New Job

In my graduation speech I said, “When one door closes, don’t get discouraged because life is just waiting for you to open a better one”. This statement is so correct that it encourages me every day. As you all know I have been job searching for quite some time, and I’ve come across many different obstacles. Many times you feel really discouraged and sometimes even depressed that you may not be able to find anything. All I have to say is that being patient really is a virtue and if you work hard enough your work will pay off.

Beginning of July I started my new job as a Student Service Coordinator at Concorde School Of Hair Design. Concorde is a school for students who are looking to become a cosmetologist and want to get their license. My job is to be the student coordinator and take care of various duties for the students. Majority of my time is spent counseling students about their grades, attendance, and student problems. A big part of my job is also creating school activities, fundraisers, and anything that may make the school more fun and enjoyable for students.

The best part of the job is that I get to have fun on the job! I feel like I am right back in college creating events and running activities for students. Being the SGA president was just that and lucky for me I can bring a lot of that experience into Concorde. Prior to me the school did not have a Student Service Coordinator so it’s great to be able to start from scratch and create everything new that surprises the students.

Now, all fun and games aside, I have to stress to you how important it is to network and always put your best foot forward. The Executive Director of the school knows me from Berkeley College because she used to work there. All my work with the school, volunteering, representing the school and even blogging gave her a good picture of how I am as a person but also as a worker. Every time you do something remember that someone is watching. It may not be a pay off right away, but everything will come back to you in time.

Now as I mentioned my quote earlier, remember everything has its place and time in your life. If a certain door does not open it simply means that it is not meant to be. I have interviewed for many jobs that I would have learned to like but I knew from the start it was not my ideal job. Then came around an opportunity where I knew the job would be something that fits into my life well and something that I would really enjoy.

Back In Business

Hello everyone once again! It has been a while since I have written a blog but I have a good excuse! There have been a lot of changes going on in my life and catching up to them has been quite a challenge even for me. For starters, as I mentioned I got 2 baby puppies who have been growing quite fast. They sure are a handful but they bring many joys to my life. I have moved to Matawan, NJ where I live very close to the beach and enjoy it very much. My last change is that I have found a new job. In addition to that I will be having a lot of visitors starting next week so it was important to get the new apartment put together fast so family and friends can have a nice place to stay.

I'm going to start off where I left off last and try to bring you back up to speed. Last time I wrote Berkeley was still struggling to keep its TAG grant because congress tried taking financial aid away from proprietary schools. One morning I got a random call from Dean Hughes asking me if I was busy and if not if I would be available that day. Lucky for me, I was available because I was still in the midst of a job search and I had the afternoon available.

That day, which was a Wednesday was the last day that we had a chance to meet with the governor of NJ and tell him how we feel about him taking away financial aid from Berkeley. It so happened that this day was New Jersey's birthday! There was an event going on in Trenton where Governor Corzine would be at. Wwould try to speak to him then because this would be the last day before a decision on the budget would be passed. I got to Berkeley around 10:30 am and we left to drive all the way to Trenton. We got there about 3 hours early but we definitely got a good seat. By the time the event started there were about 300 people there.

When the event ended I was on a mission to find the governor and try to speak to him. I knew that he was going to cut the cake that was in the shape of NJ, so I went by the cake to wait for him. At first I thought I probably looked a little ridicules but then I thought of how many students I am doing this for. He cut the cake and started to walk away. I got in line of where he was greeting people and I finally got to speak to him when he came towards me.

I expressed to him how important TAG is to students and what a difference this fund makes to the students. After he found out what I wanted to talk to him about he tried to ignore me. I caught up to him again and told him that its not fair that he is singling out Berkeley College and that he should do something about that. He said that he will "try" even thought I knew he was just saying that to get me away from him.

I was not happy with how Governor Corzine treated me and Berkeley Students. I don't know where he gets the idea that our students are not good students and don't deserve this financial aid grant. Later on in the week I found out that he did pass the budget but without Berkeley in it. I was disappointed because I know many students will have to drop out. Some people are so closed minded and it worries me that people of that kind of power like Governor Corzine is one of them...