Tag Archives: reading

Final Papers and Looming Deadlines

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Hello Scripps! I hope all is well in Southern California. The weather here in Dublin has been getting chillier, and I’ve been wearing, wait for it…. scarves! And a coat! Both of which are practically anomalies in Southern California.

As I’m sure it is for you all in Claremont, things are ramping up here in Dublin and professors have already started to discuss final papers. Eep!

Here at Trinity, and at many European institutions, humanities courses are graded based on just one, or occasionally two, essays that students turn in at the end of the semester. This past week, my professors have begun talking about these final essays and I‘ve found myself feeling more stressed than I have been all term. The fact that we are halfway through the term has set in, and the fact that I have to write six long papers has done a good job of scaring me into beginning to think about my essay topics.

Thankfully, most of my professors have given us assignments that require us to start thinking about potential topic ideas. This is convenient, as I’ve now had to start thinking about my topics and will receive feedback from my professors as well.

This is somewhat different from Scripps, where I will often stop by office hours to talk with a professor and discuss an idea for my essay. Here, where the class sizes are so large, it is hard to get individual attention during office hours. Thus, having a piece of writing that contains your topic ideas allows them to give you feedback and is a sort of substitute for that one-on-one time you might be used to in office hours.

I have also found that catching professors after class can be more effective if you aren’t able to make their office hours, or if they are too crowded for a one-on-one conversation. If I have a quick question about something that was discussed during the lecture, I will stay after to ask the professor, which I find to be most effective because the idea is fresh in my brain and then I don’t have to worry about trying to get to their office hours. Just like the professors at Scripps and the 5Cs, professors at Trinity are always more than happy to discuss topics from the lecture or answer any questions you have about the material.

One thing I was nervous about, coming to Trinity, was how accessible the professors would be, and they have proven to be very accessible. Particularly when it comes to emailing, I was warned that oftentimes, professors wouldn’t respond promptly and was nervous that I would have a hard time getting in touch with them. I don’t think I’ve ever gone more than 24 hours without receiving a response from a professor, which I would compare to the response time of professors at Scripps and was very pleased that it didn’t live up to its expectations.

As it’s the middle of the semester at Scripps as well, I’d like to empathize with those back home. Even though I’m in a different country and have been able to travel, I’m still spending my days in the library, doing lots of reading and writing, so just to emphasize that it’s not all play over here.

Please let me know if you’d like to talk with me about Trinity or study abroad; I’d be happy to share about my time here!

Pick A Card, Any Card!

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Random is definitely not a word I’d associate with the process of choosing my classes and major. Recently, planning my academics and extra-curriculars while trying to anticipate every outcome left me feeling dazed and confused. I overthought everything so much I didn’t know what to do. I went in for a counseling appointment at CP&R needing an outside perspective to lift me out of my fog of paralysis.

Enter Valinda and her magical Values Card Sort. Here’s how it works: you simply sort a stack of cards, each with a different value—an aspect of a potential professional role, in order of importance to you. My top ten values (in no particular order) are the following:

  • Structure and predictability
  • Knowledge
  • Diversity
  • Location
  • Advancement
  • Precision work
  • Affiliation
  • Exercise competence
  • Time freedom
  • Aesthetics

Because I’m a visual learner, ranking and rearranging the cards really helped me articulate my big picture end goals. Having this list in front of me enabled me to analyze exactly what I found so attractive about different career options. It also enabled me to compare them. Allow me to digress…

 When I was in elementary school, I was a huge dork. I loved books so much (Boxcar Children, Magic Treehouse, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Artemis Fowl were my favorites) that I would stay inside during recess to read. So it’s probably no surprise that my childhood dream was to become a librarian.

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When I was in second grade, I got in trouble with Ms. Labagh for hiding a book in my lap and reading under my desk during “Reading” class. | Source: MagicTreehouseBooks.net

As I’ve gotten older, that little dream has been set aside by different experiences that led my decision to major in Economics-Accounting and minor in Art History. Since coming to college, I’ve been on track to become an accountant in the art world. It seemed to be the most logical marriage between my major and minor; my practical, orderly personality and my desire for unbounded learning and aesthetic stimulation…that, and I have to be financially independent after graduation.

