As someone who feels intimidated to approach professors, I discovered a new perspective on networking with faculty members from Christa Downey.  They are just normal people like us.  We often don’t want to appear “stupid” in front of them, but they’re here to help us and they usually love to speak with their students.

Additionally, we talked about group dynamics.  We talked about the two types of unhealthy group dynamics: a group with unmotivated people or a group with a bossy leader.  The first one often puts a strain and it can become disheartening to feel like the only member putting in the work.  Nonetheless, it’s all about communication; let the group know that you feel overwhelmed and that everyone needs to step up their game.  Don’t be passive aggressive, but be proactive about your sentiments.  Everyone is an adult here.  In the latter, it’s important to communicate to the “bossy leader” that everyone is capable of doing work.  During the conversation, someone asked whether it a good grade was worth dealing with an unhealthy group dynamic.  This question struck me, because in the end, it’s all about the grade, right?  However, through the conversation, I realized that I’d rather work and learn together as a group to get an average grade than let one person do the work to get a higher grade.  There is more to projects than just the superficial grade; the sharing of perspectives and the satisfaction of seeing the culmination of everyone’s work form into something cohesive and presentable.  Instead of worrying about the post-project grade, focus on the process of getting there, on the bonding experiences with your group mates.  Christa Downey also mentioned that in a real life setting, you are not going to have the option to choose your partners, and you may end up working with people you don’t get along with.  As a result, everyone needs to be mature and set out boundaries even before the work starts.  While passing your group project in class is only a small aspect of your student life, having the ability to create healthy group dynamics will aid you in your career and for the rest of your life.

I realized to put myself out there more and break the fear of speaking to my professors and adults outside of lecture to become more knowledgeable about the field I want to go into and what kind of opportunities I have. I always thought that adults would think I was ignorant if I asked questions, but it is their job to answer our questions; and I should be using the resources I have while I am here. Networking among peers for group work is also very important as I found that I could relate to many of the team carrying situations. I never thought of working in group projects prepared us to work with strangers for my future job. Good teamwork abilities need to be learned before I step into the outside world to create products effectively. From this cafe talk, I made a goal to network with one adult and one upperclassmen by the end of this semester to gain more perspectives of my life decisions outside of my peers.

At the Rose Cafe talk last week, we discussed networking and the challenges of teamwork. Although I haven’t had many experiences with group work at Cornell, the few experiences I did have made me realize a few things about myself. If the members of the team showed disinterest and lack of motivation, I tended to just do the work myself to ensure a high grade. However, through the talk I realized that making sure members participate equally is important. I realized that I didn’t even try to motivate the other members but just assumed they would not do the work. We also discussed the importance of networking and building connections at Cornell. We need to strive to make at least one new connection with a staff or faculty member every semester in order to build a large network, which will ultimately help us in future endeavors.

Meeting Ms. Downey really opened my eyes to the opportunities of networking at Cornell. She explained how the main was to be successful is through the advice and mentorship of others. And as students at Cornell we must use all our resources, and expand our mentorship networks in order to be successful. She advised us all to make at least two connection per semester, one with a professor and one with a staff member. She also said that many of limit ourselves to the age range or academic field of our connections, however, she says that we must have a diverse group of people in our network to be successful. All this information was extremely valuable to me as I had not realized how much our personal network is important in individual success. Also, I have always been troubled by starting the initial conversation to build a connection with other, be it professors or other peers. However Ms. Downey reminded us that everyone at Cornell, and around us, is willing to lend all the information they have to help another person. So with, Ms. Downey’s words, I myself will try to reach out and make more connections during my time at Cornell.

I found the Rose Cafe with Christa Downey to be an incredibly useful resource. Networking seems to be very important at Cornell. As a transfer, Cornell can be overwhelming at first, and it is difficult to even know where to start when trying to make connections. However, the advice from everyone, both peers and faculty, in regards to securing internships and research is to reach out and talk to people. Christa Downey provided some good advice on how to make the connections necessary to find enriching opportunities at Cornell. This is my first semester here, but as I start to become acclimated to my classes and the work load, I would like to start looking for research opportunities and unique experiences that could only be achieved by talking to people. As a  shy person, it can be difficult to make the first move , so I greatly appreciate Dr. Downey’s advice and the booklet she handed out at the Cafe.

