The Fullbridge Program: Closing Day and Final Thoughts

Finally, we reach the ultimate day of the Fullbridge Program and my last post on the topic.

In all honesty, the morning started off quite hectic. All of us rushed to pack our luggage, and transport it to a holding area. The situation was very much an “every wo/man for him/herself” kind of situation. I ended up showing up a tad late, since I didn’t have the luxury of a car to transport my items.

After that, I entered the conference room as inconspicuously as possible. Luckily for me, people were still mingling casually around the room. A light breakfast array greeted us in the conference room, with basic staples like orange juice, coffee, ice water, bagels, and fresh fruit.

In the conference room, I joined my colleagues in chatting with our guests. Students were free to sit at any table, regardless of team associations. Our business guests were encouraged to disperse themselves evenly throughout the room, with no more than one per table. Eventually, we took our seats and our coaches made introductions on behalf of The Fullbridge Program. We then went around the room and had everyone– coaches, students, and business representatives alike– deliver 30-second elevator pitches. I would post a photo of mine, but I looked super awkward. Oops.

The last day of The Fullbridge Program featured guests from a range of different businesses and companies. This included Intel, American Widow Project, and ID, to name a few. Because the program’s participants number fewer than 30, we were able to engage company representatives in face-to-face conversations.

I was particularly impressed by several students who thought to print out copies of their resume for the conference. One student actually had his own business cards, having acquired them from a previous job or internship experience. I wondered to myself whether such actions were over-the-top audacious or just insanely brilliant– perhaps a little bit of both. I even ventured to pose this question to one of the business reps at my table, only to receive a rather neutral response. “It depends,” I was told. Apparently it worked, because my fellow Scripps colleague and blogger, Daysha, landed an internship position with entertainment company, ID.

The day’s main event featured the presentation of each group’s business pitch, followed by questions from the audience (business reps) and answers from the orators (students). Overall, I think we all performed well; and I know my team felt good about our work.

Later on, students were given the chance to ask questions of the business reps panel sitting at the front of the room. Some people asked about start-ups v. more established businesses, which made sense since both types of companies were in the room. The rest of the day went by rather quickly, and returned back to a sort of casual mingling.

With work over, we relaxed and had a bit of fun. Awards were passed out, speeches made, and then it was time to depart. Since then, my team and I have kept in contact through a viber group chat. Some have come out to Claremont to visit and my friend Katie (pictured below) recently came to visit me while on her last day of spring break. Overall, these two weeks turned out to be a rather productive and exciting winter break. Thanks for reading!

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a final pic with Team Podemos 🙂

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my friend, Katie, from Oxy, and me

 

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Claremont Colleges represent at the Fullbridge Program

Click here for more photos by Oxy photographer.

Summer Plans

I don’t want to be home for the summer. It’s not that I have a problem with living at home with either of my parents. I love them and we have a wonderful relationship. But I don’t want to be home for the summer. I want to experience something new and exciting and a little scary too. I could nurse disabled senior citizens in upstate New York. There’s a program for that. I could tutor low-income high school students in Massachusetts. There’s a program for that. Perhaps the problem here isn’t what programs are available, but what programs I can get into.

My pickings are slim and I’m pick-pick-picky. As a first year college student I know I can’t be, but I am! I want to do work that is different from what I would be doing at a typical nine to five. If I can, I want to do something meaningful. I would love to help write grants for a nonprofit organization. And I would just die if I could teach English abroad. Such opportunities usually don’t provide an hourly wage per say, but have a weekly stipend that is enough to cover room and board. And that’s enough. I just need enough. The program’s location doesn’t have to be exotic but, as I mentioned before, it can’t be local. I also don’t want to be stranded somewhere awful for the sake of experiencing it. Home, but not home… sounds like Scripps College.

Thus, I decided last week to apply to be a Peer Mentor (Scripps College New Student Program) and Facilitator (Scripps College Academy). Both are not full summer programs, as they only require me to be on campus a few weeks in either August or June respectively, but their applications will ease me into my search process. Both got me thinking, what knowledge and experiences have I to share with others? More specifically, what have I to share with students who will soon undergo the uneasy transition from high school to college? It’s strange, because I still consider myself to be going through the transition. I still have trouble finding the ATM on the Smith Campus Center, so I walk once a week to Bank of America in the Village (it’s a great excuse to skip the gym).

Like most Scripps students, I have plenty of leadership experience. In high school, I was a member of the student government and cheerleading team for three years. During the third year, I was co-captain. But an experienced leader doesn’t necessarily make a good leader. I don’t have a lot of the answers. It was hard for me to respond to some of the Peer Mentor application’s hypothetical scenarios. I’m not sure what to tell a mentee if she has problems with her roommate or misses home. My relationship with my current roommate has never been problematic. I also miss home sometimes and understand that feelings of homesickness ebb and flow. You can’t really do anything to alleviate something so natural. Some days are better than others. Even now as I write this blog, I feel a trepidation building up.

Many programs, including the ones I’m applying for, also require letters of recommendation. While the Peer Mentor application does not require a written letter of recommendation, the SCA Facilitator application does. It must be written by an individual who has known me for a significant period of time. Who knows me better than my high school advisors, coaches, and teachers? But they seem to exist in an alternate universe far, far away now. I wonder if they still have copies of the letters they wrote for me last year. Is it awkward to ask for them? Is it perhaps even rude to ask after being out of touch for almost a year?

I don’t know what I’m doing this summer. The trepidation is new and exciting and little scary, too.