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Before the internship
Before beginning the CUIP Coordinator position, Fiona had a lot
of experience at her community college, Cabrillo College, via involvement
in organizations on campus and working on campus. First, Fiona became
very involved in Alpha Gamma Sigma (AGS), a state-wide community
college honors society that focused on community service and raising
money for scholarships. In her four years of involvement, she quickly
became recognized for her dedication to community service and became
a member of the Executive Board first as the Inter-Club Council
Representative (ICC Rep) and then as President. Her involvement
gave her valuable leadership, advertising and organizational experience,
by participating in the running of AGS and the ICC and the small
and large scale events that they put on. This experience also allowed
her to become involved in campus events and concerns as a whole.
Fiona also had experience working at Cabrillo College in the Student
Affairs and Health Services Offices. Here, Fiona gained a greater
understanding of working within the college organization while she
helped students. In both offices, she helped student access important
resources, such as psychological services, housing opportunities
and transportation.
These experiences made Fiona an excellent candidate for the CUIP
Coordinator position. Her work in Student and Health Services gave
her the office related experience and skills to maintain a database
of students both in and applying to the program. Working on campus
and her involvement in AGS also gave Fiona the professional etiquette
and knowledge of working within the college organization that was
needed to be the CUIP Coordinator. Her experience in AGS was important
in giving her advertising (needed for the intensive advertising
of the CUIP program to students in winter quarter) and project organization
and management skills.
Success and Growth
Fiona had many accomplishments over the course of the year as the
CUIP Coordinator. In fall quarter, Fiona recruited over 40 programs
to host internships for next year’s CUIP internships while
providing logistical support for the CUIP interns and the class
“Leadership and Institution.” In winter quarter Fiona’s
main challenge was advertising CUIP to students on campus. The Development
and implementation of a marketing plan was the largest scale marketing
plan she had ever overseen. She learned a lot about how to advertise
on the UCSC campus as she advertised to almost 100 campus organizations
(such as the Ethnic Resource Centers, EOP, student orgs, etc), had
approximately 20 posters made and hung, passed out thousands of
flyers to students at bus stops, restaurants and dining halls, visited
Student Governments, organized class visits, advertised on the student
portal, had a radio add on KZSC, and emailed hundreds of students.
As a result of her hard work, the CUIP program received almost 200
applications, comprised of 98 students, for 38 internships.
The most rewarding part of her internship was in Spring when she
got to see all her hard work pay off. Fiona was in the position
where she got to see which of the students that applied were accepted
into the program for next year and help welcome them into the program.
She also was recognized for being an excellent student employee
at the UCSC Student Employee Recognition Program recognition ceremony
in May.
Fiona grew tremendously during her year long internship as the CUIP
Coordinator. Working in the Career Center in a position where she
got to work both with students and administrators, she got to hone
her professionalism and acumen in her personal interactions. There
were many situations where time was of the essence but she was waiting
on important information from others (both students and administrators).
She learned how to stress the importance of getting that information
in a timely manner and how to do it professionally. This required
persistence and political acumen. She also learned, the hard way,
to be especially careful to check that information that was sent
out was accurate. Lastly, Fiona was able to develop her critical
thinking/problem solving skills, with the help of her supervisor
when difficult situations were presented.
The CUIP Class
Fiona found the class on “Leadership and Institution,”
the class that accompanies CUIP internships, to be valuable to her
internship experience. It provided valuable information on the structure,
purpose, and functioning of the university organization. She was
also very excited to meet the UCSC leadership, including both the
Chancellor and the Dean of Undergraduate Education, who came to
inform the class on these subjects. The information helped her to
gain a greater understanding about what lines to go through to accomplish
different goals/projects in the University organization setting.
She found the instructor, Dean Ladusaw, and the program Manager
Barbara Silverthorne to be very supportive to students in the program.
Fiona’s Future Plans
The opportunity Fiona had to be the CUIP Coordinator was instrumental
in preparing her for her long term goal of becoming an academic
counselor. The process of applying for the position and helping
other students to apply for the CUIP program were invaluable in
preparing Fiona to apply for graduate school in the San Francisco
State University’s (SFSU) Counseling program. Given that CUIP
is a program that helps students find internships which add to their
professional success, the CUIP Coordinator position was directly
in line with Fiona’s professional goals. It no doubt gave
her valuable experience that helped her get into SFSU’s Graduate
Program which she will begin in fall 2007.
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