Saplings Mentor Interview

My Saplings Mentor is named Brian Hood and he is a sophomore majoring in environmental science. He was originally going to major in biology, however he realized that majoring in environmental science would be more relevant to what he wants to do. After college, his ideal job would be to work for the EPA doing field research in the mountains of California studying aquatic invertebrates in cold water streams. Because this job would involve research, he wants to eventually get a master’s degree and possibly even a PhD, but first he would like to take a gap year to either travel or to work at an internship. What I learned from this is that you should not be afraid of changing your life plan because now is the best time to do it, and almost no one is really sure what they want to do when they first enter college. When asked what the most important thing he has learned outside of the classroom was, Brian actually said that it was to be flexible. He said that most students actually change their major at least once, and although you might end up not needing a few of the classes you have already taken, if you do change, it will be worth it. It is far better to change now than to go all the way through college in the wrong major and then have to go back later, or worse work at a job that you dislike for the rest of your life. This made me think about whether or not my current major is actually the right one for me and because of this, I am going to try to involve myself in student organizations that are related to majors other than my own so that I can get a feel for what I am truly interested in.

Brian and I also talked about having a plan B in case your plans for after college do not work out. His plan B is to be a Zumba instructor because that is something he loves, in fact he is training to be a Zumba instructor at the RPAC currently, and is something he would be okay with doing as his career. From this I took away two things: that it is important to have a plan B because sometimes life doesn’t work out as planned, and that it is important to have passions and pursue them. Brian explained that he really enjoys doing Zumba and wanted to find a way that he could make it a bigger part of his life. This led him to apply to become a Zumba instructor at the RPAC and now he trains for four hours on Sunday in addition to doing Zumba during the week. Seeing that he was able to find a way to get more involved in Zumba and even get paid for while still keeping up with school showed me that is is possible to be serious about a hobby without it hurting school and made me want to get more involved in my own hobbies. Also, although his plan B was not elaborately planned out, he still had one and even though it was not his dream job, it still involved doing something he loves. Until now, I did not really have a plan B in case things did not work out the way I thought they would, but listening to Brian has gotten me t think about how I can make my passions into a plan B for myself.

Finally, Brian and I talked about different activities he had participated in so far. Last year he was a member of the zoology club, which visited the big cat sanctuary and learned about all types of animals, and this year he is involved with FLOW, which he discovered through ENR scholars. Of all of the opportunities he has participated in, Brian said that he was most glad to have been in ENR scholars because it helped him socially and introduced him to other organizations he is now involved in.

Overall, Brian’s advice to me was to simply be flexible. Whether you are trying to decide on a major, join an organization, or even study for a class, you should always be open to change. If you create a plan for yourself and don’t allow yourself to be flexible, then when life doesn’t work out perfectly it will stress you out, but if you are flexible and allow yourself to be open to change, things will come much more easily.