Every student will complain about tuition and the trek to class, but there are plenty of advantages to being a Chico State student.

1. Student Health Center – Besides checking for STI’s and writing the convenient notes to get students out of class once in a while, the Student Health Center provides excellent services for physical and mental health. They offer therapy and over-the-counter drugs to keep the students healthy and avoid the breakdowns that happen during finals.

2. Career Center – Located on the second floor of the student services building, the Career Center offers help to students in securing employment. By setting up cover letters, resumes, job listings for on and off campus jobs and mock interviews, it’s a helpful way for students who are trying to get a job during or after college.

3. Wildcat Leadership Institute – On the third floor of the BMU building, the Wildcat Leadership Institute offers students a crash course in being a leader. They have a certification program for students trying to boost their resume and can connect students to jobs or internship opportunities.

4. Information sessions – There are a few services that are held to help Chico State students including: Credit 101, Taxes 101, Salary Negotiation 101 and Money Management 101. They’re all introductory courses, so there’s no reason to be intimidated. Each course is mentioned in the student announcements.

5. Laxson Auditorium/Acker Gym performances – The school holds events for sports fans and theater lovers alike. With the Chico State teams dominating in their performance, and the recent SteamPunk performances held this month, these $10 tickets to see community events are worthwhile.

6. Financial security – “Americans with four-year college degrees made 98 percent more an hour on average in 2013 than people without a degree,” According to Labor Department statistics by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

College life isn’t easy, but there’s an abundance of help now, and a reasonably exorbitant pay-off later.

Steven Black can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.