So to return to my list of values above: being a librarian would satisfy most of the values I chose. But there probably wouldn’t be a lot of opportunities for advancement or a notable affiliation unless I worked at a big library. Being an accountant would satisfy a lot of these values too, but there wouldn’t be a lot of time freedom or aesthetic appreciation. Working my way through this list has helped me structure my analysis when considering other possibilities.

Last week, while researching internship opportunities to post on the NIC database as part of my responsibilities at CP&R, I realized there are so other many roles I’d love to try that meet my values. I could be a collections manager and be in charge of a museum’s art collection (a librarian for art!); or work in institutional development and help non-profits like Scripps and LACMA grow; or become an art appraiser and research artwork and market trends to value works of art. Reading through the job descriptions and comparing them with my values helped me picture myself in these roles.

In the words of AnnE, a fellow career consultant: “[Researching internships] is dangerous. I’ve changed my career path four times in the past hour!”

The revelation of there being so many potentially good fits was kind of scary. I’ve told myself and so many other people for so long that I want to be an accountant in the art world, that to let go of that goal at this moment isn’t something I can embrace just yet. I’m not ready to erase that identifier or change my major, mainly because I have no work experience in accounting (yet!). I don’t know what it’s really like. I hope my accounting interview next week goes well, but realizing that there are so many avenues beyond is a big reassurance too.

“Write… A LOT”

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One thing I love about all the writing experience I’m forcing myself to have during college (kind of—I enjoy it!) is that it works. I love looking back on past articles I’ve written for any of the various publications I write for, and identifying the ways I’ve improved.

The book critic I was recently corresponding with told me that, if I’m not already, I should write for the school newspaper because he knows that he gained invaluable experience by doing so. I still remember the Turf Dinner freshmen year, when I raced around the tables, only searching out the stand for The Student Life. I hadn’t written for a newspaper before, and was anxious to start gaining experience.

One place at which I have really noticed this is in my internship at the Public Relations Office this semester. I had been used to writing longer pieces, about 700-900 words, composed of longer paragraphs and less quotes (since most of my articles for the newspaper and the magazine have been reviews or summaries of events, not interviews). The first rough draft of an article I wrote for Public Relations followed this pattern—I simply couldn’t figure out how to make it shorter.

Before long though, by looking at the edited copies I was given back and studying the current feature articles on the website written by others, I learned how to adopt a similar style. It’s fun to look at the information the interviewees give me, draw out the suitable quotes that move the story forward, and also highlight or tie back to an aspect of Scripps College that we want to present. Of course, I have lots of work ahead of me but it sounds like I will be able to continue the internship next semester, too, also concentrating on producing articles for the Scripps website.

For my personal blog, I try to write my posts more like stories; for this blog I usually have the same idea in mind but tend to be even more casual since the topic is always more personal. For the newspaper, it depends on the article itself.

Over the summer, I tried my hand at more creative writing, working on short stories that I’ve always had in the back of my mind. This month is National Novel-Writing Month, and I hope to challenge myself in order to gain even more creative writing experience. (And also hope to blog about it, so that the few people following me can help keep me on track!) I love the idea of being a versatile writer, and for anyone who hopes to have a career focused on writing, I suppose this is necessary since it’s not the easiest path on which to have a narrow focus.

I had mentioned in a previous post that often people with aspirations like mine tend to get the same advice over and over (which, of course, just shows how important it is to take this advice): read a lot. However, we also get another piece of advice just as often: write a lot.

Sometimes, all this writing seems to get tedious, but then I look back over the improvement I’ve made, or have an especially enjoyable day writing a piece I find particularly interesting, fun, or challenging, and it is all worthwhile. Today was one of those days, and I feel excited for the future writing experience and related jobs I will have, for the words I will one day create, and the experiences that will go along with them.