THE ALUMNI CONNECTION...Jul 13, 2009 · Make Social Media Work for You 2–3 Alumni Spotlight 3...
Transcript of THE ALUMNI CONNECTION...Jul 13, 2009 · Make Social Media Work for You 2–3 Alumni Spotlight 3...
the SYEP process that you
will need to complete prior
to applying for the Urban
Alliance College Internship
Program.
Finally, we encourage Alumni
to find their own internships
to ensure that the oppor-
tunity is in line with your
professional interests. Un-
paid internship opportunities
can be funded through the
College Internship Program.
Please contact the Alumni
Services Department for
assistance with finding your
own internship.
The Alumni Services Depart-
ment is diligently preparing
for summer internship sea-
son. It is our goal to provide
Alumni with the opportunity
to participate in a profes-
sional summer opportunity.
In order to participate in
the College Internship
Program 2013 you must:
1) Register for the Summer
Youth Employment Program
at summerjobs.dc.gov - Even
if you were put on the wait-
ing list, send us your confir-
mation email. In the past,
many Alumni were able to
get off the waiting list and
participate in CIP.
2) Send your Confirmation
Emails to Alumni Services,
3) Present Certification
Documents at an SYEP Cer-
tification Event. Click here
for a list of eligibility docu-
ments you will need to pre-
sent.
4) Send a screenshot or
copy and paste the page of
your SYEP youth portal that
indicates your "Complete"
Certification Status to us at
5) Complete the CIP Appli-
cation! Once Alumni Ser-
vices receives your certi-
fication confirmation, we
will send you a copy of
the CIP (College Intern-
ship Program) Applica-
tion.
6) Please read all emails
from SYEP and Urban Alli-
ance; there are many steps in
COLLEGE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM (CIP) UPDATE
BUDGET BASICS : TRAVELING ON A DIME
Last month’s newsletter
featured an article on the
benefits of participating in an
alternative spring break pro-
gram. We hope that some of
you were inspired to spend
an upcoming school break
serving a community in need.
Regardless of what you de-
cide to do, we also want to
make sure that you have the
tools to travel on a young
professional’s budget.
eHow Money suggests that
you create four large catego-
ries when designing your
travel budget: transportation,
hotel, food, and entertain-
ment. You should expect to
spend one third of your
budget on your hotel and
food.
When booking transportation
you can save a great deal of
money if you are flexible.
Book your flight six weeks in
advance, on a Monday or
Tuesday, and fly Monday—
Wednesday, early in the
morning, or late at night to
maximize savings. Avoiding
weekend and holiday travel
(Continued on page 4)
Inside this issue:
Make Social Media Work
for You
2–3
Alumni Spotlight 3
News and Updates 4
Special Points of Interest:
Get hired using social media
Alumni Spotlight—Paloma Johnson-Walker ‘09
Baltimore summer internship information
THE ALUMNI
CONNECTION
FEBRUARY 2013
VOLUME 7, I SSUE 4
The Urban Al l iance
Summer internship season is in full swing. Registering for SYEP and CIP is the best way to con-nect to summer opportunities.
Source: www.beyond.com
Source: www.dells.com
Many Alumni are either in the
process of searching for a job or
will be beginning a job hunt in the
near future. While the economy
and job market have shown small
signs of improvement, this re-
mains an incredibly difficult time
for young people to find jobs. It
is important that you secure eve-
ry possible advantage when look-
ing for work, including creating
the right social media presence.
It is no secret that employers are
using social media sites such as
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
to sort through the many applica-
tions they receive for each posi-
tion. According to a study by
Reppler, a social media monitor-
ing service, 91% of the employers
surveyed review social media
sites of prospective employees
and 69% had rejected a candidate
based on something they found.
Now before you close this news-
letter, log in to your social media
site(s) of choice, and put them on
lockdown, consider this, accord-
ing to the same survey, 68% of
employers had hired someone in
part because of what they found
online.
So, what does this mean for you?
Is it best to play it safe and adjust
your privacy settings so that no
one can ever find you? Hiring
managers and recruiters disagree.
