{"id":1278,"date":"2017-01-27T14:33:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T14:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/careers\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2021-05-05T14:33:35","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T14:33:35","slug":"helping-sophomores-build-career-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/news\/2017\/01\/27\/helping-sophomores-build-career-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Sophomores Build Career Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- Inserted by Dropdownizer plugin. Forces video embeds contained in dropdowns to have a size --><style>.dropdownizer__dropdown iframe { width: 100% !important; height: 100% !important; }<\/style>\n<p>It might seem like a difficult task to gather 206 sophomores, dressed to impress, at 8:30am at the All Campus Dining Center. At Sophomore Career Connections, however, students relished getting an early start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wish they had it when I was a student,\u201d says Natalie Nixon \u201991, an associate professor at Philadelphia University and one of 56 alumnae\/i and parent mentors who participated in Sophomore Career Connections, a three-day program of networking and professional discovery for sophomores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its third year, Sophomore Career Connections introduces students to the wide variety of career options available to liberal arts graduates, with the help of alumnae\/i and parents who work in an array of industries. The event includes several opportunities to network with alumnae\/i and parents and informational, industry-specific career clusters to help students learn more about various fields. The industries included advertising, marketing, and public relations; arts administration; business and entrepreneurship; education; entertainment and media; environment and sustainability; financial services; government and public service; health and medicine; information technology and computing; international affairs and global careers; law and legal services; nonprofit and social justice; scientific research; visual and performing arts; and writing and publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steven Park \u201919, who has already done some professional science writing, says it was great to learn more about his two favorite topics\u2014scientific research and writing and publishing\u2014and to have access to alumnae\/i such as David Black \u201981, president of the David Black Literary Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great to talk to these experts who have all this experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amanda Su \u201919 says she went into Sophomore Career Connections not knowing a lot about her cluster industries (advertising, marketing, and public relations and government and public service), but left with new knowledge and advice\u2014plus the experience of networking with alumnae\/i and parents who are excelling in their chosen fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t get that kind of connection anywhere else,\u201d Su says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meredith Leder \u201919 says Sophomore Career Connections helped her realize what she does and doesn\u2019t want to do for her career, and noted it was good to know her Vassar degree can take her far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very reassuring seeing all of these Vassar graduates with successful careers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alumnae\/i and parents were there to provide perspective on possible careers and to intellectually stimulate the students, giving them a glimpse into many industries, says Dr. Juliet Nevins \u201991\u2014who has participated in Sophomore Career Connections for the past two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese students have such open minds and are ready to go out into the world,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keynote speaker Jim Citrin \u201981, leader of Spencer Stuart\u2019s CEO Practice, educated students about the skills employers are looking for and offered advice on the nature of careers\u2014which he called a winding road, not a straight path. He encouraged students to build strong professional relationships with alumnae\/i and others, and to never quit when things seem difficult, but instead, focus on the next task in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe key is to get in there and get started,\u201d Citrin says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The annual event was organized by the Career Development Office (CDO) and the Office of Alumnae\/i Affairs and Development and made possible by the generous support of Carol Ostrow \u201977 and Michael Graff, both P\u201909 P\u201915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her closing remarks, CDO Director Stacy Bingham thanked alumnae\/i, parents, and the students and offered insight into the sophomores\u2019 professional future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs hard as it may seem to believe, you will be in a position to share your own insights and experiences with Vassar students sooner than you think,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014Debbie Swartz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It might seem like a difficult task to gather 206 sophomores, dressed to impress, at 8:30am at the All Campus Dining Center. At Sophomore Career Connections, however, students relished getting an early start. \u201cI wish they had it when I was a student,\u201d says Natalie Nixon \u201991, an associate professor at Philadelphia University and one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1279,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions\/1279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offices.vassar.edu\/career-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}