Whether it is the anxiety felt when arriving to class on the first day of freshman year or the questions that come as you begin to wonder what to do after graduation, our APIASF staff members have faced many of the challenges that come with big life transitions. To wrap up this month’s theme, we thought it would be fun to share the things we learned that made some of those transitions a little easier and hopefully help you get to know our staff a little better as well. We are wishing a great school year to all of our Scholars and all the students heading back to class!
Elena Anderson
Role at APIASF: Vice President, Finance and Operations
College or University: University at my hometown in Russia
Major: Business Administration
Advice to Students: You have to be flexible, adaptable and able to learn new things. Also – it’s important to be able to connect with people.
Devita Bishundat
Role at APIASF: Director, APIASF Scholarship Program
College or University: Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland
Major: International & Intercultural Studies with a Concentration in International Relations and a Minor in Spanish
Advice to Students: My best advice to those in college is to form strong relationships with at least two professors during your college career and keep in touch with them every so often. This will make it easier for you in the future if you decide to go to graduate school because you will most likely have to have one letter of recommendation from a professor.
Katrina Chambers
Role at APIASF: Director of Development
College or University: George Washington University in Washington, DC
Major: International Affairs – Middle East Regional Concentration
Advice to Students: Take the time to develop relationships with your professors. You never know when you’ll need a job or graduate school recommendation in the future.
Prema Chaudhari
Role at APIASF: Director, Programs and Scholar Relations
College or University: University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania (undergraduate and graduate studies)
Major: Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Developmental Psychology, M.S. in Applied Developmental Psychology and B.S. in Psychology & Certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine
Advice to Students: The piece of advice that resonated with me in college was to make time for yourself and the things you love to do – it’s good for your soul!
Sarah Ha
Role at APIASF: Director, Programs and Student Affairs
College or University: University of California, Los Angeles (graduate studies) and Boston College (undergraduate studies)
Major: M.Ed. in Student Affairs and B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Faith, Peace & Justice
Advice to Students: Whether you are entering college or starting your career, striving for and maintaining a healthy and balanced life is challenging but important. Make sure to prioritize some “me” time to de-stress. This will serve to be helpful in getting re-focused on taking the steps to reach your goals.
Neil Horikoshi
Role at APIASF: President & Executive Director
College or University: University of Hawaii (undergraduate studies) and University of Southern California (graduate studies and law school)
Majors: BBA, Management, MBA and JD, Law
Advice to Students: Gather a portfolio of portable and marketable skills.
Joo Young Lee
Role at APIASF: Director, Gates Millennium Scholars Program
College or University: University of California, San Diego
Major: Political Science
Advice to Students: If you are seeking employment after graduation, utilize established networks on your campus. Go visit with the alumni relations office and get connected to other alumni who are in the same field as you or talk with your professors about potential contacts. Also, don’t forget to use the career services center. There will be opportunities to receive guidance and support on building your resume and job interview techniques.
Phong Luu
Role at APIASF: Program Specialist, Outreach & Community Relations
College/University: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Major: Economics and International Studies
Advice to Students: I encourage incoming freshman to be willing to try new things and explore new places; it’s a great way to learn about the institution and everything it offers, an opportunity to meet a lot of new people, and students will learn a lot about themselves by doing so.
Boosaba Pananon
Role at APIASF: Assistant Director of Development
College or University: University of Maryland, College Park
Major: Sociocultural Anthropology
Advice to Students: In your last year of college, be sure to get started on the job hunt early! Take advantage of your school’s career fairs, but also remember to attend networking events, speak with your professors or advisors about any professional contacts they may have in the field of your interest, and practice your 2-minute elevator speech because you never know who you might meet that can help connect you to your first job out of school. I would recommend starting to look for career opportunities in your fall semester so that you know for sure that you’ll have something to jump into as soon as you graduate in the spring.
