Study Abroad Opinion Considerations have to be made when thinking about studying abroad. Page 5
Modest Mouse
Men’s Lax Sports
Vine
Fairfield downed the #20 ranked Villanova on Saturday afternoon.
Eight-year hiatus proves beneficial for Modest Mouse’s newest album.
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THE MIRROR Independent student newspaper
Week of March 25, 2015
As students approach the end of the spring semester, many are actively seeking summer internships or full-time employment. One way to search for employment opportunities is through LinkedIn, one of today’s most popular social media networks. On Thursday, March 19, Fairfield’s Career Planning Center held an advanced LinkedIn workshop that was designed to explain the power of connecting with others and utilizing LinkedIn’s Alumni Finder tool. Associate Director of the Career Planning Center Stephanie Gallo began the event by reviewing the basics of LinkedIn, such as having a professional photo and up-to-date profile. Gallo then explained how LinkedIn connections are crucial when a student is interested in a specific company. By searching for a specific company, students can tap into their network of connections and use it to their advantage. When a student finds a second-degree connection they would like to reach out to, they should ask the first-degree connection to introduce them. “Using second degree connections is huge. And you don’t get second-degree connections without first-degree connections,” said Gallo, who advised students to connect with professors and coworkers.
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Students should also join Fairfield’s various groups on LinkedIn, such as Fairfield U Alumni and industry-specific groups. “There’s no loss in asking to join a group. You join a group, you have access,” said Gallo. After Gallo told students how to send a brief, professional connection request, she began to review the Alumni Finder tool. The Alumni Finder tool can be found under the “Connections” tab on LinkedIn, and helps users search for alumni connections by location, major, job type and skills. After making a connection, Gallo encouraged students to follow-up with a short message demonstrating an interest in meeting for an informational interview.
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Students learn how to effectively use LinkedIn By Christina Mowry Contributing Writer
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“One of the challenges when you’re interested in a field is just knowing the big names,” Gallo said. “If you’re interested in an industry, there are going to be companies that you have never heard of that you’ll most likely work for some day.” Gallo suggested that students familiarize themselves with the names of companies in their desired industry, and explained how to use LinkedIn’s Company search tool to do so. Using the Company search tool helps students find their ideal companies and recommended companies. “The other thing that is awesome about Company pages is that there is even a Career section,” said Gallo. “You can apply for jobs on LinkedIn.” When applying for jobs on LinkedIn, users can see how many people have applied for a specific job posting. Additionally, there is a small section of the web page that recommends similar jobs. After reviewing all of LinkedIn’s advanced tools, Gallo helped students reach out to potential connections. Despite the low attendance the workshop received, those students who were in attendance found it to be very informative. Junior Tracy León felt she gained valuable insights from the workshop, specifically noting the Alumni Finder tool. “It was highly impressive,” said León. “It was everything I needed and more.”
Club Profile: Random Acts of Kindness By Juliana Sansonetti Assistant Vine Editor One of the newest clubs at Fairfield, the Random Acts of Kindness Club seeks to spread kindness across the campus in new, innovative ways. The club, recently formed this semester, is the work of Nicole Gallucci ‘15, Austin Begin ‘15 and Mariana Mangini ‘18. “Austin and I had been doing random acts of kindness since our sophomore year here,” said Gallucci. “It’s something we’re really passionate about and it got to a point where we wanted to try and see if we could make a larger impact on the campus. Mariana, our Vice President, also showed an interest in the idea, and so the three of us started working to make the club happen.” Mangini said, “Random Acts of Kindness was created to brighten people’s day, no matter how big or small the acts are. Our members strive to be catalysts Contributed by Mariana Mangini ‘18 for kindness, spreading opportunities Senior Austin Begin, Mariana Mangini ‘18 and Nicole Gallucci ‘15 (left to right) started Random Acts of Kindness. for kindness all over campus.” Mangini also spoke on the importance of the club, spoke of the various activities students partici- pep talks when finals roll around.” Gaudet, who joined the club in order to “spread club, saying “I feel it’s extremely important to remind pate in through the Random Acts of Kindness Club. “For Valentine’s Day, we sent out free valentines kindness to others,” finds the club to be very successpeople that life can be full of pleasant surprises, espefor people at the school which everyone seemed to ful at what it aims to accomplish. cially in a stressful setting like college.” Gallucci added, “We’re still such a new club and For Gallucci, a club like Random Acts of Kind- enjoy,” said Gaudet. Mangini elaborated on the activities of the club, we already have so many passionate and dedicated ness is more prevalent on a college campus because students tend to “get overwhelmed with going saying “We collaborated with HerCampus during members who make the club what it is. It’s truly a Eating Disorder Awareness Week to create a video of great feeling to have met such amazing people that through the motions.” share a desire to spread kindness throughout the “It’s so easy to get wrapped up in technology or people complimenting others.” According to Mangini, the club has many plans campus, and I’m so excited to see where the club goes forget to focus on the positives because we have so in the future.” much going on in our lives,” Gallucci said. “We hope for future events on campus. Gaudet feels “really satisfied with the club,” say“We’re planning out an appreciation day for all this club gives people a release from that stress.” Freshman Emily Gaudet, the secretary of the of Sodexo’s staff, and we might hold a table for free ing “it’s been very rewarding so far.”
Class of 2019 breaks application records By Catherine Veschi News Editor Students who expressed interest in the Fairfield University Class of 2019 faced a more selective application process than in recent years, according to Director of Undergraduate Admissions Karen Pellegrino. Undergraduate admissions received just under 11,000 applications for the Class of 2019, 10,732 to be exact, which is an eight percent increase over the last year, Pellegrino said. “This is the largest applicant pool in our history,” Pellegrino said. “But I’ll be honest, every year we’ve crept up. In the last five years, each year we’ve set a new record in terms of applicants.” However, according to Pellegrino, the increase in applications this year was
This is the largest applicant pool in our history.
-Karen Pellegrino
Director of Undergraduate Admissions “a more substantial increase” than in previous years, citing only a three percent increase in applications last year as compared with this year’s eight percent. Pellegrino attributes this increase to many things, but mostly because of the ease with which students are able to apply to multiple schools at once through Common Application. “Students are applying to more colleges to make sure they have options because the process is somewhat unpredictable from year to year,” Pellegrino continued. Pellegrino also noted an increase in applications “from applications a little bit further from campus, so not from our core states, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.” According to Pellegrino, this is because “[Admissions] made a concerted effort to travel more to those areas to communicate in a different way with those students.” In response to the increase in applicants, Admissions has been forced to become more selective in choosing members of the Class of 2019. Last year, Admissions accepted 70 percent of its applicants, while this year, Admissions only accepted 63 percent of its applicants, said Pellegrino. According to Pellegrino, when Admissions did away with the supplemenREAD
ADMISSIONS ON PAGE 3