October 2009, Issue 2

Parents can play a significant role in helping their students make informed decisions about their future. This begins with encouraging your student to begin early in seeking out ways to explore careers.

Be Supportive
First, many parents give their son or daughter a hard time for being indecisive about their career direction. Some students will haphazardly choose a major or career just to get their parents off their back. It's important to realize that there is a readiness factor and that each student is different. For those students in career-track majors (accounting, engineering, teaching, etc.), the career choice is more straightforward.

However, for many liberal arts majors (philosophy, history, etc.), the options are much more diverse.

The journey away from home and off to college is just that, a journey. It's an excursion, a trip, a life altering experience that will be positive, negative, and a mixture of both. Within that mixture will be many feelings, one of which might be homesickness or loneliness. For most college students, this feeling only lasts a couple of weeks; however, in extreme cases it lasts much longer. Taking steps to reduce the affects of homesickness can improve your child's college experience. Read this article for tips to help your student cope with and reduce homesickness.