Ferris State University com­ple­ments its edu­ca­tion with job expe­ri­ence oppor­tu­ni­ties not often found at over­sized universities.

Any col­lege stu­dent under­stands that high grades are valu­able toward attain­ing a desir­able job upon grad­u­a­tion. Academics are not the only attribute employ­ers are look­ing for, how­ever. An intern­ship or work expe­ri­ence of some kind is more often than not what sets one stu­dent apart from another.

At Ferris, stu­dents have the oppor­tu­nity to work not only on cam­pus, but often work in their field of choice. There are also oppor­tu­ni­ties to try jobs out­side of the pri­mary field of study to expand one’s knowl­edge of other areas of academia.

As a for­mer pre-pharmacy major and cur­rent account­ing major, I never would have thought I would have the oppor­tu­nity to be a sports edi­tor at a news­pa­per. I have always been inter­ested in writ­ing and sports and had I not taken a jour­nal­ism class, I would have never had the oppor­tu­nity to write for the Torch.

Ferris has oppor­tu­ni­ties such as this avail­able and I was able to get valu­able expe­ri­ence doing some­thing I love. Had I attended a larger uni­ver­sity, where each job is fought over by dozens or hun­dreds of stu­dents, I most likely would not have received a chance to even see whether or not I liked journalism.

Over the week­end, I heard two Michigan State stu­dents dis­cussing pos­si­ble on-campus jobs for the fall semes­ter. One of the stu­dents said over 100 peo­ple applied to work at the front desk in a res­i­dence hall and only three were accepted.

A smaller cam­pus such as Ferris pro­vides greater oppor­tu­ni­ties to those will­ing to search for them. A stu­dent with enough desire and the right atti­tude can prob­a­bly get just about any job avail­able on campus.

I have worked in three dif­fer­ent posi­tions at Ferris, each one pro­vid­ing valu­able, unique skills I can take into the job mar­ket. In each case I placed one phone call, sat through one inter­view, and was offered a posi­tion. In each I met bright, tal­ented indi­vid­u­als who were all will­ing to give me ref­er­ences in the future if needed.

Attending a uni­ver­sity and receiv­ing a col­lege degree is an expe­ri­ence. The edu­ca­tional learn­ing is as impor­tant as any­thing, but it is not the only thing employ­ers look for. Work expe­ri­ence, whether in the field you are apply­ing for or not, is a vital por­tion of one’s resume.

A degree from Ferris can get a per­son as far as he or she wants to go. The class sizes are small and stu­dents do not typ­i­cally feel like just a num­ber. It is not like we have to sit in a class with 400 other stu­dents or only have the oppor­tu­nity to talk to a pro­fes­sor once every other week. Students can get as much or as lit­tle atten­tion as wanted or needed.

Ferris State may not have pres­tige like the University of Michigan, but it offers numer­ous aca­d­e­mic pro­grams and var­ied job oppor­tu­ni­ties cru­cial for suc­cess in life beyond sec­ondary education.