April D. Rongero
Role at APIASF: Program Coordinator, Gates Millennium Scholars
College or University: Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland
Major: East Asian Studies
Advice to Students: Chances are, college won’t be like anything you ever imagined, and neither will your first job. This isn’t a bad thing. Be open to the unexpected, and enjoy the adventure!
Katie Tran-Lam
Role at APIASF: Director of Communications & Marketing
College or University: Otterbein College (now Otterbein University) in Westerville, Ohio
Major: Public Relations and Organizational Communication with a minor in Speech Communications
Advice to Students: One of the best things that I did for myself in college was to seek out leadership roles in campus organizations. Getting involved in campus organizations early on during my freshman year helped me connect with upperclassmen, build friendships, find my place on campus and made it easy to step into leadership roles even as a sophomore. This gave me several great experiences that I could speak to when I was applying for my first internship and ultimately many skills that I have taken with me throughout my career.
The link above provides a list of very practical tips to help you prepare for and adapt to the overall college lifestyle. As discussed in our prompts and shared by our contributing Scholars, going to college involves more than facing changes in academic standards, structure, and material: it also involves entering a more independent lifestyle that demands management of things outside of class such as money, relationships, and health.
Hey guys, remember when I met/hugged Austin Carlile and Alan Ashby from Of Mice & Men and met/hugged Alex Koehler from Chelsea Grin and Beau Boken from Blessthefall and met all of Pierce The Veil and said Hi to Kellin Quinn from Sleeping With Sirens and Matty From Memphis May Fire and Met/hugged Joe Boynton from Transit and all of New Found Glory past us; Still in their stage uniforms d)vuwjn:;bdsk/bza5rtu~. Yeah, I remember ♥
I really miss being a kid - the carefree days, the first time flying a kite, tea parties, building your first snowman, multiplication tables, watching Arthur and Sesame Street, sledding, Windows 97, dial-up Internet, GameBoy Color, Pokémon, and your mother bringing you soup in bed when you’re sick. Thinking about it now, I can’t believe all that’s happened within the last year of my life, let alone the last 19 years of it.
College has definitely presented a new challenge for me - intellectually, physically, and emotionally. I’ve never had to do anything harder - I left home for the longest period of time ever, left my friends and family, and I was suddenly in a new environment completely foreign to me. I dealt with the stresses of being away from home, new friends, classes, and more. I took on new challenges, including joining the track team (if you know me, you would know that I have never done any land sports because I have been a competitive swimmer for the majority of my life) and tried plenty of new things.
The rigorous academics in college tested me. I had to take the hardest classes I’ve ever taken (no more skating by - which took a lot of getting used to) and I had to take those classes with people that are a million sunrises smarter than me. I was below average here. My self-esteem took a hit like never before. By my standards, I was not doing as well in school as I would've hoped, even though I was trying harder than I ever did in high school. I wasn't used to not achieving what I wanted. It continually was a vicious cycle of me constantly berating myself for being stupid and never achieving the grade I desired. The continuous failure of living up to my own expectations disappointed me. I'm afraid I may have been a bit depressed inside, but no one would've known it.
Yet, from failures came successes. I came to college hoping to be able to balance swimming and academics, and Pomona gave me exactly that. Swimming kept me sane throughout the year, and I found my true friends through swimming. I achieved my life-long goal of swimming sub-minute in my 100 backstroke for the first time and set a school record in the process. Those little successes gave me back some of the confidence that I lacked in regards to academics.
These pivotal years of college are preparing us for our future and my decisions now could affect it. My identity continues to develop. I don’t think I’ve changed, but I’m definitely still trying to find myself.
Still, these may be the only years where I can still have some fun and indulge in non-academic passions like swimming. The only years where I can pretend to be a cat. The only years where I can take midnight trips to Yogurtland. The only years where sometimes, the biggest problem is deciding which dining hall to go to that day.
Jacqueline Tran is a 2011 APIASF Scholar and currently attends Pomona College. She plans to major in Neuroscience and minor in Psychology. She is also a part of the Pomona-Pitzer Swim and Dive Team.
