10 things every student must do while on campus

This list is not one of those "30 things you must see before you die". This is a list of things every college student should try and do to make best of college time and their association with the institute.

Almost every alumnus of any program and college will leave the college with regret of not doing something while in college. This list is put together to minimize that regret and to not miss something that is critical.

These things help you prepare better for becoming a professional and emerge as a mature intellectual individual.

1.Participate in everything:
College life provides for innumerous opportunities to get involved and invest your time in. These may range from volunteering for some college event to leading a professional student club.

Opportunities such as these will help you unearth hidden talents and teach you the best on inter personal relationships. Not participating in any activity and staying with just a closed bunch will never bring out the person who you are.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft once said the best leadership skills he acquired are from playing cricket while he was young. Whether leading a cricket team at college or leading a team of professionals in career, leadership and interpersonal relationship skills at play remain the same.

Working in various roles in various initiatives is the best hands on learning opportunity you will get to learn skills like conflict resolution, persuasion and leadership.

2.Network with Industry
If there is one thing that is easy while at college and gets difficult while out of college is connecting with people, pretty much anyone. There's always a soft corner for industry when it is interacting with active students in the college.

Typically, everyone will be open to listen to you as a student, to your ideas and respect your passion and commitment. Leverage that. Once you find the path you want to go in, think of any way however crazy it may be to move things from one state to next towards your goal.

Always do your homework before you connect with the industry. Have a clear outcome planned in your head before the meeting and network with these people on LinkedIn right after you leave and stay in touch.

3.Leverage college subscriptions:
Often, your college subscribes to a number of journals, periodicals, databases and other services. Try and find out what your college pays for to help students and explore these resources.

One of the obvious reason is that these are valuable resources which will not be easy to afford once you are out of college.

Find out any professional bodies that are active on campus and become a student member to participate. This member pricing will be quite cheap compared to the normal fee.

4.Find one or more mentors:
You will be making lot of choices and decision regarding your career while you are in your college. And knowing ahead as to what you want to do after college helps in planning and setting the right ground. However, figuring this out is not an easy task.

But, it can be simplified and structured with the help of a mentor. He or she could be your senior, faculty, alumni or someone else. But, having a mentor gives you an outside view of you and your world.

You will learn things about you that you don't see by yourself. And these connections are the ones that open lot of new doors that are otherwise impossible.

5.Find your path:
Only by continuously learning and doing new things is how you explore where your strengths lie and where your passion is.

And that helps in your planning your life after college. Whatever you are working on and whoever you are working with in college, always have this ulterior motive that you need to find your path and succeed in it.

6.Reach out to alumni:
Once you find your path or goal, find out who from alumni who travelled similar journey and connect with them. This is how lot of your imaginations and unrealistic notions get shackled.

It's very easy and amateurish to imagine things and make assumptions about career planning and other things.

Alumni have been there and done that in all these plans. They will tell you ground realities and help you course correct.

7.Learn how to learn
You may not believe but there is a course for this and it is free on coursera. I recommend this course as it helps you structure your study, achieve your goals and helps you deal with subjects you think are tough. Acquire as many skills in productivity as you can such as speed reading, super learning etc.

8.Make relationships
Unarguably, college life is the best time in any one's life. And what makes it best is the friends and long term relationships you foster. Always be open to connect with person from any gender, race, ethnicity and background. The diverse your friends group is the enriched experience you will have from your college life.

9.Volunteer
Try and enroll for volunteering at some NGO and invest your time in service. This will not only build your overall candidature as an individual but also will help immensely in your career. Wherever you are studying, you will always be able to find some NGO near you who are seeking some time and services from educated people like you.

10.And have fun:
And last but not the least, always remember, college life is a phase and don’t make it a race. Don't forget to have fun in life and remember to not get stressed over future too much. If you are doing all the right things then right things are bound to happen.