One example of conformity being good in the workplace can be seen when looking at constitute communications and case work. In our office if a person needs to be called back we log them into a document and making sure that we all do this the same way helps the case work team get back to then more efficiently. I think that sometimes people don’t like to ask questions because they want to feel equal and respected but in reality seniority is a thing and we are not all equal in an office setting. One task that I don’t do great is news clips but my coworker is really good at them and has given me a lot of advice on how too make it faster.
Conformity can be a bad thing when we get to comfortable and stop being problem solving or innovative. In reality some problems don’t conform to our systems so we have to be a able to think of out of the box solutions.
I would say that I try to overcome failures in my life rather than letting them overcome me. My biggest example of this is in high school basketball. I do think that I need to work on the way I view failures and not having ridiculous expectations of myself but for the most part I think I do a decent job. My biggest example of ignoring the Naysayers was probably when the first two months at ASU were not going as I had hoped and all of my friends just tried to convince me to transfer home. I am glad that I fought the urge to listen to them and I learned to love ASU.
Something I have had to do over is news clips and as much as I hated it the extra process made it easier in the long run. this extra confidence allowed me to not dread Tuesday’s near a much.
I have learned that even though I love the work I am doing I do no think that Washington DC is for me and I need to plan to stay on the west coast for a little while longer. I have also realized that I really want to go to law school and I think that is the next move for me. If I were to give advice to the near cohort I would tell them to cherish the relationships they make with each other and the other people they meet. At the end of the day those may not be the relationships that a get you anywhere now but they are the ones that you are going to remember and appreciate the most.
Conformity in the workplace can oftentimes be a good thing in the workplace due to a variety of factors. The first of which being I think that it’s important to surround yourself with like-minded peers, by surrounding yourself with peers and colleagues who make similar life choices such as the ones in your day-to-day life you can find these choices might compound into a positive feedback loop where you and your colleagues can challenge, push one another and hold each other accountable in and out of the workplace. For example, according to Milkman if you and your coworkers aren’t working together and conforming as a solid group what happens if team members aren’t holding one another accountable, adhere to safety protocols, or mentoring newer employees. By not conforming to these principles can result in a toxic, counterproductive, and even dangerous workplace. However, it is worth noting that by conforming too much you can run the risk of being devoid of freedom and creativity which can stunt your self-expression.
One thing I will forever be grateful for is my athletic career as it allowed for so many highs and so many lows and everything in between. There have been more times than I can count when a coach or manager told me I wasn’t good enough or wasn’t wanted. In spite of this, I continued to work hard on lesser-known teams with almost the sole goal of proving those coaches wrong. As a result, I have noticed I can be very motivated by grudges and spite which I believe I have carried on to this day. Throughout my sporting career my family had supported me at every turn however, there were a couple times when they had sat me down and asked me hard questions about whether or not I wanted to continue down the path I was on and supported me every step of the way.
I had mentioned this in an earlier blog post but I was fortunate enough to take a meeting with Teri Sewell’s healthcare policy advisor alone due to my boss being stuck in traffic. I think I completely butchered this meeting due to me being more or less completely out of my depth and didn’t know a lot of the technical aspects of the bill we were discussing and kept having to say that I would get back to her with that information as soon as I was able. If I had the opportunity to do it over I wish I had gone over the material and committed it to memory beforehand. This has definitely motivated me to do better in regard to preparation for any potential future meetings.
Going into this summer I was very set on going to law school without even entertaining any other paths. Being here this summer has opened my eyes up to a ton of different career paths that I had previously never considered including running for office, enlisting, lobbying, or keeping on my original path and apply for law school. My biggest piece of advice would be to keep an open mind going into this program as mentioned just a few lines above I was dead set on one thing and one thing only vastly limited me to what I wanted my future to look like and being here has without a doubt opened my eyes to new possibilities that I had never previously thought of.
