Speaking of students who find opportunities for themselves, let me tell just one story about another student who I knew here. This student was interested in biotechnology, but found that there was no biotechnology job fair on campus. He went to the career center who gave him the polite brush off. So he organized his own. He emailed and called a bunch of biotech companies, arranged for a space in the Biology Department, did publicity, made signs and name plates, got the Biology Department to cater a lunch and Voila! After a month of grueling effort, the University had a biotechnology job fair. Once the job fair was running, and was a big success, the career center was really interested. It ran two subsequent years in the Campus Center. I don't know if it runs anymore, now that this student is gone.
I remember one time, we were chatting and he described how he came to the decision to do biotechnology, picked out his courses, and was set to complete his degree. "I don't have any patience for people who can't figure out what they're doing," he said. I explained that I thought his approach required a lot of courage -- more courage than a lot of people had. "Some people," I said, "don't ever want to admit what they really want to do. They spend years doing anything else but what they really want. That way, when they never succeed, they can't always say to themselves, that they didn't fail -- because they never really tried."