Category Archives: Stephanie

Summertime Expectations

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Summer is upon us! My first year of Scripps has sadly come to an end, and though it has been one of the best years of my life, I am so excited to move forward and see what happens next.

The first order of business is summer. As I begin to pack up my dorm room and dream of sleeping in my own bed at home, I am reminded again of that feeling of anticipation–of starting something new, just when I was getting comfortable. With my first internship located an hour and a half away from my home, there is a very good chance I won’t be seeing as much of my family and friends as I thought I might be these next few months. Yet, as I did one year ago when I decided to take the plunge and accept Scripps’ offer of admission, I am wholeheartedly looking forward to this new experience, despite the fact that I cannot tell for certain where I will be or what I will be doing in just a few weeks.

Sometime between what remains of May and September, I hope to develop a clearer understanding about what I want to do moving forward. I have decided what classes to take and what activities I want to take up in the fall, but what will the long-term look like? Do my current professional aspirations align with my current academic path, my passions, my strengths? What will my major be? Am I keeping enough doors open to allow myself to experiment and perhaps change my mind?

This summer, as I foray into professional life for the first time and gain a bit of experience in the field, I hope I will be able to answer these questions with some degree of certainty. Come September I expect to have enough firsthand experience working with what it is I think I want to determine whether I know this is what I want to do moving forward. For me, being thrown headfirst into unfamiliar territory is the only way to know if it’s what I want to be doing. My internship with an environmental nonprofit organization positions me in a place to experience a variety of professional possibilities I am currently considering–marketing, PR, and communications work, a metropolitan office setting, a specific skill set (mostly writing, blogging, and interacting with media sources), etcetera–while simultaneously working with a cause I firmly believe in and what to learn more about.

Though it is an unpaid opportunity, I think the experience I will gain as I test the waters will come to pay dividends when I move forward in my academic and professional life. So it’s goodbye to Scripps for now, and hopefully by the time I arrive at this hallowed space once more in the fall, I will have a better notion about where my next three years and beyond will take me!

First-Year Balance and Beyond

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As my first year of college comes to an end (a brutal end at that; finals sure are grounding), I reflect on all that has happened this past year, all that I have learned and become, and all that is now familiar to me, and I look forward to what comes next.

I feel like a first year of college is not something easily forgotten. It’s among the most eye-opening, stimulating, overwhelmingly terrifying-yet-wonderful times of life. The opportunities are endless in the community of driven, bright, unique, and passionate people. College is where intellectuals flock to exchange everything from music to ideas to book recommendations to social commentary in an environment unlike any that existed before and any that could ever be replicated again. Recalling my first year navigating through this incredibly stimulating environment reminds me of the single afternoon I spent alone at the Met in New York last summer—there were too many wonderful collections and beautiful pieces of art to see, too many people I wanted to share my experiences with, and too little time to do it all. Yet, despite being astounded by the sheer volume and quality of what was offered throughout the exhibits, I managed to weave my way through the halls, spending time with what piqued my interest the most and admiring all that I could.

A first year of college offers so much that begs to be experienced. Knowledge is everywhere, begging to be delved into. Yet, we cannot choose everything.

As I begin to consider how I want to color my sophomore year, I am trying to balance what I love, what I am interested in, what I find to be fun, what I want to learn about, and what it I feel compelled to do. This means trying different things than I did this past year, but also building on what I have done to continue to give back and learn in this community in enriching ways. I cannot get involved in everything. I decided I want to take five classes next year, but that means I had to cut some other co-curricular activities. I am taking on positions with more responsibility in some of my out-of-class involvements, which means my schedule will end up being more locked down than this year. Despite the give and take and the loss and gain, I am looking forward to a new batch of endless opportunities.

The most important thing I have learned this year is simply just to go do. Do what makes you happy, what helps you grow, what might be intimidating at first, but always what you think may help you develop into the kind of person you want to be, in every respect. There’s no reason not to try what interests you at least once, you never know what may catch your fancy!

