The Best DAM Poster Contest

Keiser University Design and Multimedia students are competing for over $500.00 in prizes in The Best D.A.M. Poster contest. Please vote (like) and leave your feedback for these aspiring designers.

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Advice to a College Freshman

Congratulations! You have decided to pursue a college degree. Chances are you did this a) because you want a better life, b) because you love to learn, or c) because your parents said you will have to get a job if you don’t go to college. Regardless, you’ve made the decision to attend and now you it’s up to you to decide what you get out of this part of your education. So here are a few observations I’ve made over the past ten years…

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

1) What you get out of your education is your responsibility. If you show up and only work hard enough to pass, you will get some pretty letters that make your parents proud of you but are relatively useless to any future employer or client. The real world is a very competitive place, the more you work, the more you’ll have to offer the world, and the better your prospects will be when you graduate. Students who work hard separate themselves from their peers within a few weeks and those are the ones who get the cool jobs 99% of the time. If you want to be successful, plan on spending at least as many hours a week working out of the classroom as you do in the classroom.

2) Show up to school every day and on time. Attendance and punctuality are habits that can be developed. There is a strong correlation between a student’s attendance, his or her grades, and the probability that a student will graduate. Students who miss class very seldom graduate. And by the way, potential employers ask me more about a student’s reliability than about his or her grades. For some reason employers prefer average employees who are dependable over exceptional people who aren’t.

"We first make our habits, and then our habits make us." -John Dryden

3) Leave the excuses and drama at home. We all have lives and we all have the choice as to where we place our priorities. Knowing that you had a relationship breakup isn’t going to help you or your family 15 years from now when you don’t even remember that other person’s name. Getting the most out of your education will.

4) Choose your friends wisely, you will become exactly like them. Those friends who are more concerned about a good time, being popular, or going out probably don’t really care about you or your success. Those people just don’t want you to make them accept their shortcomings and will work as hard as possible to keep you at their level instead of encouraging you to reach for your potential. Ultimately you will have to accept responsibility for the results of your efforts and blaming your "party-hearty" friends will not put more food on the table.

5) Keep your legs crossed and your fly zipped. No means of birth control is 100% effective and the chances of you graduating if you or your partner becomes pregnant are slim. Every year I have two to three students who weren’t adult enough to be smart. Then these same students quit school instead of finding a way to work and complete college. What they end up with is huge student loans due at the same time as their child, no degree, and therefore a more limited means of supporting the family they quit school to support. Funny, the children of quitters usually grow up to be quitters. You have a choice and it’s no longer just about you. Accept it and step up.

"Argue for your Limitations and they become yours." - Richard Bach

6) Nobody cares about what your past challenges may have been. If you are using them as an excuse to stay limited, accept that you are making a personal choice. If you have difficulty writing, you can change that. If you were challenged in math, now’s the time to do the work you avoided. Your excuses are yours and neither your instructors, your future employers, nor your fellow students will expect less of you just because you accept less from yourself. It may not be easy, but choosing to remain the same defeats the concepts of growth and learning.

7) Doing and learning the things that are most challenging are often the most rewarding. It amazes me that people who do not interview, listen, or speak well avoid joining Toastmasters and other clubs that will help them advance in their careers and in life. If it was easy or fun, you would have already done it. If you want to have fiscal, personal, and professional success in the future you need to do what makes you better. I promise video games may be an easy, entertaining escape but nobody is going to hire you because of your World of Warcraft skills. Get over it, grow up, and move on.

"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - Albert Einstein

8) Do not ask your professors or peers to write you letters of recommendation or to give you additional assistance if don’t make the effort first. I will do anything for a student who works hard, but if a student doesn’t care enough to push him or herself, I have a standing tee time. Besides, you really don’t want me to be honest with someone else about how you preformed in class, now do you?

Flowers are red young man, Green leaves are green

"And she said...

Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen"

In forth grade, we were given an art project to paint a spring picture. My creation was a grand collection of color and movement, flowers and clouds and colors.  In my mind, it was a fabulous, abstract piece work. The art teacher , in front of my entire class,  announced that it was the worst painting any forth grader had ever made and required that for homework I look up in the encyclopedia what a Tulip was really supposed to look like.

Since I had no artistic ability, I decided to try out music. The second day of class, the instructor played a series of notes and asked if each one was higher or lower than the proceeding one. I had never studied music, and so I didn’t really understand the terms.  My music instructor, again in front of the other members of my elementary school band, informed me that I was tone deaf  and should pursue other activities. Can't paint, can't play music, I must have no creative talent.

I discovered photography when I entered high school, and considered myself fairly competent. In my senior year, when asked about my future plans, I stated that I either wanted to be a photographer or maybe even a teacher. My parents, teachers, and guidance counselors all sang the same chorus to this. Photography is too competitive and you’ll never be able to provide for a family on a teacher’s salary. Join the military or get a degree in Business. I chose the latter.

I did well in business. I grabbed onto using technology to be more productive with my Apple 2e and fell in love with the prospects of what could be done. I ended up opening the Latin American markets for 20 mid-sized US manufacturers using Compuserve, an internal fax/modem, and then e-mail and the Internet. I had great adventures, but was never completely happy. 

The devaluation of the Peso and the destruction of the Mexican middle class, a run on the Brazilian banks, the depression in Puerto Rico caused by new policies in regards to the pharmaceutical industry, import restrictions in Venezuela with a new government in place,  textile tariffs in Argentina, and then the Asian Flu. Wallah!  In under 6 months, the business was gone.  Such is life.

While trying to figure out what to do at 38 years old and having lost my motivation to go back into sales, a bumper sticker in a parking lot led to a conversation with a stranger that led me into a Web design firm. Circumstances forced me from just designing in the back room, back out in to the world of sales and recruitment. A midnight talk with a janitor led me to seek interns at a local college, which one day led to that school asking me to teach an Introduction to Computers class.

Today I am the program director for Graphic Arts and Multimedia Design at Florida’s second largest private university. I usually have more freelance photography, illustration, consulting, and web work than I can take on. But mostly importantly, I love my job, I love my life, and I can draw a Tulip any way I damn well please. I can only wonder what would have been possible if I had been born with a little creative talent and some education along the way.

"But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun,
So many colors in the flower and I see every one."

-Harry Chapin, Roses are Red