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During my first year at Michigan, I set a personal goal to use as many of the resources available to me on campus as possible. As an undeclared LSA first-year student, I heavily utilized my academic advisor, I enjoyed a couple of free shows with the Passport to the Arts, and I took advantage of student pricing on season tickets for football and basketball.

Unfortunately, even with my goal in mind, there were many great opportunities I did not find until my sophomore and junior years because I failed to pay a visit to a few offices on campus that sometimes fly under the radar with students. Here are the three offices on campus that I wish somebody had recommended to me before I started my first semester.

The internship office

Look, I’ll be honest: I am a student intern for the LSA Opportunity Hub and have been for the past year, so I’m biased in recommending that you check out U-M’s internship office. Nevertheless, hear me out. Internship offices on campus offer career coaching, funding opportunities, and exclusive internships only available to their school’s students. How can you turn that down?

Here’s one example. Through the LSA Opportunity Hub, I participated in a flash internship in sports media, in which myself and twelve other students spent three days interning with NBC Sports executives. We were also given the opportunity to interview famous Michigan alumni in sports media such as NFL reporter Adam Schefter and the head of the Nielsen Sports Group, Stephen Master.

Do yourself a favor and stop by your school or college’s internship office (or the University Career Center, which serves all students) and ask for information.You can even stop by or call during the summer for information (if you’re an LSA student visiting the Opportunity Hub, tell them Zane sent you!).

Academic resource centers

There are a huge range of prerequisite classes you may have to take while at Michigan, and because of that, there are a huge range of places available to help you succeed in your classes. If your major is heavy on writing, check out the Sweetland Writing Center.

If you’re taking science courses such as Chemistry or Biology, try the Science Learning Center. If you’re stumped in Calculus, pay the Math Lab a visit (they even offer free tutoring!). Taking foreign language classes? There’s the Language Resource Center! And if none of these resources cover your bases...

Go to office hours!

In my academic career, I have noticed a strong pattern. I tend to do exceptionally well in courses for which I attend office hours; I also tend to have my biggest struggles and sometimes even lose motivation in classes where I get too nervous to attend office hours because I don’t want to come off as confused or unknowledgeable.

Just go.

Your professors and graduate student instructors are here to help you learn. You should absolutely take the opportunity to have more personalized time with them to learn and clarify questions that come up from lecture and discussion.

Each professor and graduate student instructor has a different process for scheduling office hours (FYI, President Schlissel even has office hours!). Make sure you follow their scheduling process and book an appointment. During office hours you can ask them specific questions about materials, or simply introduce yourself to them. Either way, it’s a wonderful opportunity and you should absolutely take it.