I believe that conformity, in a sense, sets the expectation of interns. All of the positions we each are currently holding get rotated in and out each summer. Conformity forces us to set the tone. In my office, when timelines and schedules were established loosely by our advisor, the power of conformity pushed us to arrive roughly around 10am and leave roughly around 5pm and to complete our work in 1-3 business days. As a group, we subconsciously examined that the interns that were most successful and ergo received the best opportunities put in the work to be at the office in a timely manner and complete their assignments in a responsible amount of time, and therefore used the “copy and paste” method to emulate their choices and work ethic.
I feel that people’s hesitation to ask for help in any situation is due to the humility that it requires. In order to ask for help, one must admit that they are struggling with something and must also recognize that the person they are seeking advice from is succeeding in something that they are not. The ability to recognize low performance in a certain area of your life, accept that it is happening, and then develop the respect in another person to inquire about how they have attained their success is a very daunting succession of tasks that require integrity and humility.
I find that it takes me a lot longer to complete tasks at work compared to the other interns. I’m not sure if I have more assignments that require more time and focus, or if I’m truly slow. I tend to think it is the latter as I am not a naturally fast person; showering, getting dressed, answering emails, cooking dinner, scheduling out my week — these all typically take me longer than I feel they should. I frequently ask the other interns how they move through their work so quickly and have acquired different tips and tricks to maintain the quality of my work while also getting it done faster.
In all honesty, attending ASU initially felt like a failure to me. I worked very hard in high school – I maintained an excellent grade point average in honors and AP classes, I was the varsity tennis team captain, I started a non-profit, I worked tirelessly on my classical ballet training and general fitness, and I held multiple leadership positions. Upon applying for college, I applied to schools like Duke, Columbia, USC, and Northwestern. When the results of my applications came back I was devastated: rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection. I found myself being forced to choose amongst my safeties, wondering where I went wrong and resenting all of the nights I stayed up late studying after hours of extracurriculars.
This experience could have changed my mindset — I could have became more nonchalant with my grades, less proactive with my ambitions, and uninterested in my passions. One of my least favorite traditional interview questions is “What motivates you?” because honestly, I have no idea. But somehow, someway, those rejections just added fuel to my flame. This is the most motivated, ambitious, confident, and passionate Grace that has ever existed. I’ve learned to appreciate ASU and the opportunities and relationships that it has provided me with. I am a strong advocate of the Everything Happens for a Reason line of thought; those rejections were not accidental and my experience at ASU has validity and purpose.
An excellent example of that is this summer. I would have never been a Capital Scholar if I was a student at Columbia. I would have never met my roommates, had so many wonderful experiences, built some truly remarkable relationships, learned to love this city as much as I do, or grow this much professionally and personally.
One of my biggest takeaways from this summer is that I plan on working after I graduate from undergrad to allow myself the time to experience life without school and make a more conscientious decision about my future academics. On a deeper level, I approached this internship extremely nervous about my future and faced a substantial amount of uncertainty and imposters syndrome. I am leaving this summer, however, exceptionally more confident in my capabilities and what the future holds. My diversity in interests, my interdisciplinary path, my communication skills, and my work ethic are all assets that will help me in the future regardless of what I end up doing.
As for the 2024 cohort, they aren’t lying when they say this summer will quite literally be the fastest summer of your entire life. Don’t be afraid to talk to people. This city thrives off of that. Networking is such an important skill to build and this is the time to do it. Know that you worked hard to get here and you DESERVE to be here. You will rub elbows with students from Duke and Columbia and it will intimidate you initially, but guess what…you are spending your summer in the exact same place doing the exact same thing as they are.
