Professional Identity

 Hi All!

This week we had Dakota from Career and Professional Services come in to talk about networking and building a professional identity. I have to admit, I have not put much work into my LinkedIn profile and updating it has seemed like quite the chore. BUT...building a professional identity using LinkedIn is a great way to create a community of connections that may help in finding a career. One of the things that stood out to me that Dakota mentioned was having a well rounded profile. We want to use LinkedIn as much as we would any other social media. If I'm going to dedicate time and energy to a social media app, it may as well be something that has a positive end goal. I created a short bio about myself, updated my headline, and followed a bunch of LinkedIn pages of potential companies that I would want to work for. The next step for me will be reaching out to people that work for some of those businesses and attempting to make connections. I have one semester left after the current semester and I'd like to start connecting with people and opportunities within the science field to increase my odds of finding a career after graduation. I think getting a jumpstart on LinkedIn and networking during your last year at University is a great idea and will set all of us up for success.

TRAIN Mixers and transfer advice!

Hello All-

I was unable to attend the TRAIN mixer this year as I have a class during that time! I hope everyone got something out of it and was able to get a good idea of what TRAIN looks like at ASU! I remember when I was transferring from Phoenix College to ASU West, I felt nervous about "bigger" classes and how it might be difficult getting help with those classes (based on what I heard from other students). What I've found is that for the most part class sizes are not all that much bigger than a community college and professors are very willing to help students. Most professors hold review sessions for tests and some classes even have SA's (Student Assistants?) that hold review sessions so my fears were instantly alleviated! The tutor lab at West is great and an incredibly helpful resource when I'm stuck on an assignment and working with other students has been another great way to get help. Having access to these resources and other students really helped me during some stressful times!

One thing I enjoyed as part of the TRAIN scholarship at Phoenix College (that I thought I wouldn't be able to do at ASU West) was the ability to do research. When I transferred, I wanted to continue doing this but didn't know where to start. Early on, I found out about NCUIRE and approached a few professors about joining their lab. I did some research on the faculty website to see what professors were studying in their labs which helped inform my decision. I jumped at the opportunity to work in the Behavioral Ecology lab with Black Widow spiders and have been doing mentored research since Fall 2022. If you are interested, in research, I would reach out to NCUIRE or to an ASU faculty member and ask how you can join their lab. These TRAIN mixers are a great way to meet faculty, as well as others students, that may be able to answer questions or provide insight on how to join a lab.

Link to NCUIRE: https://newcollege.asu.edu/ncuire