How to Enjoy Being a Scholar

A career in scholarship has many benefits for you and others

Being a scholar has several rewards. You get the opportunity to research the latest issues regarding your field of interest and you're also able to share what you found with others. For example, if you're writing scholarly articles on gender relations in Africa, you may be invited to present your research at academic conferences or you could become a teacher and offer this knowledge to students. But sometimes scholars need reminders of how they can continue to contribute and be effective.

Instructions

1. Find inspiration in non-scholarly activities. If you're a scholar on the issues of single parents in the inner-city, visit some friends or relatives in the inner-city and have regular conversations with them from a non-scholarly perspective. Crack jokes with them, help them prepare meals, listen to their favorite music and share stories on daily life. This is a good way to get new ideas for research without getting frustrated with the process.

2. Hold informal conversations with students if you teach. Schedule a day out for lunch with your class and discuss current events that the students have opinions about. For example, if you're teaching an urban studies class, you and the students may want to talk about the urban gentrification that's occurring in the city and how it sometimes angers residents who live in culturally historic neighborhoods.

3. Read new books that shed light on previous research. If you've written books on the commercialization of hip-hop over the past twenty years, you may get inspiration from some new books which claim that hip-hop has lost its' sense of social justice for the urban youth as the result of this commercialization.

4. Volunteer your time. Visit a homeless shelter and spend a few hours talking with the residents about their struggles and what situations led them to homelessness. Or sign up with Big Brothers/Big Sisters to become a mentor. This gives you a hands-on approach to your work and it makes the research more meaningful to you.

References

• Chronicles of Higher Education: How to Be a Citizen-Scholar

Resources

• Chronicle of Higher Education