Final New Fellows Meeting of 2013!

Post by Kjersti Kleine (Class of 2017)

The "Values" meeting was one of our last meetings as Shucker New Fellows in our first semester here at Furman. The meeting was a great way for us to reflect on our experience and realize how close we have gotten to be over this past semester. It seems like just yesterday we were interviewing to be in the Shucker Leadership program, yet we have come so far since then.

To start the meeting, we each had to think of someone who we consider to be true to their values. Each of us contributed two character traits of this person to a master list. Once we had almost 50 character traits on the board, we went through each trait. If someone thought that the character trait was not necessary for a person to be true to their values, then we would cross the adjective off the list. When we made it through the list, we only had about six character traits left. We had several debates about character traits and whether or not it was necessary for a person true to their values to have that trait. Eventually we ended up with a concrete list of the minimum traits a value grounded person needed to have including morality, integrity, and honesty.

For the next activity, there was a list of phrases around the room such as "legal," "illegal," "illegal but acceptable," "not a good idea," and "brilliant." We were told to listen to several scenarios, then stand in the section of the room that corresponded to our opinion on the scenario. We debated scenarios like eating food from  a grocery store before you pay for it, or stopping at stop signs. Through some good discussions, we heard different interpretations of scenarios and many people's opinions were swayed.

The last activity was much more personal. We all stood in a big circle around the room. Various phrases were read out loud. We were asked to step forward towards the center of the circle if that phrase applied to us and if we felt like sharing it with others. The phrases started out simple, but they progressed to be much more personal. People were very willing to share personal details about their lives and their opinions such as their political views, past experiences, and time here at Furman. It was very affirming to the Shucker program to know that so many people felt so comfortable sharing personal information about themselves. This activity really made us feel like we were a community of people who were accepting of each other. We saw through the activity that many of us come from very different backgrounds and have very different views, yet we were all willing to share that with each other. When people stepped in towards the center of the circle, we were all reminded that we are a tight knit group of people who will always be surrounded by our fellow Shucker members.

Everyone really enjoyed the meeting last Wednesday, and we are looking forward to what Shucker has to bring us in our next semesters at Furman.

Professionalism 101

Post by Danai Agakidou (Class of 2017)

Andrew Trull, a Public Relations Strategist at Ferebee Lane&Co and Furman University and SLI alumni, together with Dorothy Self, a Marketing, public relations, community relations, and media relations consultant, gave us all some helpful tips on professionalism during our 7^th SLI meeting. Andrew Trull, kicked off the presentation by introducing us all to his own experience of finding a job and what he found useful in getting a job. He might now be a very successful member of one of the biggest companies of Greenville, but he admitted that he had to work in a lot of different environments before his current position. The key to success, according to him, is taking risks. In order to demonstrate his point, Andrew Trull used a personal example from the time he was working at a newspaper and he was asked to write a press release, which he had never done before. However, by taking the risk and writing it, not necessarily by being particularly successful, he demonstrated to his boss that he was an employee worth keeping.

Another tip he provided us with, was about interviews. Each person’s Curriculum Vitae, or CV as we usually refer to it, is nothing more but a listing of what a person has done, where he or she has been and when. During an interview, we should all take the opportunities to describe, using our CV, what qualifications each of the positions we’ve held required, what skills we developed through each of our experiences and how these can be used in the position that we are being interviewed for.

Finally, as a person involved in Public Relations daily, Andrew Trull provided us with tips on self-promotion. He suggested that since social networking is used so extensively in our everyday life, we should use social networking sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn as a way to promote ourselves to new employers.  Checking his twitter account, I found an interesting RT he made a couple of weeks ago: “Fun Fact: We spend 26% of our time on social networks”, and he is absolutely right. I personally spend a fair amount of time every day online, as I am sure most of my fellow Shucker classmates do, so why wouldn’t my future employer do so himself or herself?

So picking up where Andrew left off, Dorothy Self went on talking about the importance of image in getting a job and being respectable in a workplace. Finding your own personal style is essential in making a good first impression, but you have to make sure that they will remember you. Thus, having a special accessory or piece of clothing that you know that everyone will notice, is a good decision for your interview day. However, you have to be careful not to overdo it, and this applies to clothing, accessories as well as makeup. When Dorothy Self mentioned that one accessory or piece of clothing, she especially underlined the word ONE. Finally, having the correct posture in interviews and business meetings was also one of the points that Dorothy Self brought up. Sitting straight and having your arms in a position that shows confidence (so not crossed, covering some part of your body, but rather relaxed) is the best posture to look great in a workplace.

Overall, this presentation was very exciting for all our Shucker class and definitely answered a lot of questions in our minds for interviews. I am pretty sure all of us are now much more prepared for our interviews!