an edge to prove that he is the smartest in the room.  These students will rise above the work, the battle and the daily grind and ultimately achieve much more than those who do not.

Written for a DEI contest 19 November 2010