Meeting Rep. Kamlagger-Dove at Walgreens DC Headquarters
I will be honest, I had no idea what conformity was until I read this chapter from Milkman’s How to Change. But I can see how it can be used as a good or bad thing in different settings. Conformity reminds me of role models a lot. Role models are there to set examples of what our lives can be like if we do what they do. If we “copy and paste” their workout routines we might have the same toned body or if we “copy and paste” their kitchen set up from TikTok we might be closer to being them? As you can tell I am a bit skeptical of such practices to become your role model. Unfortunately, being and doing what your role models do or be can backfire and just result in idolization. But the reason role models are role models is to inspire those who aspire to be them. That it is achievable to be people like them. So in some ways, as Milkman points out, it can be great and in others it is not.
My internship had many interns who were doing different things from me and it pushed me to be like them as well. We were encouraging each other and pushing each other to do what we could to stand out and excel. I loved how we were constantly hyping the other up. In this instance of conformity I believe this is a better way of using it. There were times where I would be jealous of some of the interns because they got to work more on the artifacts of the Festival and the programs for the public, but I also did not let that deter me from asking them what they do, how they do it, and why they were chosen. In the end I realized none of us knew what we were doing, but because we all were just doing it we did it together. Their friendship is invaluable to me now and I am happy I met people who have the same goals and interests as me.
I think one thing I don’t do well is complimenting and acknowledging others on their achievements. I am unsure why I have this issue, but this internship had many who love to push each other up with compliments and positive affirmations. I can only suspect that I am too competitive to give anyone else a boost of confidence. But being in this internship I realize it is important and I’ve been actively trying to do that more.
I have overcome many failures in my life but I’ve learned from all of them in order to become a better me. My father always told me “if you fail, just figure out what you did wrong and change it the next time you do it again.” He made it seem like such a small issue to fail. He also says “failing is just part of life.” Unfortunately, he is right (we argue a lot and I’m competitive so I don’t like when he’s right, but I know when to admit defeat.) Those phrases were always in my head when I made some dumb decision or didn’t get to where I wanted to go. And because I am competitive I never listen to people who tell me I should just give up. HELL, I’ll do it again just to spite those people AND do it ten times better. I love shattering people’s idea of me. Gives me more edge, haha.
One thing in my internship that I had to do over and over again was speaking out my own ideas. I always let people who have been doing it longer than I have go first. At times I would suggest something but would say it really low so I would feel like I was doing something but not loud enough for anyone to hear me because I didn’t want people to tell me it was a bad idea. But one day I said something when we were figuring out an issue and everyone was stunned by how I change their perspective on how to target an issue. After that it motivated me to be more outspoken and everyone in the office knows me now. The Director of CFCH (Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage) knows me by name and laughs at my jokes, LIKE how crazy is that?? I had a 30 min conversation with the Administrator who wanted to know everything about me and if I considered possibly living out here for a job. These instances made me want to do better.
I knew Capital Scholars was going to change my life even before I got here. I just didn’t know how. I learned I could do more than I thought I ever could, academically and professionally. My internship had me realize what I did and did not want for my future, but I’m not exactly sure where yet. My next thing right now is to finish school and maybe try to get a job in a museum in LA for more public history experience. I want to learn what other parts of a museum would look like. We’ll see where I land, I just want to learn as much as possible.
If I were to say something to 2024 Capital Scholars cohort it would be:
Expect to get out of your comfort zone.
Be okay with being uncomfortable.
Understand that every decision comes with a consequence AND THAT’S OKAY just remember to make a plan on how to deal with those consequences.
Speak your mind, but be open to criticism. You’ll be a better person for it.
Learn to lose and to win.
Save money the day you get accepted into the program.
Get a monthly metro pass.
GPS is your best friend.
“No” is one sentence and you don’t owe anyone an explanation.
Go see all the touristy things!!
Have lots of fun ♡
Also, one more piece of advice to 2024 Capital Scholars: Your cohort will inevitably be your best friends, just embrace it.
