Congratulations! You did it! You are now a college graduate. Soak in the day, because your next steps are right around the corner. What’s your plan? Are you taking a gap year? Jumping right into grad school? Maybe you are taking some time to travel.
I hope during your time in undergrad you explored the many paths there are in your field of choice and took mental notes of what sparked your interest or what you want to steer clear from along the way. Whether it was through internships, volunteer opportunities, or you just invited someone you admire in the industry out for coffee, networking is essential and creating connections in college is crucial.
Before we jump in, I want to say there is no way for us to predict the future. I mean, we could have never predicted that a little visitor by the name of Covid-19 would come in and put the world on pause. It’s sometimes a little hard to remember what the world was like before a global pandemic took over. I moved into my freshman dorm in August 2019, and enjoyed my first college semester by meeting new people, going to football games, late nights at the library, and fun trips to the dining hall with my crew. Fast forward to March 2020, I was packing up my dorm, saying goodbye to my friends, and heading back home. The following week classes resumed and college students and employees across the world were introduced to Zoom. Now, more than two years later Zoom has basically become the way of the world.
Just to put things into perspective, I enjoyed the fall semester of my freshman year on campus, while Spring semester of my freshman year and my entire sophomore year was spent meeting my peers and professors on Zoom. Zoom class meetings, virtual office hours, everything was transformed to a digital version of what we were accustomed to. While we all had to make do with the situation handed to us, I learned a couple things about myself. First, I despise Zoom classes! I’m the type of student that needs structure, in-person interaction, and the occasional chat with my professor at the end of class. Needless to say, Zoom was not cutting it for me. Second, I missed the small human day-to-day interactions. From the “thank you’s” when I held the door for someone to small talk in the elevator on the way to class, I craved it! Let me tell you, being cooped up in my room all day attending virtual classes really did something to my mental health!
The spring semester of my freshman year was definitely one that tested me. It pushed me to be a better student and young professional. Technically, I really had no choice. Looking back, I am grateful that the cards we were dealt challenged me and allowed me to grow.
While I can go on and on about the things I do not like about Zoom and how a good chunk of my college experience was taken away from me due to the unprecedented times we are living through, I can say some good came from it all. I was awarded many opportunities because I wasn’t going to watch time escape me, and I knew that this may be our new normal. If I didn’t buckle down and adapt now I will never be comfortable in a world full of constant change.
Since the height of the pandemic, I’m happy to report I covered a lot of ground. I secured a sports internship, became an executive board member of Temple University’s chapter of the National Council of Negro Women, worked as Recruiting Assistant with my school’s football program and worked as a PR & Communications Intern here at ThriveDX. This fall I will be stepping into two new roles and could not be more excited! I will serve as the 2nd VP for NCNW and work as a Communications Assistant with the football team. While I enjoyed my time working as a Recruiting Assistant, the world of athletic communications has a lot to offer. Being a student studying both Communications and Sport Management, I hope to get the best of both worlds this upcoming season.
As I prepare to enter my senior year of college and reflect on the things I have done thus far, I have really seen the importance of exploring all of my options and not letting anything stop me. My resume is filled with various new experiences — some I may or may not have enjoyed 100% — but I can say I did it. The next chapter of our lives is supposed to be fun! We’re young, which is something I tend to forget, and your experiences from college should be used as building blocks as you enter the real world. Working as a PR and Communications Intern for ThriveDX, being a Communication Studies major, and exploring all the various routes my career could go thus far, I have seen firsthand the many avenues there are within the field and the various ways PR & communications are present when it comes to companies and brands.
When thinking about my post-graduation plans, I can say at this point I don’t know what’s next for me yet. And guess what? It’s okay to not know. I will step into my last year of undergrad taking advantage of all opportunities that will come my way! Learning does not stop when you walk across that stage. Post-grad internships, higher education, training, or bootcamps…our generation will truly be the one to see what’s out there. Trust me, you know how Gen Z is. If we don’t like something, especially in the workplace we will explore our other options.