This past Wednesday, at the Rose Cafe, I had the opportunity to listen to Christa Downey from the Engineering Career Center. Although I have heard her speak before (she came to talk in one of my classes recently), I found this Rose Cafe to be extremely useful. The talk focused a lot on building a network, which is something that I have often struggled to do. This is particularly true when it comes to talking with professors. While I would say that I have a pretty good network of peers, I do not have very many adults in my network. I find professors in particular difficult to talk to because they all seem to know so much more than me, and because I often do not know what to say to them. Pretty much everyone at the talk agreed that they find professors intimidating to some degree, even though most professors actually want to be approached by students. I think that the main problem is that the professors just seem so distant from the students. This is especially true in a big lecture hall. I have found that the greatest way to reduce that feeling of intimidation that students feel is to have interactions with professors in more informal settings. At least in my case, I would find it much easier to have a conversation with Professor Avery after running into her in the hallways of Rose, than I would to have a conversation with a professor after class. As a result, I am very grateful for having a house professor to help make professors seem more approachable. However the other problem I have is that I often do not know what to say to professors, which is why I only ever attend office hours if I have a very specific question on the homework.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Christa Downey’s talk at the Rose Cafe.  She had a lot of great advice but the key point that resonated with me was the importance of teamwork.  She talked a lot about how to make a team work, both on the job and in school.  So many of us have struggled working in teams, often because we find ourselves engrossed in the project and stuck with students who aren’t as interested or willing to put in the work.  Christa emphasized that we shouldn’t accept that and we shouldn’t be taking all of the work on ourselves, because that’s not a healthy team dynamic either.  Rather, communication is extremely important and we need to make sure we’re all on the same page with our teammates.

Besides the typical thought of teamwork as some students working together on a class project, Christa also focused on the importance of your own personal team for career and life planning.  Everyone should have a support team/network of different people to reach out to for different things.  Maybe one friend is really good at solving friend conflicts, while another can help you work through that week’s challenging accounting problem set.  Both are valuable friends and you should strive to be the same for someone else.  If we all build strong networks and friendships, we can all feed off of each other and work together to be successful in anything we do.  Christa challenged us to grow our networks during our time here at Cornell, both with students and faculty.

In my mind, the moral of her talk was without the teamwork, the dream – professional or personal – can’t work.

This Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending another Rose Cafe, where Christa Downey, from the Engineering Career Advising Office, was speaking about networking and building a support crew for academic and career success. I found the conversation fascinating as I had never put much thought in to how much networking could affect my future academic, career, and life prospects. The thing that impacted me most was when we discussed the importance of making connections with different administrative figures and staff during our academic years, such as Deans, Assistant Deans, Professors, Teaching Assistants, Officers in Clubs and Organizations, and even our own peers. These are the people that could point us in the direction of great academic or career opportunities (a Graduate program or an internship) or could even write recommendation letters that we might need in the future. In addition to this, we have created a support group of various, talented and wise, individuals who will be there for us if we ever need a helping hand, some advice, or maybe even a word of encouragement or redirection.

Ms. Downey also assured us that no matter how awkward or uncomfortable reaching out might feel like, the end result is worth it. Whether you come away from the experience with a connection or not, you will have learned something useful for future networking. I learned a lot about making connections and setting goals, even a bit about being courageous in facing our fears and in accepting change. I’m happy to report that I am setting goals for myself and making plans to reach out and make connections. I encourage others to do the same as it will be highly beneficial for your future and really only takes up a small amount of time in comparison to how much good it will do your academic and social career.

This week’s Rose Cafe featured Christa Downey from the Engineering Career Advising Office. It was very interesting to take part in what was more of a discussion than a lecture, where most of the participants seemed to be there for the same reason I was: to get advice. The topic was developing your mentor network and ensuring that you have a collection of people to whom you can go to for support and guidance. As a relatively shy person, I have always found it difficult to reach out to professors, and many of the other students at the cafe either felt similarly to me or were transfer students who knew they were at a time disadvantage and wanted to make the most of their years at Cornell. Personally, I found that our conversation on time management was the most meaningful to me. Chris talked about how you should make goals for yourself – for example, making one faculty connection each semester – and how that requires you to take time out of your normal schedule to go to office hours or find other opportunities to connect with people. While it sometimes seems impossible to find the free time to do such things, I agree that forming relationships with professors or other people who have the capacity to be mentors is one of the most valuable things you can do with your time at Cornell.

The Rose Cafe event on Wednesday was very informative and enlightening because I learned that it’s important to make connections with one faculty member and one staff member each semester. If I start making connections this semester, I will be making twelve connections by the end of senior year. Christa Downey emphasized how we should expand our network because that would help us get internships, jobs, and other wonderful opportunities after college. We also came across the topic of time management. When other people shared how they managed their time, I was impressed by their effective methods such as spending one hour on each homework to get at least something done, inputting important deadlines on Google calendar, and writing down what you have to do for the week before it starts. Time management is something that many students and I struggle with, so I think it’s important to know how our peers use their time to get things done. The workbook that was given out in the talk would be useful for me to keep track of the size of my network and set goals for myself and towards my future. Overall, I had a great time at the talk, and I hope to expand my network this semester.