I am not an in-person student at ASU and live in California, so when everyone leaves I won’t see them at ASU. We’ll be about 5 or 6 hours away and it hurts to know they won’t be there when I want to go to a cafe or a museum. I love you guys too much and not enough. Thank you for everything. ♡
In Milkman’s chapter discussing conformity, she begins by focusing on why people conform–to fit in and align with social norms. In my experience, I have found that in the workplace individual effort can reflect the effort of the team as a whole. For example, if I see my coworkers working hard and hustling it makes me want to do the same because the tone of the office is to be productive. Thus, being lazy and not using time wisely would not be conforming to this environment. However, on the flip side, seeing coworkers slack off, using company time to their advantage, and not producing their best work makes it hard for only one person to want to go above and beyond. In that case, working hard can be seen as trying to be an overachiever which would not conform with the workplace environment making this type of conformity a bad thing. That being said, I think conforming in a positive and productive workplace can be a good thing because it puts pressure on oneself to work not just for their own benefit but for the benefit of the team. If the whole team works hard you don’t want to be the one who doesn’t. This is similar to Milkman’s “copy and paste” method which is the practice of employing the strategies of successful people to complete the same tasks you wish to achieve. Personally, I have done this at my internship by answering phones. When I was being trained I would listen to a coworker answer phone calls so that when my phone rang I became familiar with what to say. Furthermore, after every call, I would ask my colleague why she gave the answer she did or if another answer would have worked. This helped me prepare for my own calls and eventually answering them on my own became second nature. In fact, my colleague even acknowledged my frequent questions and praised me for them. However, I can understand why people shy away from asking questions. In a new workplace, you are trying to prove yourself and do not want to appear unknowledgeable or like you were not paying attention. Although, if you think about it asking follow-up questions is one of the best ways to let someone know you were paying attention.
While asking questions seems to be my forte, a task I struggle with is work-life balance. My coworkers all seem to have balanced lives and implement practices within their lives that make them successful both in business and personal endeavors. However, I often find myself afraid to ask for a day off or the ability to leave early when it would make my life easier.
Over this past summer, I have learned a lot about myself and how I react to failure. I’ve learned that I often can let one small failure get the best of me instead of focusing on my achievements. With this, I’ve also tried to redefine my “failures”. Most of the time I will label things as a “failure” when really it wasn’t. Thus, I am trying to give myself credit for part of an effort that was successful and spend time, but not too much time, walking myself through what I will do differently in the future to avoid the “failed” part of the plan. Speaking of failure, a time I did not listen to naysayers wanting me to give up was actually applying for internships. I felt in my gut that I had a good shot of securing the internship I currently have, however, my dad really wanted me to take a guaranteed spot at another office when it was offered first. In this case, I am glad I stuck to my gut. However, I completely understand where my dad is coming from. I made a risky choice but it ultimately worked out. Had it not though, would have felt like a failure.
One thing I would do over in my internship would be better at communicating. Many times I had to relay messages from one person to another and I found it hard for me to be able to grab the entire context of what someone was saying or needed and communicate that effectively. Thus, when tackling communication again in the office, I would take more time to comprehend and summarize effectively rather than spitting out bits and pieces as I remembered them. This has motivated me to do better because it made me realize how much people can rely on me. Thus, if I can do my job better it can make their job easier. It really is a team effort.
Lastly, reflecting on this summer as a whole, being in a cohort of fellow ASU students made me feel comfortable enough to endure this endeavor while also being in a new city pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. That being said, I have learned that I must trust my gut and do what makes me happy as opposed to trying to appease others. I think unapologetically staying true to myself has been the biggest takeaway from this experience.
As for what is next, I am excited to finish out my next two years at ASU. I am leaving Washington D.C. more confident in my major than ever and with a new appreciation for the beauty and home that is ASU. I plan on staying in contact with D.C. folks and working for a few years before I possibly apply to law school. That is another key takeaway, do not go straight through to law school! As for my biggest piece of advice, D.C. is a big place with important people but don’t let that change who you are. The most successful people are the ones who stay true to themselves and are confident of that.