Gracious Reflections

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It takes a whole village to raise a child, so the proverb goes. In my experience, the same help is again needed as the nineteen-year-old villager flies the nest for the first time in pursuit of her first internship.

This week, I finalized my plans to work at an environmental nonprofit organization based in Sacramento. I would not be in this position had it not been for the help I solicited from countless individuals. (If this were an awards show and I was giving my thank-you speech, I would need to continue well past the point when the background music begins to play, ushering me off stage.)

I need to thank previous coworkers and colleagues who helped me gain the experience that has prepared me for this internship. I need to thank the CP&R team for helping me collect myself and all my necessary documents and connections. I need to thank my father, an environmental lawyer himself, for always piquing my interest in environmentalism and for talking with a colleague about his experience as a graduate at Pomona. I need to thank this man for being interested in a Scripps student and recommending that I get in contact with this nonprofit organization he helped build, giving a recommendation to me along with the nonprofit’s contact information. I need to thank the nonprofit’s executive director for taking time to speak with me about the opportunity and eventually offer me the position. I need to thank the communications team at this nonprofit, with whom I will be working closely, for helping me develop a project that will benefit this organization. I need to thank the faculty in Claremont for helping me parse through my thoughts regarding my professional and academic interests. I suppose that when I lease or sublease an apartment in the state capital, I’ll have to thank those renters too. And most of all I need to thank my entire family, for their multidimensional forms of support as I prepare to live my first summer away from home.

I feel that this internship truly marks my real first step into the light of my future career. Sometimes I wonder: besides my responsibilities and my heightened knowledge and awareness about what goes on around me, am I so different now from who I was in that bygone age of childhood?

I remember elementary, middle, and high school Stephanie so clearly. I sometimes refuse to accept that I am not that person anymore. When I celebrated my nineteenth birthday a month ago, away from home, family, and without my customary homemade cake, I panicked as I felt a great divide fall between my current self and my youthful self. A final year of teenagedom!

My first blazer. I chose one that was not so serious to mitigate the emotional baggage that comes with purchasing my first piece of true professional attire.

Honestly, it was not until I purchased my first blazer online two weeks later that I finally came to terms with my age and all the responsibilities that come with time. My family called me on my birthday, and they have been with me I have navigated the tricky waters towards my summer internship opportunity. If there is one thing I have learned after all the triumphs and travails of my first-year experience, it is that lamenting over the past is silly. As times change, we change, and the obligations we have adjust accordingly, the one thing that we can always count on is the support system we have sought that has made us who we are today. And there will always, always be people we can turn to for help. I look forward to my summer internship with great enthusiasm, and I cannot wait to share my experience with all the people who helped me land in this position in the first place.

Registration and Beyond

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Confession #1: I am overwhelmed by not knowing what I want to do in my future.

Confession #2: Confession #1 renders finding a solution virtually impossible.

Last week Scripps students registered for fall 2013 classes. As a first-year, I felt I was taking a big step. As I planned out my fall schedule, all I could think about was that I have a two-semester buffer between where I am now and where I will be when I declare my major after my sophomore year. Two semesters. And I should probably make those semesters count, as I’ll be halfway through college at this time in 2014. GEs, major and minor requirements, double counting courses, and making everything fit into one schedule–how does it all work out? And what makes the most sense, since I still do not know what I’m working towards yet?

I decided to go with Core III, two required introductory courses for the potential minor and major I am considering, my final semester of French, and a course that can double count for my Gender and Women’s Studies and Social Science GEs. While this load should suffice, registration reminded me once again of the fact that I cannot evade the decision that awaits me. What do I want to study, and what do I need to be doing to help me decide?

Thankfully, for all the Scripps students who are in the same irresolute boat as I am, we have the chance to experiment a bit. The ten GEs required to graduate from Scripps are very helpful to any undecided student. Not only do they help give us a well-rounded background, but they force us to take classes in disciplines that we may (or may not) like enough to pursue further in the future. They work in the opposite way too; a once-declared student might redirect their future studies after taking a GE course and discovering another passion.