Employers want to see if you are
professional and if you will fit
within company culture. Ulti-
mately, the choice of how you
present (or hide) yourself online
is up to you. If you want to make
yourself invisible on social media
you will need to adjust your set-
tings appropriately, provide dif-
ferent email addresses and phone
numbers to social media sites than
you do on your job applications, and
perhaps even give yourself a different
username / profile online. Social
media was originally a fun way to
connect with people close to you, so
if you want to keep it personal you
may choose to do so, but please ad-
just your settings so that potential
employers do not see anything you
would not want them to see.
However, if you want to create a
social media presence that could help
you land a job, consider the follow-
ing:
Rethink and Review: Go through
posts, pictures, and Tweets and re-
move ones that reference drinking
alcohol (especially if you are under-
age), drug use, sex, and other poten-
tially offensive topics. Do you need
to remove every picture? No way!
Employers want to see that you have
personality, interests, and friends;
they just do not want to see the ris-
qué stuff.
Clean Up: Foul language is also a
red flag for employers and does not
represent you well. Consider using a
new online app, SimpleWash, to scan
all of your Facebook posts for bad
words and remove the posts.
Be Searchable: Use your real name
on social media sites and adjust your
settings so that potential employers
can find you.
Adjust Settings: Become familiar
with the privacy settings on all sites
and adjust accordingly. For example,
Facebook has a setting that allows
you to review all posts other people
tag you in before the post goes up on
your page. Enabling this setting gives
you the power to decide what goes
up on your Timeline.
(Continued on page 3)
MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA WORK FOR YOU
Page 2
THE ALUMNI CONNECTION
Summer internship season is
rapidly approaching! DC
Alumni are busy registering
and preparing their resumes
for SYEP and Alumni Services
is putting together an event
for Baltimore Alumni to con-
nect to meaningful internships
this summer. With all of that
going on, we caught up with
Paloma Johnson-Walker
‘09, to see what she is up to
now and if she has any advice
for Alumni navigating the
summer internship process.
This past summer, Paloma
interned in the Human Re-
sources Department of the
Washington Nationals base-
ball team. Paloma has a pas-
sion for sports and sports
management, which she was
able to explore during this
internship and during her
Urban Alliance internship with
the Washington Mystics of
the WNBA. She applied her
UA experience to her intern-
ship with the Nationals, saying
that the most important les-
sons she learned from UA
were “how time management
and punctuality give you a
good reputation around the
office” and to always “reach
out and talk to other people
in your workplace.” Due to
her efforts to get to know her
co-workers, Paloma was
asked to work a few home
games with the promotions
department; an experience
that she says was the most
fun part of the summer.
At times, Paloma was chal-
lenged because so much infor-
mation in the human re-
sources office is confidential,
so she had to find creative
ways to help out as much as
she could. The biggest lesson
she learned from her experi-
ence last summer is that “no
matter what the work is,
whether it seems to be im-
portant or not, do it humbly
because people notice and
they will remember your hard
work and your character.”
Paloma hopes to land an in-
ternship with the Washington
Redskins this summer, but
admits that “any sports job
will do.”
This May, Paloma will gradu-
ate from Fayetteville State
University in North Carolina
with a Bachelor’s degree in
Business Administration with
a concentration in Manage-
ment. Upon graduation she
plans to continue her educa-
tion and pursue her passion
for sports by going to gradu-
ate school for a Master’s in
Sports Management, hopefully
from her number one choice,
Northwestern University in
Illinois.
Throughout her education
and professional experiences,
Paloma is grateful to Urban
Alliance in part because
“[b]efore working with Urban
Alliance, I used to be afraid to
interact socially with people
on a business-professional
level because I wasn’t sure
how to do it properly; Urban
Alliance showed me the prop-
er way to network and make
business connections, and
now I do it effortlessly.”
We are so proud of Paloma
for following her interests,
look forward to hearing
where she ends up, and want
to extend early congratula-
tions to her for graduating in
May!
viduals related to your career
interests is a great way to
share with potential employ-
ers that you take your future
seriously.