My life is a mixture of times where I allow my failures to squash my dreams or desires and times where I do overcome failure. It is impossible to avoid failing and accepting its likelihood is really a difficult journey – so how do you survive failure?
Well, my experiences have taught me that surviving failure is more about understanding why you failed in the first place. For a long time, I wanted to learn how to play the cello. I convinced my parents to let me rent one and take lessons. Half a year past, and I wasn’t progressing like I thought I would originally, and I was incredibly frustrated. When I look back at this time, I see two things: I did not give my self enough credit for even trying to do something as difficult as learning a new instrument, and I had a serious confidence issue. I was horrified to practice in my house because I sounded bad (beginner string players understand this struggle) and I imagined that my siblings and parents weren’t taking my desire to learn seriously. This caused me to only practice when people were not home, and that was a rare time with 4 siblings and parents always in and out of the house.
Every week, I would walk into my teachers room and embarrass myself because I obviously had not practiced. How did I overcome this failure? I had to accept the fact that I was going to sound bad for a while, and if I felt like people around me did not take me seriously, then I just needed to make sure I took myself even more seriously. Eventually, I got pretty okay at the instrument (my teacher disappeared of the face of the Earth and I couldn’t find anyone else to teach me). But the lesson here is that some of my failures are rooted in low self-esteem and reliance on validation from others. This is honestly my greatest weakness, and I could tell many stories that are similar.
Generally, the first step of surviving failure is accepting it and then asking all of the “why” questions. From there, I can normally do better on the next go.
One big failure that I had this summer was not researching the right address for a high profile prospect, and we ended up sending a package to the wrong address (which was a 45 dollar mistake). This failure taught me that double checking is not always enough when doing research.
What is one thing in your internship that you perhaps had to “do over” or maybe “failed” at? How has this motivated you to do better?
Reflecting on my time as a Capital Scholar:
Becoming a Capital Scholar was an enlightening experience for many reasons. There were a lot of important lessons to be learned from my summer in DC, some career related, but my growth in DC was much deeper than the suit I wore every day to work. Of course, I gained plenty of professional skills, like helping out with managing a database that is widely used by non profit organizations or conducting myself properly within spaces that are extremely formal and communicating with high-profile individuals. I have also learned a lot about where I would like to see my career go in the future. Yes, I love the subjects of politics and government, and I believe that if the opportunities line up right, I could end up in this city again one day. However, something valuable I learned in DC is that maybe a career driven by working solely in an office, at the same desk, and with the same people may not be what I want for the rest of my working life. I know that I like to work face-to-face with people and I am really good at it. I think that as of right now, my options for the future are vast. I love languages and the idea of traveling, so the Foreign Service is something I am looking into. Based on my writing skills and knowledge of the English language, I also am thinking about getting my certificate in teaching English as a second language so I can work abroad.
One piece of advice I would give to future Capital Scholars is to take your journey one step at a time. Yes, you are in DC to work as an intern, but remember that you have room to still make some mistakes. The world doesn’t sit on your shoulders quite yet, so have some fun and enjoy the city outside of work. Take a shot at networking with other people in the city (trust me, a lot of professionals want to help young people succeed). That was more than one piece of advice, but these are things I had to tell myself frequently during the past two and a halfish months.
I have so many pictures I can put here, but I do not believe any of these have been posted yet.
It will forever be a challenge to face a new obstacle alone, especially when you face those challenges alone in a different city far away from home. A social aspect I learned from Milkman’s chapter on conformity was this method of “copy and paste” where you examine your peers/colleagues and figure out how your peers’ goals align with your own. If they do, then you study their routine and work habits to help attain your own successful path. This is a challenge I faced because my mental state wasn’t well-equipped to handle the basics of common communication and engagement when I first arrived here in D.C. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to communicate with people, it was because my heart wasn’t in the right place for me to be welcoming once again. But with time comes healing, and what I have learned was that success isn’t just an academic challenge but a challenge that challenges every aspect of your livelihood. This is how life functions and you just have to move on. So, within these two past weeks, I have engaged with my internship a lot more by being more vocal and aware of my current surroundings. I talk to my supervisor a lot more and become more understanding of how she became to be in her position. It wasn’t a light burden she faced by deciding not to go to law school, changing her life decisions, and wondering what her next journey will take her. However, as we grow, we learned to move forward and be grateful for what we have accomplished, and be optimistic for what life has in front of us.
