TYLER, Texas — From career selection to finance management to resiliency, adulthood can be challenging to navigate, especially without any guidance.
In its first year of operation, the University of Texas at Tyler recently published its first book to help students navigate these and many more obstacles in life.
The book titled "A Patriot's Guide to Success: Words of Wisdom from East Texas Leaders" was created to accompany the university's annual Career Success Conference.
The conferences helps to connect students with some of the area's most influential business and industry leaders.
"One of the things that students said they wished they had was the opportunity to get advice from these executives on a very regular basis," UT Tyler president Dr. Michael Tidwell said. "Since we can't host 200 executives on campus every single week to talk to our students, we decided to have those executives publish a chapter in our new book."
The book is 120-pages. Dr. Tidwell says while it is the first book released by UT Tyler Press, there are many others to come.
"This one, I'd like to think, is the most important because it's specifically about our students and helping them gauge where they are today relative to where they'd like to be in the future," Dr. Tidwell explained.
Tidwell says the book offers advice and inspirational excerpts from nearly 60 East Texas movers and game changers, including Tyler Mayor Martin Heines and businessman John Soules.
"Whatever challenge they happen to be dealing with or whatever kind of advice they're looking for at that point and time, they're able to find that particular piece of advice, go there and read it, and then, ultimately, be motivated," Tidwell said.
Tidwell also contributed to the book.
"It’s not a specific chapter, but it is an introduction to the broader purpose behind the book," Tidwell said. "I think the main thing that I wrote to the students was that they need to continue to learn. The second thing is that once they do learn, it's their responsibility to pass that on to others."
“A Patriot’s Guide to Success,’’ First Edition, is available to all current and prospective UT Tyler students and to the general public.
Dr. Tidwell says the UT Tyler Press is currently working on a second edition of the book ahead of the 2020 Career Success Conference.
For more information, contact the UT Tyler Office of Career Services at 903.565.5862 or send an email to uttylercareersuccess@uttyler.edu.
