Month: December 2018

Giving Students Voice

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the 2018 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Mckayla Warwick, COL ’20

As the focus of my classes slowly turned into exam prep and the leaves began to block the shining sun along Locust Walk, my mind returned more and more to a conversation I had with Dr. Brian Peterson of Makuu: The Black Cultural Center earlier in the semester. He presented an idea about creating a five-week summer program for black high school students in Philadelphia curated around the foundational approaches of College Preparation, College Access and Completion, and Urban Education. Within these overall topics, students would also develop their research and writing, as well as increase their academic and personal confidence.

I immediately felt attached to the program’s vision but financing a summer alone in Philadelphia seemed unattainable.

While my status in the program made me feel uneasy due to financial reasons, I applied for a grant from Career Services with the hope that they would see the value in funding a local idea starting from the ground up. Upon receiving notification of their financial support, I could breathe and fully commit myself to what I now consider to be the greatest thing I have ever been a part of.

When we began to meet in late May to create the program, the question of “what impact do we want to have?” started us off, but we finished our planning with a revised question: “What impact do we want the students to have on friends, schools, and communities after they are empowered with the actualization that they can be organizers?” After a month and a half of complete creative control in drafting lesson plans centered around students coming to terms with their identities, unpacking societal barriers, and planning for success #fortheculture, it was time to execute.

I find it difficult to articulate the growth we witnessed in our students from the first day of the program to the last week. A lot of it was allowing them to warm up to us, but a separate challenge was encouraging students to believe us when we stated their contribution to conversations had value and their dreams for their future were never stupid. Once we had those critical conversations, the students rose to the occasion of tackling the prompts around problem-solving issues related to K-12 education in Philadelphia and college completion for black and brown students nationally. Examples of this include three major successes:

In our post-evaluation survey, every student stated they found this program to be transformational, and as a result, wanted to continue their involvement throughout their academic pathways.

A group of three students created a plan inspired by our conversations about enrollment of Black and Latinx students in AP and advanced classes to organize and facilitate a peer guidance program back at their high school.

Six of the students stayed involved with us for an extra week to make the materials needed for the continuation of this program. Three students took on marketing and three took on planning future activities, such as trips, guest speakers, and projects to use again.

I am forever grateful to Career Services for helping me be in this space to make this program happen. This summer laid the foundation for how I want to approach education (through project-based learning, representation, and community focus). As I witnessed, outlooks and outcomes change when students hold the voice. I will continue to work with Dr. Brian Peterson to ensure the students see that their plans for next summer come to fruition.

Career Lessons from Buddy the Elf

By Dr. Claire Klieger

‘Tis the season for holiday movies on tv, pretty much 24-7. One of my favorites is Elf. So, in the spirit of the season, here are some career takeaways from Buddy himself:

“I just like to smile; smiling’s my favorite.” Remembering to smile, especially in interviews, can shift the whole tone of the exchange. Similarly, smiling when you first meet someone in a business meeting helps to put them at ease. Smiling in a professional setting really should be your favorite!

via GIPHY

“I’m a cotton-headed ninny-muggins.”Admitting when you’ve made a mistake and taking ownership of it in the workplace goes a long way, especially when you can identify an issue when there is still time to correct it.

“So, good news—I saw a dog today.” Try to focus on the positive, both in your work place and in your job search. Taking stock of those “small wins” even in the everyday will power you through the more difficult days.

via GIPHY

“I’m in a store and I’m singing!” Be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and stretch yourself from time to time. Take on a new project, learn a different skill, be willing to explore a career path outside of Penn norms.

“You did it! Congratulations! World’s best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody!” Ok, so what makes this hilarious in the movie is that he’s celebrating mediocrity and every coffee shop in New York’s claim to have the greatest cup of coffee. That said, taking time to acknowledge others’ genuine successes is really good way to build rapport in the work place.

“I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly-twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.” Persistence, whether it’s traveling to find your human dad who lives in the Big Apple when you’ve been raised by elves at the North Pole, or on the job search, on that big project at work, is a great quality sure to serve you well.

Happy Holidays from all of us in Penn Career Services!

Get a GRIP

J. Michael DeAngelis, Digital Resources Manager

Looking for a summer internship or research placement?  Interested in going abroad during your time at Penn?  Find out how you can do both through Penn Abroad’s Global Research & Internship Program (GRIP)!  We have 200 internship and research opportunities available in a variety of career fields and locations.  All placements come with guaranteed funding!