Conformity can be a bad thing when the environment you are apart of isn’t meant for you. It derives from this idea about balancing when you work for others and when you work for yourself. When the two collide and you can’t differentiate which is which, then conformity is a bad thing. So, with conformity, it’s important that you focus on both aspects that come with the action and balance both needs.
Fear of death, fear of spiders, fear of heights, none of these compare to the fear of failure. Failure was never an option for me because as a first-generation student, I owe it to my refugee parents to become successful. If I fail, then the hard work of my father would be for all be for nothing and the pains that he constantly endures for me would all be diminished. That is what scares me, I don’t want to let my family down. It’s truly never about me. It’s about bringing my family into a better situation and that’s what fuels me to keep going no matter the setback. I owe it to myself for being religious that enables me to be humble and hardworking because it indeed took a toll on me this summer.
What’s next for me is a year of opportunity. I have accepted an offer to work with a grassroots organization when I return to Arizona. I will be working mainly in the Tempe area, which is a great bonus. I also will be continuing my studies with the LSAT and hopefully be taking the exam in November and December. After this year, come fall 2024 I would like to take on the challenges of law school and be on the journey of becoming a lawyer. InshaAllah.
The Capital Scholars program was truly a program that taught me important life lessons that essentially in a sense told me to stop putting to much hassle on myself and start living in the moment. I spent most of this summer focusing on other things and not what’s in front of me. Everyone has their own path, we shouldn’t compare it to others and let life itself do the rest.
My advice would be:
It’s okay not to know where your next step is. All you need to know is that you give your best to whatever is in front of you.
When I think of conformity, I simply think of following the rules. This is a good thing in the workplace/internship because it establishes a way to get things done. The “copy and paste” method is something that I think is good. When you’re doing something the same way and you’re getting the same good results, it relates to your work ethic. When I do things at work. I try to think about the outcome and how I could get there. Usually, that means I need to follow a set of rules/standards. And if there is a “copy and paste” method of doing it, I’ll do it. I think people back away from asking their successful colleagues/peers how to do things because it could be intimidating. When working with successful individuals, it’s hard to get the strength to go up and ask a question depending on the type of person you are. Sometimes people don’t want to sound idiotic for not knowing something. One action that I feel that I don’t do well is balancing my work life and personal life. The people I work with seem to have a strong work ethic, but they also seem to know what it’s like to have a personal life outside of work. Sometimes I get stressed or overwhelmed with the work I get, but I also don’t want to bring that stress into my personal life, and that’s something I would like to ask my colleagues, how they get that balance.
One thing that I had to do over was the way I was taking notes for congressional hearings. When I would attend these hearings it was kinda hard for me to multitask and write notes at the same time I was listening. This motivated me to find a new approach and figure out a way I could do this in a good way. So I would record the hearings on my phone and go back and listen to them. I did this until I realized a lot of these hearings are on youtube.
When I think of failures, I don’t think of them as necessarily a bad thing. To me, if I were to fail at something, it means I have to get up and try even harder. I don’t let failures overcome my life, and I do think failures are motivations. It teaches you that whatever you did the first time maybe wasn’t the best option, so next time you have to find a different approach. Honestly, I don’t surround myself with people who tell me to give up. That type of energy, I do not need it in my life. I try to surround myself with people who are hard workers and would never give up.