Uncertainty is tough to face alone. Again, another benefit that Scripps and the Claremont Consortium boast is the intimacy of the education offered to us. I have found that talking to as many people as possible has been the single most reassuring and worthwhile activity to ease my anxieties over being undecided in my future endeavors. Professors, peers and upperclassmen, career advisers, family, colleagues, everyone. You never know what advice they may have, what personal experiences they might share, what information they can provide, what opportunities they can offer that might help you figure out what you want your next step will be. Talking with professors and peers with a myriad of interests has really helped me determine which classes to take and when, formulate a three-year plan, and generally just make sense of the many interests I have that might lead somewhere in the future.

I think about The Great Unknown (my future) often. Rather than channeling my fear about it into stress by wallowing in anxiety and self-pity, I have found proactivity to be much more conducive. No harm can result from being as aware as possible about everything from classes to take to out-of-school activities to try. Accept the challenge of conquering the unknown aspect of the future with gusto, and be adventurous (and that 4:00 registration time will become a lot less disheartening)!

Combatting the First Interview Question: “Tell Me About Yourself”

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I have never liked talking about myself. My dad attributes my reluctance to talk about myself to my “modest” character. I, however, do not think my disinclination comes simply from the fact that I do not want to be narcissistic. Sometimes I just do not feel assured enough to give a definite answer, and I would feel bad if I was disingenuous by misrepresenting the truth about myself.

This characteristic has followed me to college, and subsequently, to my jump into professional life. Discussions about myself and my interests, resume-making, and cover letter creation have been painful. I cannot help but feel phony by attempting to convey who I am and what experiences I have had and how I hope my future will play out in the best way possible. The “tell me about yourself” prompt always invites a slew of questions I ask myself. Who is asking the question? What do they want to hear? Should I mention xyz? I don’t even know about myself, so how am I supposed to explain that to another person?!

I could talk about my entire childhood and background and adorable youth… I mean, the interviewer did ask about me about myself! Isn’t this stage of my development relevant? (Hint: it is not).

My mom likened this question, always asked in interviews, to a sales pitch. “Selling” my story and my personality by making myself marketable and desirable as an employee essentially comes with the territory, she told me. This does not seem right either. Distinguishing between modesty and marketing yourself as a potential employee is difficult—how do you best express who you are, what your interviewer or audience wants to know, without inflating your accomplishments or fibbing?

I will admit that I sometimes downplay my accomplishments in an effort to avoid coming off as arrogant. That can be almost as damaging as talking way too much about yourself. I have since learned a few effective ways to put your best self forward without any dishonest padding. Enumerated in this list compiled by Forbes are a few good tricks about “How To Talk About Yourself In An Interview,” some of which I have discussed below.

  1. Focus on what the employer is looking for in a potential employee. This does not mean divulging your entire life history; bring up relevant accomplishments, stories, and professional experiences that will show your employer how you could effectively contribute, should they hire you. Additionally, be sure to talk specifically about skills that pertain to this job.
  2. Color your descriptions of yourself with specificity and success stories in past professional settings. “Using buzz words [like ‘hard-working’ or ‘detail-oriented’ in an interview should only be a jumping-off point for talking about a specific experience that will showcase your talents,” the Forbes article notes.
  3. Be deliberate and selective. You will lose an interviewer if you give a laundry list of your accomplishments. Showcase a few tidbits and supplement them with “an example or two that lets you bring your experience to life.”
  4. Do not hesitate to ask for help beforehand. Rehearsal with trusted family and friends who will give you constructive advice, discussion about what traits and achievements would be best to highlight, etc. can really help on the day of an interview!
  5. (and this one is not on the Forbes list) Be sincere. I know from experience that you will feel much better coming out of an interview if you present yourself in the best way possible, but also if you talk about the things you truly believe would make you the perfect candidate. These things are usually include what you are most proud of yourself. And do not be afraid to share them—you are awesome, and a future employer should know it!