Benti’s Advice to Incoming Freshmen — USC Annenberg Ambassadors

Is it your first year at USC and you are feeling completely lost, overwhelmed, and socially exhausted? Well, it is my pleasure to inform you that you are not alone in that feeling. Tip #1 from me: I promise you are not alone in your sadness and homesickness so embrace it and talk about it.

Hi friends, my name is Benti and I am a junior studying Public Relations and Advertising at Annenberg. As someone who had a particularly rough freshman year, I can tell you one thing I am positive you are dying to know: Yes, it does get better. I could not be happier to be exactly where I am right now, and I am going to share with you all some advice to help you out.

Benti meeting her roommate for the first time!

One thing almost every freshman struggles with is the idea that they are not doing enough - not in enough clubs, don’t have a job, etc. Let me tell you something - you are doing more than what is expected of you right now. After moving away from home, to a new environment with new people, your priority should be adjusting first. Getting involved comes second. It is important to allow yourself to become fully settled and adjusted before throwing yourself in the deep end.

Next up - where should you get involved? Anything that even remotely interests you. Don’t get too caught up in whether or not the club, job or organization is the perfect fit for you, that’s a decision that comes later on. It is important to give everything a chance to figure out what it is that you like and don’t like.

Here’s the more important piece of follow-up advice: Once you have given everything a fair shot, drop what you aren’t interested in/passionate about. There is no point wasting your time in organizations that don’t further your interests and career aspirations. Instead, you should be finding ways to get even further involved in the clubs that you do like.

Benti’s first week at USC at the Annenberg Welcome! Dean Bay had asked students to take a selfie with the people sitting next to each other to look back on after graduation.

Now let’s talk about social life - if you are feeling like you haven’t met your people or found your community yet, I can promise you that this is another feeling you are not alone in. It takes people time to find their family away from home, but I promise all good things come in time. Your people will find their way to you no matter what. In the meantime, to fill your social and academic bubble, my biggest suggestion is coffee chat, coffee chat, coffee chat. If you meet someone you like or someone you feel has valuable advice and connections to share with you, do not hesitate to ask them to grab coffee sometime. Take away the fear that what you are doing is abnormal because coffee chats are a Trojan standard!

Now what I am about to say is going to come off as biased, I get it. However, I would like you to scroll up and read the header on this website. Annenberg Ambassadors. This is the resource I wish I had utilized my freshman year, but was entirely unaware of its existence. The purpose of the ambassador program is to welcome incoming freshmen, prospective students and new transfer students to USC Annenberg. We can give you advice on anything. Housing suggestions, check. How to make more friends, check. Where to get involved, check. Internship opportunities and connections, check. Need to vent about how you miss your mom’s cooking, double check.

However, if I could give you only one piece of advice, it would be this: Have faith in yourself, have faith in USC and have faith in the Trojan Family. It sounds cheesy, but soon enough you will realize that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

Your home away from home awaits you, Trojan ♥️