While being here I learned that there is a reason why I chose to go to a university close to my family. I struggled a lot these past two months with not being able to see my relatives. I thought I was strong in the beginning but these last couple of days have been a challenge. My parents wanted to come and visit me while I was here, but I honestly just wanted to be away and see how it would be like to not see them. But ultimately I missed them so much. I also learned that interacting with people is a way to build strong connections. As to what’s next… Well, I still want to go to law school and tie that in with criminal justice reform.
One piece of advice I would share with the 2024 Capital Scholars cohort would be to find a way to connect with other interns in D.C. I remember walking home from work one day, and another intern greeted me and added me into a group-me chat with 400+ interns in D.C., And that helped me a lot to get around.
Going to the White House was a major highlight of my time here in D.C. The fourth of July was ICONIC!As I am looking through my camera roll, I do not have many group photos. But here is Sumin, Renee, and me. They are always so nice to me and I appreciate them a lot. I’m going to miss the MLK library. Georgetown is by far my favorite place to be. I would be in this town 4 to 5 times a week.Although this picture was not taken in D.C. I am so happy that I got the opportunity to hang out and get to know all of these AMAZING people! I am a little sad that we are not all going to be hanging out anymore like we did this summer. We made so many amazing memories, and I got to say every single person in this cohort is ICONIC.
I think conformity is definitely the way to survive a workplace or internship. This is especially true in your first days in the office. There are long established ways and customs and you would do well to learn them and play by the rules before you think about disrupting the status quo. Maybe later after a few months or a year if you feel more comfortable with the job you can then start introducing changes. I am the kind of person who asks questions and sometimes I think I ask too much. This is the way I learn. I think people back away from asking their peers how to do things because they are afraid of looking stupid but I don’t agree with this mentality. I will commit to asking my colleagues how they learn different skills outside of school/work like playing music instruments because I love music and wish I could play at least an instrument but fear it is too late to learn.
On the flip side, I think conformity might be a “bad” or negative thing if the expectation is for you to bring a new set of skills to the party that has perhaps been missing and you decide to stick with the old ways. The question then becomes, why were you hired?
I have failed so many times in my life but if I had given up, I would not be here today. I have learned to pick myself up everytime and just keep moving. And yes, sometimes the naysayers were actually family. I don’t blame them. I feel like they would have given up if they were in my shoes. No hard feelings or ill intent, they just had no idea how to overcome or maybe they were not ready to push themselves. It is a different mentality they have from me. I just shut the noise out, pick myself up and keep moving.
The one thing that I had to do over because I didn’t do it well the first time was the huge case audit that I was given during my first few days. My supervisor was leaving town and quickly went over the instructions but when she left, I was stuck sometime and could not reach her for clarification. By the time she got back, I had surely made some mistakes but she was happy that I did not stop. She said they were all easy fixes and before I knew it, I had actually accomplished the task. The trick was not stopping even when I felt like I was not doing it right. That has motivated me to take on every other task she has given me.
Keeping with the subject in this blog, during this internship, I have learned to never give up. There have been many hurdles right from the start. I look back and remember the application process. I actually applied for three different programs for this summer hoping to get into at least one. To my surprise I was selected for all three which were all good programs but my instinct was to go with Capital Scholars. Little did I know that it was only the beginning. I had to find an internship and that was the hardest part. In hindsight I don’t regret it. Lessons have been learned. I feel more prepared for the challenges that are going to come my way in a real job search. I am ready for the anxiety and I am prepared to deal with it better because of this experience.
What next??? I have officially completed my degree as this was the final requirement. It is a nice way to finish this part of school. Initially I was planning to take a break by heading straight into the reserves which has great benefits for my career path but I was offered a fellowship in Seattle with the corporate side of Starbucks. This is a company that offered me the scholarship for my undergrad so I was not expecting this bonus. It is an exclusive offer with the Starbucks foundation offered to SCAP scholars. I accepted the offer and will start in September. It is paid and it will last till the end of the year. While at it, I will continue pursuing my masters degree in International affairs since I have plans to go into foreign service. I decided to start taking some online masters classes this fall because I like to keep myself occupied. Therefore I will do this concurrently with the fellowship. Then starting next year I will take a break in the spring and begin my basic training with the Airforce reserves. I was sworn in last week and I am ready to go. I feel like I have quite a plan for my what-next. My advice for the 2024 cohort…Never give up!
