For my alumni interview, I interviewed Alexa Prass. Alexa Graduated from The Ohio State University in 2018. She majored in Biology and minored in Global Public Health. Currently, she is at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a Masters Degree in Dietary Public Health. She was involved in a hand full of student organizations here at OSU, including Minorities in STEM and Collegiate 4-H. In these organizations, she was active and held leadership roles.
First, we chatted about our experiences with ENR Scholars and what ENR is supposed to look like without COVID-19. It sounds very fun and I am looking forward to the events next year. Then, we began the interview. Alexa offered me a lot of tips on how to develop my professional career. She recommends quickly evolving your resume, through volunteering and shadowing. By doing this, you can create networks with people in your prospective field. She recommended not being afraid to reach out, and to take Spanish since it is a growing language in the United States. Next, she recommended taking advantage of Ohio State’s various study abroad options. She noted that she studied in Ireland. Not only can studying abroad broaden your societies about the planet we live on, but they also can come with scholarships. Then, she told me about interviewing tips. She said to be confident, prepare, practice, be professional, and do not apply for something you are not ready for. Finally, I asked her about what the differences between her undergraduate experience and her current graduate school experience. She said that graduate school classes are more group project oriented rather than mostly being solo in undergraduate programs.
I plan on applying her advice to my time at OSU. First, I plan on building my resume by joining various student organizations. This spring, I am planning on joining a service fraternity. Since I intend on going to Medical School, I must get involved to build my resume. Her interview tips were especially helpful. I have been interviewed before, but it was for a non-competitive job opportunity. In the future, I will most likely get interviewed. One of the pieces of advice that stood out to me was “Do not apply to jobs you aren’t prepared for”. This is interesting to me because I think it is easy to get caught up in what you want to do with your life but then realize you are not prepared yet. I will definitely keep this in mind in my professional development. Overall, the interview when smoothly and Alexa was very helpful with advice for my future,