As a former Seattle resident, finding connections and expanding my network in Southern California has proved somewhat difficult.  I have lost all of the immediate connections that I had access to through my friends and family, and am essentially starting over in a new state.  Therefore, finding an internship this summer has required searching for potential connections through the scripps network and reaching out to my parents for any potential family friends.

Scripps College has an excellent database for finding information on alumna.  I have accessed the Scripps Community Network several times in the past month in order to gain some inspiration on what I want to do this summer.  By first narrowing the search down to California, then choosing the specific field of work I wanted, the network uses the search inputs to provide a list of Scripps alumna in the location and area of expertise.  It provides their occupation, where they work, and even some contact information.  This is a good tool to access during your internship search, because you can reach out to Scripps alumna and ask questions or advice on searching for career opportunities.

Another helpful networking to use is the Scripps College page on LinkedIn.  Although there is often little to no contact information, it is still easy to search for occupation and location to get some inspiration and maybe even connect with an alumna if she works for or as something that sparks your interest.

After using the Scripps Community Network to see a range of career paths taken by the alumni of Scripps, I had a wild thought: what if I found an internship in the entertainment or media industry this summer?  I have always enjoyed creating things, and just because I am a politics major does not mean I have to be a politician.  So, I reached out to my mom and asked about getting in contact with a family friend who works as a production designer on films and television shows.  I got her contact information, and am planning on connecting with her over spring break to discuss advice, tips, and how she got into the business.

Well, I am slowly building my network from scratch, so does that mean I am an adult now?  If so, I am not sure how to do it right, but I’m rolling with it.  While I am excited to have established this connection, it has been hard to focus on my career path for the past two weeks.  I had four midterms, which required a lot of time-management in order to figure out when and what I was going to study.

It can be hard to balance school and professional life, especially during times of heavy workload.  I managed it by unfortunately reducing my time at the gym and my time spent sleeping.  I am not saying that I cut the two out from my daily schedule completely, but instead, I shortened my workout to a thirty minute run instead of a full hour and a half training session.  I also started waking up early on days when I did not have morning classes in order to fit in an extra two hours or so of studying before lunch.  While I do love sleeping in and exercising, sometimes sacrifices must be made during midterms weeks.  I am excited for spring break to come so that I can have an extended period of time to focus on internship searches and network building without the stress of exams.