College life can be stressful. For thousands of young adults, the life of a student has become a balancing act of dealing with classes, internships, organizations, part-time (full-time) jobs, and a social life. Add in relationship/pet/car trouble and you could easily find yourself in a royal mess.

Year Up, an organization operating out of 10 cities is providing students with a little help navigating through college. It provides low-income adults (18-24) a year-long skill development program with the opportunity to enter a corporate internship. Bonus: students get college credit.

The program builds a student’s morale up with behavioral and communications skills before transitioning into a field with technical or financial focus. They also work in peer learning groups to create an extended community outside of working with a staff of mentors, social workers and advisers.

Programs like these help the stability of the economic future of the United States. Seeing the national potential to change the future, its goal is to level out the job market’s playing field so that those who don’t have the resources or access to opportunities could attain them just as easily.

While on the subject of careers, LinkedIn, the business industry’s answer to Facebook, is rapidly changing the game on how to land the perfect job or internship. LinkedIn’s network of 175 million professionals opens doors with endless opportunities. So before you print out another resume, think about uploading it to start making moves in the industry you want to be a part of.

As we patiently wait for technology that lets us be eight places at once, we certainly wouldn’t mind taking advantage of these new market developments to make life a bit simpler. It’s not a hand out but a hand up.

– Juan Frausto
(Photo credit: Campus Socialite)