I learned that setting a new goal and asking adviser are very helpful. This event gives us a handbook called Personal Networking Strategy Workbook that provides us a plan to connect with people start new career search. Also, finding time and attending train session are important. Christa Downey  and Professor Avery  talked about involving research and having internship. We can ask someone and seek out opportunity because it helps us to learn something and develop skills.  Finally, do what you want to do is what you should do. I am very happy to be here.

This week for Rose Café Christa Downey came and spoke about the benefits of networking and how to go about expanding your network. I found it very interesting how both Christa and professor Avery encouraged students to go into office hours to not only ask their professors questions about course material, but simply to chat and build a relationship. This will certainly be difficult for me, because I only go into office hours for course help, and I do not think of this as a time for general conversation. Also, in many of the office hours I have attended, they have either been open to everyone, and so there are multiple students there all asking different questions, or they are by appointment only. In the latter case, I am hesitant to schedule office hours just for a conversation, especially if that means I may be taking away the professors time to help another student.

On the other hand, Christa also talk about building relationships not only with professors, but Cornell faculty in general. I think that this is great advise, because while the professors here at Cornell are very distinguished and can provide great advice on career pathways in their field, there are many other Cornell faculty that are very interesting and would make great additions to someone’s network. These connections can come in many different forms for different people, such as connecting with coaches, librarians, TA’s, or even graduate students and alumni. Personally, as a member of the varsity swim team, I have a weekly meeting with my coach. There is not a general focus for this meeting, and I enjoy being able to talk about anything that has been happening to me that week.  While these contacts are great to have, I am going to take Christa’s advise and try to branch out my network in every direction throughout my time here at Cornell.

This week I attended the Rose Cafe talk with Christa Downey. She spoke to us about the career center, working in groups, and making connections. During the talk she asked us if we recognize any obstacles when making connections. I found that since I am a junior transfer student that I might be too late in the game. That I’m leaving her sooner that I arrived. Ms. Downey assured me that it is never too late to make connections. She told us that we should have a diverse group of people in our network, and hopefully by graduation have around 4-8 people in your network. Your network should consist of academic advisors, TA’s, staff members, alumni, people in your class, and people who are a couple of years ahead of  your doing what you want to do. I find that my network at my other college was very strong but it took me a while to create it. I fear that the intimidation of the school makes it harder for me to make connections. I think once I break my shell and make my first connection with one person than I will be able to disperse myself and make more connections.

As a student at Cornell, sometimes it’s okay to feel overwhelmed by the numerous number of advisors that is available. Personally, I have a faculty advisor, advising dean, pre-health advisor, major advisor, Professor Avery as a house professor, and several other mentors that I feel comfortable with sharing my doubts and concerns about anything. Building these connections is essential for a positive future in the workforce. Although I’ve heard from many different sources about the importance of networking, I’ve never really understood how significant it was until this cafe talk. Networking provides me with so many possible opportunities that I wouldn’t have known even existing. Keeping in contact with a group of professionals that are both my peers and contemporaries gives me a diverse collection of people that could drive my career path forward. I now know how important it is to attend office hours and make these connections with my professors and TAs. Although I’ve had a bad experience going to a professor’s office hours, I know that most faculty at Cornell often seek to aid their students rather than hinder their educational experience. I will push myself to extend myself towards these faculty members and make these connections and networks that will help my future.

Tonight’s table talk with Christa Downey made me reflect on my experience at Cornell. I’m an animal science major and I tend to associate with other animal science majors. I would like to think that it’s because I see people that have common interests. I see a lot of the same people in my classes, in clubs I’m in,  and in the library. I would like to expand my network. There are definitely a lot of people who have common interests who aren’t my major. My roommate freshman year, who I’m still friends with, is an astronomy major and we have common interests. I would like to meet more people and expand my horizons. Hopefully Rose Scholars will allow me to do that.

My experience so far for teamwork is school assignments and my high school frisbee team. I think if you know you’ll be with the team for the long haul, it’s good to get to know each other and host events solely for the purpose of ice breaking. Though often for school assignments, we just cooperate because we have a common goal and that goal doesn’t necessarily involve making connections within the group, we’re just focused on getting things done. And I think if the group is for the short term you can get away with having certain few do the bulk work and having free riders. Teamwork is used to maximize efficiency and if a person can’t do their share, it’s just going to hinder progress. It’s better to have people specialize in what they do rather than divide into fair “equal” loads. Then in that case, yes it’d be important to get to know your teammates first like Christa said.