Laura Rodriguez de Simons, who currently works at the Tompkins County Advocacy Center, showcased her past work experiences through quality information regarding advocacy and helping people. Before coming to Cornell, she alternated between working in South America and Africa, supporting local people affected by harrowing issues, such as domestic violence. After sharing her story, she offered some pieces of advice. The one that resonated with me the most was to not go down a path you think you’re supposed to or to stick to the status quo. After Laura Rodriguez de Simons earned a degree in economics, she earned an M.B.A. and was then hired to a large company, where she worked for about a year before discovering her passion for advocacy. I personally think that more college students, and even some high school students, need to hear and understand this message because so many people set out to become doctors, lawyers, or corporate employees and then later discover they weren’t actually very passionate about that and would have preferred to work towards a different career goal earlier in school. I think people should always do some soul searching and subject exploration before forming any sort of career goal to really be able to brainstorm ideas and discover passions, especially if someone finds that they’re inclined to go into a field that is not very conventional or expected. College is the time to explore ones interests and I don’t think it’s good for students to only approach college as the means to an end goal of entering a career. I know I personally enjoy exploring different subjects and will joyfully continue to dabble in whatever sounds interesting for the rest of my time at Cornell.