I was selected to participate in a program in New York last January when I met a lot of friends my age. Through them, I was able to see and learn how to apply for work and how to introduce myself when interviewing, and what clothes to wear naturally deliver my resume and even receive business cards. As soon as I came back to Arizona after the program, I bought some Business Professional-style clothes, bought some leather files to carry my resume around, and started using the patterns of self-introduction. I was just a student at a business school who liked to hang out with friends, but I started investing for myself in the future through them.
I wasn’t afraid to contact my friends who had internships before me. I think experience is the most crucial factor in learning, so I asked for interview questions, atmosphere, and detailed questions about working for an American company and asked them to help me get an internship. Sometimes I felt too small and shabby because I didn’t get an internship yet, but I still tried to think positively.
I was always worried and scared when I talked to someone in English because I learned that I had to speak both grammar and spelling when I was talking or writing in English. However, after hearing from my colleagues not to worry because everyone does not speak perfect English, I first took courage and began to talk. No one scolded me for my strange grammar but rather helped or praised me. Although I am not good at English, I think language is a means to communicate with someone, so I think I am doing well if I can.
I think failure is motivation. If I’m depressed when I fail, nothing eventually changes. That’s why I repeatedly find the cause of my failure and fix it and try again. Then you realize that you are approaching success rather than fear of failure. As I applied for internships at more than 100 companies, I was repeatedly rejected and the internship start date was approaching and I became nervous. If I had failed then, I would not have experienced it as it is now. However, because I kept challenging myself, I ended up having a good internship experience, and I will continue to try with the mind that I can eventually succeed even if I fail based on this experience.
I’ve always hung out with Korean friends, so I never thought I’d make American friends. Also, I thought it would be difficult to talk deeply with my friends, but through this program, I was able to make many good friends and get closer to the culture of America. While living as a minor, I was always worried that I might be discriminated against, but in a way, I also realized that I had narrow thoughts and stereotypes about them. I’m so grateful to the friends who broke that stereotype and I think it’ll be easier to make new friends even after I get back to ASU.
I didn’t understand at all when I first arrived in DC and heard from a former student in the capitol program in 2022 who traveled and hung out with friends who programmed together, and I thought I would stay alone. However, when I entered the apartment after arriving in DC, I confirmed that it was a room that I shared without my room, and I thought I would stay uncomfortable. After a week, I went to a 10-day schedule and ate lunch and dinner together every day, so I felt a little closer, but I was still comfortable only with my roommate. After two weeks, it became a daily routine to come home and talk to my friends after work, and after three weeks, I was glad to see my friends at home. Then, two months later, we traveled to New York together, went to museums, played with each other, ate dinner, and promised to meet each other steadily even though we were together. My friends approached me first and asked me to hang out with them, wondered about my thoughts and studies even though I was not the same major, and I had good friends who were interested in the culture in my country and ate Korean food together. It is a good experience that I will never meet again in my life to have friends who fight and curse together when I am treated unfairly as a foreigner, sympathize with me when something sad happens, and celebrate together when something good happens. It’s so funny and embarrassing to think of us who didn’t say a word at the first meeting, but when I think about going back, I think I’ll miss them who spent time together even if I don’t miss this city.
+ Renee, who lives in California, it’s so sad to think that I can’t meet my beloved roommate often, but I’m still going to visit you every month, so I hope you don’t bother me too much.
I cannot pick only 3 favorite pictures, so I put all of my favorite pictures.
ASU Capital Scholars 2023 