Christian Myers
On Oct. 24, Dr. Bryan Zygmont, the Mount’s current Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, put together a workshop involving LEGO and gave an insightful discussion about how LEGO represents our journeys and career paths through life.
Zygmont goes in depth about how if you go through life without a having strong, big foundation, much like a LEGO build, it will be tricky to keep it together. He states that the most important things to consider when choosing a career path is to identify your skills, your passions/interests and to know that things change. “We ask you when you’re 18 what do you want to do for the rest of your life. It seems remarkably unfair because you’re 18, and we can’t expect you, nor should you think to have your life put together.” Zygmont stated.
The idea to compare our college experience to LEGO is a unique one, however Zygmont is not the person who originally came up with the idea. Emily Sharp, Assistant Director of Career Services, came up with the idea when she saw all the LEGOs in Zygmont’s office when she came up to chat with him. “She has young boys and I have young boys, and we shared our interest in LEGO. We realized that LEGOs are an interesting metaphor for our experiences as young people because we build, we build and we build” Zygmont mentioned. He continues, “With time, the structure stops being a piece of something and becomes a component of a bigger thing. We thought about how our jobs, majors and careers are all building blocks.”
Students, staff, and faculty all had the opportunity to participate in this event and it turned out to be a huge success. Michael Hershey (M’24), who is attending a master’s program at the Mount stated, “I wasn’t sure what to expect with the LEGOs, but the career center does a good job at finding what jobs you want, but it’s up to us as individuals.”
Patrick Rankin (C’24) had this to say, “It was really eye opening. I was invited here and didn’t know what to expect, but I found it to be beneficial and thought it was very good. I want to work abroad and Zygmont gave really good advice for certain skills and how they translate.”
Zygmont mentioned that if there is anything that he wanted students to take away from this event is that the thing they do with their lives should provide personal meaning. “The goal of this presentation in some way is to invite students to think about what your job can contribute to your own happiness and spirit as a person. When that happens, we begin to think about majors and jobs in a different kind of way.”
Lastly, Zygmont believes that the Career Center at the Mount is an underutilized resource regardless of your class year and it can help you leave in a better place than if you had never visited. All in all, this workshop was an eye opener for many that told us information that needed to be heard no matter what stage of your life you are at.
Photo By: Gabrielle Hendricks
Dr. Bryan Zygmont speaking about building success.