The deadline to apply is January 6th, but all students must attend an advising session held by Penn Abroad before the end of the semester.  You can read more about GRIP and available Summer 2019 placements, as well as sign up for your advising session, on the website or by emailing grip-abroad@upenn.edu.  Deadlines are approaching, so act soon!

Achieving Meaningful Change

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the 2018 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Chinaechelum Vincent, COL ’20.

This summer, I got the chance to work in Los Angeles, California at Loyola Law School. The law school is home to many legal clinics including the Immigration Justice Clinic, the Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic, and where I found my home – the Collateral Consequences of Conviction Justice Project. With my intense study of the phenomenon that is mass incarceration, I’ve become familiar with the many consequences that plague a person’s life after being incarcerated. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “On any given day, the United States locks up more than 2.3 million people, more than any other country in the world per capita. More than 650,000 of those people are released from state and federal prisons every year.” [1] For those that are released every year, recidivism, which is where the person reoffends and lands back behind bars, is very common for over half of these people. For those that manage to stay out of the system, they are returning to a new life with various limitations. These limitations include being barred from living in certain places, the right to vote, and often the most detrimental – many opportunities of employment.

All of the cases I took on this summer at the clinic were carried out in hopes of my clients securing employment. I worked under an attorney and professor – Eleanor Miller, who was previously handling the workload on her own. Coming into the position, I got the opportunity to learn about the changing laws when it came to expungements, particularly Prop 47, which made certain nonviolent and non-serious crimes reduced to misdemeanors, and Prop 64 which made carrying less than an ounce of marijuana legal. A number of my clients were facing barriers to employment while they qualified to have their records sealed to certain employers. I received the opportunity to accompany the professor to a vocational school here in Los Angeles where we took the time to explain the expungement process and therefore notified many students that they qualified for a better future. On top of finding clients, I followed through with completing all of their court forms, talking to them about additional information over the phone or in person, and wrote their declarations to be sent to the court. I managed to help about 20 clients over the course of my internship.

My time at this post-conviction clinic was a rewarding experience for not only my clients but for myself as well. As I prepare for law school this upcoming year, I feel as if I am well-equipped for what is to come. Receiving the opportunity to be in the legal setting, visit courts, and work with actual clients has set the foundation for my future career in the field of criminal defense. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have worked at Loyola Law School and for the abundance of knowledge and support I found awaiting me. With my ultimate goal of achieving meaningful change, this opportunity has contributed greatly to the work I hope to pursue in the future.

[1] “Words From Prison: The Collateral Consequences of Incarceration.” American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/other/words-prison-collateral-consequences-incarceration.

MilkCrate

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the 2018 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.

This entry is by Eden Harris, COL ’19.

This summer, I interned as a product manager at a Philly-based startup, MilkCrate. Working as a product management intern, I got my first real look into how a business functions. Jumping from bioengineering into an experience like this was new, exciting, challenging, and rewarding. This opportunity allowed me to develop and understand my professional goals, particularly with regards to my engineering background. My position as product management intern exposed me to the consumer and business side of the product, supplementing my technical background in designing, calculating, coding, and building. This position gave me a better sense of how an idea takes off – from mockups, to meetings, to usability testing, finally to sales.

Throughout the duration of my internship, I got the opportunity to take on several different tasks, collaborating with other employees and interns on several projects. I worked on quality control, testing apps for bugs and usability issues. I also helped boost outreach within the Philly community by contacting the organizers of local speaking engagements in which our CEO would be able to present. Along with this, I researched and catalogued potential clients for us to reach out to, based off of some of the successful client experiences we had had in certain fields. Additionally, I worked with the CEO to design a mockup of a product geared towards some of our new clients and presented this mockup to my coworkers in development and client success. All of these experiences were totally new to me – not only had I never heard the word “mockup” before, I had never dealt with business-to-business interactions or community outreach.

As a low-income student, the Career Services funding allowed me to pursue an opportunity I would have otherwise been unable to pursue, and I am immensely grateful for that. My funding covered rent, living expenses, and transportation, relieving several major stressors of taking on an unpaid position. Moreover, this internship helped me broaden my skill set and adapt to a new type of workplace. I have learned a considerable amount about myself and the professional world. Given my background in engineering, my role was not as technical as I had hoped, but required me to develop my outreach and presentation skills. I feel confident that I will bring these skills to future job interviews, and ultimately future jobs.