NETWORKING IN THE PANDEMIC
Making the Most of College Opportunities BY DANA MARIE LeFEVRE
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ince I was a child, I imagined my first day of college to go exactly how I saw it in the movies. I would leave my new roommate for my first 8 a.m. class, rush to grab some breakfast before walking into my huge chemistry lecture with hundreds of new faces that I would slowly get to know over the semester. I knew that I would be anxious and excited for this new chapter in my life. However, as a 2020 graduate of high school, this was not my experience for my first day of college at Michigan State University. My first day began by walking out of my bedroom in my hometown and heading to my kitchen to get breakfast. I stayed in my pajamas because my chemistry class lecture would not have faces, just blank Zoom screens. I did not recognize the names on the screens, and that did not change throughout the semester. The perspective I gained from online learning will forever affect how I started my adult life whether it was my networking abilities, relationships with professors, or academic growth. I do not look at this as a setback, just another chapter in my life that helped me build new skills. I am forever grateful for this opportunity of learning at home my first semester of college because it prepared me to move on to campus in the second semester, and eventually prepare me for my inperson classes, as I am doing now, the summer before my sophomore year of college. One of the most important professional experiences a college student can have is an internship or co-op. These networking skills, recommendation letters, and hours of learning are the golden tickets to the success of our careers. Even though our career fairs at Michigan State University were virtual, as were almost all of our events this past year, as I pulled my chair closer to my desk in my dorm room to participate in one, I still had sweaty palms as I itched the collar of my blouse away from my neck. Nerves as an eighteen-year-old, would not disappear even though my interviews and networking may not have been in person.
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2021
After I landed my first summer internship, I began to have confidence in the skills I was developing even though I did not have the benefits of in person training and classes. The clubs I joined, such as Women in Engineering, and workshops I attended set valuable expectations that would help me. The networking skills I developed this year catered towards my virtual experiences; however, it taught me just the same amount of skills I can now use in person to elevate my success. The expected ‘setbacks’ as a student learning from home turned into countless skills I can use to my advantage. Communication via Zoom and Google Meetings is now a tool that I can confidently use. Reading body language and expressing opinions as well as listening, are crucial, as many professionals are also adapting to these changing times. These skills are now beneficial as we transition to inperson meetings, even if we still choose to use our online connections to bring parts of the world closer to us. The benefits of our pandemic plans can push our society to make improvements without new ideas. For example, benefits of online learning include flexible class schedules, the ability to take more classes, more open classes, and the opportunity to focus on specific material while learning. As a student, I have applied my own set of new tactics to how I can improve my skills. My personal relations to these drawbacks and benefits will vary to other students, but drawing attention to my own struggles has allowed me to set goals for myself that I hope to cope with better as I return to campus in the fall. I am strangely emotional about my return to East Lansing. I have already grown to love the Red Cedar River, the beautiful campus, the energy of our downtown, and the bustle of our stadium, even though I have only gone to a single spring football scrimmage. This is such a monumental time in a young adult’s life. No matter what each generation goes through, I believe our educational system has the right balance of flexibility and structure to maneuver the impossible predictions of life. For eighteen years of my life, I had such a structured view of how my first day of college would be. Now I can always have the comparison of my first days of college between my freshman and sophomore years of college. One started with doubt and fear of the difficulties that lay before me without knowing my professors or how to even handle college curriculum. Now, I still have fears of the unknown, but I could not be happier to wander around campus bumping into new faces with the fear of a pandemic fading behind me. Dana Marie LeFevre is from Livonia, Michigan and is attending Michigan State University’s College of Engineering, with a May 2024 planned graduation date. She also serves as a student member on the TechCentury Editorial Board.
