IA02 - Uppergruaduate Interview

I chose to interview a junior named Alyson for this individual assignment. Alyson is currently on the track to majoring in sustainability, as am I. Her chosen path within that field focuses more on the resource management aspects of sustainability. She is very outgoing and actually organized and hosted Chatham’s first sustainable fashion show last spring.

She offered various pieces of good advice in how to deal with time management while studying here at Chatham – as she manages to do that herself between her studies and her job at a local, high-ranking restaurant in the Strip District. She said that having and keeping up with a well written calendar helps a lot to help not be overwhelmed by assignments and activities. She also added that while it is important to make sure you are efficient in your doings, that you have to leave some time for self-care as well.

When it comes to building a well written portfolio, she advised to, “always keep an ear out for events going on on-campus or locally.” Going to events can open up whole new worlds of possibilities. Walking around and meeting people at these events is also important when it comes to creating your personal social circle of resources. Alyson also encouraged to get active in creating your own events as she did with her sustainable fashion show. She said that it was a big hit and resulted with her learning and meeting a lot of cool people within the industry. She added that, “you never know, you might find an opportunity to find an internship or even a future job this way!”

In comparing advice from Alyson, I chose to look at the article interviewing Maura Rapkin who is a duel degree MA in Food Studies and MBA student. She spends a lot of time working at Eden Hall, and I have actually been able to meet and work with her on a couple occasions.

In the article, it highlighted Maura’s work in bringing back to life the Chatham Entrepreneurship Club. This is similar to that of Alyson’s advice in getting out there and being active in your work with others. Creating a club is a great way to start a baseline! This also lead into the club hosting events and I assume they got to meet some pretty cool people in their field because of that. Maura is taking what she learns from experiences she has lived and is using these to build her own career in the industry! Overall, there seems to be a very popular theme of that of communicating with the community and outsourcing with the people in the local industry.