Author Archives: FTAhealy

Never Work For A Jerk

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Last month, I attended the “World of Work” Rose Cafe led by Mary Opperman. Though I was only for the later section of the talk, I still got some great gems from Ms. Opperman’s presentation. I think a central theme that worked through all the points Ms. Opperman made was that we, as students, are much more valuable within the job searching context than we give ourselves credit for.

Usually (in my experience), discourses on campus addressing how we navigate the job and career market are very much centered on the employers and how we can make ourselves as accommodating and palatable to them as possible. However, I found that the advice Ms. Opperman gave was often (if implicitly) centering the agency and power we deserve to feel like we possess as students in this process. One example of this was when she emphasized how we need to interview back when participating in recruitment, particularly to ask about the onboarding process (always). Another example was when she mentioned that we be introspective and thorough when assessing a position, paying attention to whether it may be a great job but not in a great place or a great place but not truly a great job. It was refreshing to hear that we ought to allow room for ourselves to be picky (within reason). My favorite example was when she plainly said, “never work for a jerk.” She iterated that it was important for us to seek information on what happened to the person who was in the position before us and to make sure that we actually strive to see if we find our employers palatable, rather than solely focusing on whether they feel this way of us.

Getting Ready for the Future

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Last Thursday, I attended the seminar about personal statements for grad school. I came to the event because I am interested in law school and wanted to gain some insights on how I could possibly start positioning myself to have a good and straightforward personal statement. I found the event really helpful because I learned a few things I don’t think I was really aware of before about what really wins in this process.

One of the the tips I took away from the workshop was that it is important to actually mention your fit tp the school you are applying to. I used to see the fit topic as something you try to address i your essay/statement by highlighting certain experiences over others, but it was cool to learn that it actually helps to somewhat concretely mention it. Another tip I found interesting was how it is incredibly important to always approach the experiences you discuss with positivity, to the extent tat you need to screen the things you write to make sure they don’t come off, even minutely, negative. The last tip I took away was how you need to address your motivations and your long term goals  in your statement, making sure to point out how they intersect and particularly will at the respective school.

Making My Suite

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I attended the Roommate/Suitemate Meet & Greet. I came in somewhat uncertain about what my suite mate prospects for next year were, since I hadn’t had any concrete or definitive conversations with people about living together. However, I was so surprised and delighted with how quickly I was able to essentially finalize a suite with people once the event started. We really spent most of the time socializing, talking about roommate horror stories and things we like and dislike in our living situations. We did have an issue in the sense that we couldn’t find anyone to fill our double even as the event ended, but everyone in our block was so relaxed and chill about it. We made a game plan for how we would move forward if we ended up not being able to fill that double and did not stress about it further. Fortunately, it’s now been about a week and a half since the meet & greet and we were able to find someone to fill the double who also fits our very lad back nature. This event was definitely a success!

Power of Bystanders (TW: Sexual Assault)

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On Wednesday, I attended Laura Weiss’ talk on sexual assault on campus. At first, I wasn’t really sure why she had called it “What We Owe to Each Other in a Community…” In fact, this was a puzzlement Laura expected because the first question she threw out to us after introducing herself was along the lines of “what does sexual assault have to do with community?” One student mentioned how when such events occur, survivors often need a community and support system to surround them; this was the answer I also thought of when I first heard the question. And though this is true and, in a sense, part of what Laura discussed as the evening progressed, she presented a different notion of how community connects with sexual violence. Rather than only being a system of support for after the bad thing happens, she introduced to us how big community can be in preventing the event from ever taking place.

 

It is not my desire to list out all the various points and examples Laura gave, however, something that really moved me was the concept of bystander intervention; this is essentially a mechanism of stopping possible sexual assault situations by being an active bystander. It moved me to hear that this has actually been findings have actually shown this to be the more effective method to reducing sexual violence, because it really points out the power that we have as individuals to tackle these issues that seem so large and systemic; it urges us to take responsibility for those around us in our community, because it does matter — it actually matters the most.