Prompt: Translating my college experience into employer-desired experiences – pick 3 examples
Hello Everyone,
Hello Everyone!
Lately I have been thinking about my online presence and how I want to be portrayed to others online. Most of the apps that I am currently using are Instagram for social connections with colleagues, friends, and family, but I have thought about emphasizing more on my profile my career interests and research to portray to others of what I am currently working on.
On the other hand I do feel like I am semi-satisfied with my Link'd In Profile and the networking I have on it. I have connected with so many student's in STEM, professors that I have done research with, and my coworkers I currently have. A lot of my coworkers and friend's have been impressed with the experience that I have with research and work that I have had in the past.
I do however have a dissatisfaction with how much time I have on social media and feel like it has been impacting my mental health in a negative way. So currently I haven't been paying much time on their to limit my distractions and screen time.
Hello STEM/TRAIN Scholars,
For many that are new/returning back to the STEM/TRAIN program this semester, welcome! It feels so good to finally be back and seeing many of you in person again! I feel like my first year at ASU was such an odd experience as we all spent the past year through Zoom meetings and stuck at home. While we are still in the mix of a pandemic, I hope many of you have been staying healthy and well!
This will be my third semester in the STEM/TRAIN program! WOAH... I am actually in disbelief with how time has flown by since I first joined the program back at Phoenix College. It's almost like a bittersweet feeling as my fourth semester approaches but I am excited for the new journey that awaits me. And for many of you that are new, this program will teach you a lot about research, networking, what to expect with your future studies, job hunts, etc! oh and not to forget to mention, the amazing mentors! I spent my first two years at Phoenix College doing a whole lot of Research in Microplastics, working in labs with Dr. Beth Polidoro, collecting/creating data analysis on what I have gathered, to presenting at many different conferences. Doing all of that made me aware of the passion I really have with data! I am now pursuing my Major in Applied Computing with a Minor in Business Data Analytics. I am hoping to go into the Data Analyst Field and who knows, maybe I will want to go towards my Master's in Data Science.
One of the many questions for our first blog post is what is my current online presence? That's a really great and simple question that requires to sit down and reflect, cause truly what is my online presence? Other than having an Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter to socialize with friends and family... it might not be so appealing for a corporation when they ask to look into that. It truly is filled with memes or important political posts that advocate for Global Justice. In other words I do have an LinkedIn where I have even some of my ASU STEM colleagues on and it is super exciting to see them grow and expand their professionalism and skills!
I hope to hear all from you and the research you guys will be doing throughout the STEM/TRAIN program!
Best,
Francisco
1. What are your professional goals, 1 year, 5 years and 10 years into the future? What will accomplishing these goals let you do? How will accomplishing these goals impact those around you and what will it make possible for those in your community?
Wow! Can you believe we are close to ending the 2020-2021 academic year?! Crazy how fast time has flown! I hope everyone had a good year so far. I know many challenges have came across each and every one of you but it's always good to stay optimistic about our futures while we can. This year I've had a lot of growth within my professional work + school where I finally can see myself doing something that I like. I have four more semesters left till I graduate from ASU with my Bachelor's in Applied Computing. So my hopes in the two years is to have a job as a data analyst whether that be in a government job or for a tech company.
2. What are societal challenges that matter to you that you think it's important to deal with now? What do you think are the challenges that will matter 10 years in the future, and 20 years in the future? How do you think these challenges will be addressed, and what will need to happen to make sure that they are?
I think some of the societal challenges that matter to me the most is Racial Injustice, Equality and Climate justice. I feel like Racial Injustice is something that will always matter in the future as we continue to unravel lots of work in fighting for equality whether that be wages, opportunities, to discrimination across many different degrees. A lot of the challenges that we are facing today comes from social movements and bring up awareness of this matter just like the George Floyd incident back in June of 2020. Till now we are finally seeing Derek Chauvin finally being charged all three counts, something we highly doubted but finally saw happen!
3. What is something that makes you optimistic about the future, and why? This could be something big and impersonal (improving price of Li-ion batteries) or something small and personal (a new pet). Please describe how it feels to focus on this thing that makes you optimistic, and discuss whether you think it is a good idea to be intentional about being optimistic.
I'm very optimistic to having a financially stable future and a place where I want to be. It feels very good to know how far I have came with school and knowing how close I am to finishing. Feelings of excitement and knowing all of this hard work is paying off. But for now it's good to focus on my small goal like maintaining passing grades, having my work being turned in on time, and continuing to create relationships with my peers!
1. What did you know about your field 3 years ago, and what have you learned about that has 'wowed' you? (Supplemental questions: What did you used to think was an advanced topic in your subject, and what do you think is now? What was the experience that you feel you learned the most from?)
Three years ago, I was considering on proceeding into a major in Biology. I learned so much approaching this career path. Learning from research, the possible career outcomes within this field, different skills and the many graduate programs that an undergraduate can research. When I entered this field I was astonished at the different types of research you can do in your graduate program! The experience did feel overwhelming though I was very overwhelmed with how much experience you must have when applying for job post graduate and the amount of work that goes into when taking the upper level course work. I feel although the amount of studying needed to succeed in these courses, I learned time management and organizing to better prepare myself to succeed as a student in college.
2. What do you want to learn about over the next 3 years? (Is it scientific or personal? Why do you want to learn it? How do you plan on developing this knowledge?)
Over the next three years, I really want to take a moment to develop more skills and gain my knowledge in the work of field I will be pursuing. The reason why is I want to prepare myself land more job opportunities once out of college. Speaking to numerous post-grad students has helped with providing an insight on what the field looks like. Job shadowing as well helps to know what type of job I will be working on and help gain an understanding of what skills employers will look for.
Hello everyone! I hope everyone's semester has been going great! In this blog post I will be talking about who I am grateful for who has helped me get to where I am today and what advice I would give to my younger self. The first few people that have popped into my head when thinking about answering this question is my mom and sisters. I remember a couple of years ago, I was struggling with my mental health and financial situation. It was my first year as a college student and did not know whether I would be prepared or able to afford to pay for school. As my sister was a previous ASU alumni, she had walked me through different resources and options to applying for FAFSA and applying towards different scholarship programs offered through the institute I was attending which was Phoenix College at the time. By doing that I got into the STEM/TRAIN mentorship program which now has brought me to being at ASU today! Knowing all the wonderful mentors and colleagues I have grown with over the years! I am super grateful my family had pushed me through especially during hard times.
Advice that I would give my younger self would be not to feel discouraged or avoid feeling like I am not smart/good enough for a career path I am wanting to go in. Thinking back, I had to constantly doubted myself into going into that career path simply because I let fear interfere with me pursuing anything I wanted. I've learned over the years that it is great to accept the feeling rather than avoiding and dissecting down why I feel that certain way to identify it and move forward. I believe many student's can feel this way as we all face different situations that can cause high stress and emotions. My advice would be instead of avoiding those feelings, sit with and reflect, accept and move forward. :)
