Assistant Director of Graduate Student Employer Engagement
Education
B.S. Conservation and Resource Studies, UC Berkeley
How did you get here?
West coast is the best coast am I right? I’ve been in SoCal my whole life and am excited for this new chapter in the Bay Area. I absolutely love working in higher education. University was such a transformative experience for myself as I went through a very complex time finding out who I was. My main goal after graduating was that I wanted to help give back to students who are also trying to navigate such a developmental stage of their lives.
I spent almost a decade with my alma mater, UC Irvine, moving from Student Affairs to Alumni Relations. My responsibilities spanned from mentoring students in creativity and leadership to creating connections with partners for our alumni. I really loved being able to focus on gaining more access to resources for students and building a stronger community overall. I’m now at Berkeley Career Engagement because what better way to gain resources than to be directly in front of employers advocating for the student population!
Who do you work with? What’s cool about your job?
What’s cool about my job is I get to see both sides of the Graduate Student experience. I’ll be working with our Graduate Students, PhD Students, and Postdoc Students on their aspirations through career education appointments. Then on the flip side, I’ll be
working with employers to increase advocacy for our graduate students as prospects and learning best hiring practices from them to bring back to my appointments!
What’s the best career advice anyone has given you?
The best advice I have gotten has helped me get out of a lot of imposter syndrome with myself: “You do not have to change who you are to excel at your job”.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you get to slack off on certain skills that are needed for the job – public speaking, team building, etc, but it does mean that you don’t have to change your core values. I’ve come to learn that some of my traits that people may deem as
“weak”, or “timid” are the traits that have helped me create genuine connections with many of my partners and gained immense trust.
Interests/Hobbies
You can always find me on the weekends exploring a new bakery, coffee shop, or going on a run on a nearby trail. I believe the best way to connect with others is through food so I love grabbing a bite with someone and/or cooking together so we can share in the experience of delicious goodness together. I grew up the majority of my childhood playing soccer so I’ll come running if I hear of any intramural play!