There are just a few steps you
can take to present yourself
well online. Social media sites
have become inescapable in
our society and the trend will
likely continue, so we recom-
mend making the effort to
display your personality and
Use Proper Grammar and
Spelling: Communication
skills are very important to
employers, so they will be
reviewing your posts to get an
idea of your writing abilities.
Take the time and show your
skills.
Share Your Interests: Liking,
friending, connecting, follow-
ing, and communicating with
organizations, causes, or indi-
(Continued from page 2) uniqueness while also pro-
moting yourself professionally.
Sources:
http://www.mediabistro.com/
alltwitter/social-media-job-
screening_b15090
http://simplewa.sh/login
http://mashable.com/2011/08/28/
social-media-recruiting-infographic/
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: PALOMA JOHNSON-WALKER ‘09
SOCIAL MEDIA CONT.
“Before working with Urban Alliance, I used to be afraid to interact socially with people on a business-professional level because I wasn’t sure how to do it properly; Urban Alliance showed me the proper way to network and make business connections, and now I do it effortlessly.”
Page 3
VOLUME 7, ISSUE 4
“It’s no secret that employers are using
social media sites…[they] want to
see if you are professional and if you will fit within company culture.”
ings. With these two sites your
travel experience will feel expensive
and your budget will remain in tact.
There is power in numbers and
traveling in a group can also offer
great benefits. Many hotels and
activity providers are willing to offer
additional discounts to large groups
to secure the bulk business. Be sure
to ask about discounts and promo-
tions before making reservations.
The opportunity to travel and expe-
rience new sights and cultures is a
great way to expand your world
view, but it shouldn’t require you to
break the bank. If you plan purpose-
fully you will be able satisfy all of
your needs.
will save you money and time;
crowds tend to be the largest on
these days. Kayak compares hun-
dreds of travel sites at once for
airfares, hotels, cruises and more
and displays the results all at once.
Their mobile app, equipped with
price alerts and flight trackers, will
produce the same results if you
need to search on the go.
When it comes to eating and stay-
ing entertained, Groupon and Living
Social can often give you the most
bang for your buck. Purchasing local
food and activity “vouchers” will
often result in 50% (or more) sav-
(Continued from page 1)
Urban Alliance Foundation, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) organization and our mission is to empower
under-resourced youth to aspire, work, and succeed through paid internships, formal training,
and mentoring. Founded in 1996 by a small group of business leaders to create employment
and educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged youth, we serve youth throughout
the District of Columbia, Baltimore, and Chicago. Through three distinct programs, the High
School Internship Program, Alumni Services, and Curriculum Outreach, we provide resources to
our youth to successfully transition from high school to college or career training, and ultimate-
ly to the working world. To learn more about Urban Alliance, visit www.theurbanalliance.org.
THE URBAN ALLIANCE
FOUNDATION
Employing Youth. Inspiring Excellence.
**Address Change**
Urban Alliance Headquarters
2030 Q. St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202-459-4300
Fax: 202-459-4301
E-mail: [email protected]
BUDGET BASICS CONT.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR RAFFLE WINNER! Michelle Brown ‘09 was the lucky winner
of our December book raffle. She won a copy
of The Young Professional’s Survival Guide
by C.K. Gunsalus. The book covers com-
mon difficulties that young professionals en-
counter by employing real-life scenarios and
discussing why they happen and how they can
be avoided and recovered from.
Michelle’s favorite advice from the book is:
“...you will not be able to keep hard problems
from arising, but you can avert the avoidable
ones and face the unavoidable ones on your
own terms. How you make choices will affect
how they play out. You're going to make
mistakes. Everyone does. The key is to make
mistakes from which you can recover. You
can make that choice."
We couldn’t agree more. Happy reading,
Michelle!
As a soon-to-be college gradu-ate, this book came at the perfect time in Michelle’s life.
BALTIMORE SUMMER
INTERNSHIP REGISTRATION &
NETWORKING EVENT
Source: www.madison.k12.wi.us
Baltimore Alumni: Be on the lookout
for information on an upcoming sum-
mer internship registration and net-
working event to help you land a
meaningful experience this summer.
More details coming soon, but you
won't want to miss out on this oppor-
tunity.