Everyone knows that everything about this semester is completely, and overwhelmingly, unconventional. Never in a million years did I think I’d be doing remote learning in my senior year of college, let alone trying to find a job just by sitting behind my computer screen and camera. Alas, it is the month of November in the year 2020 and here we are.

Before I begin to speak about the networking event I attended this semester, I must preface it by saying any normal, in-person networking event is stressful and now by doing such things remotely, there had been a second coating of stress added on top of the already obnoxious levels.

At the beginning of this month, I had the opportunity to attend a networking event sponsored by the Jesuit Honor Society Alpha Sigma Nu via Zoom. On this Zoom, there were several Jesuits, alumni of Alpha Sigma Nu, and current members of ASN who are students that attend Jesuit colleges throughout the country.

At first, I was not too stressed when I entered the Zoom call, but after we were assigned into breakout rooms, I began to panic. I panicked because I realized this was one of the first times I was professionally using Zoom outside of school. I have never worried so much about my wall background, how the light of my computer was hitting my glasses, and the volume of my voice because I was wearing headphones and I was petrified that I was talking too loud.

After about 2-3 minutes of sheer panic, I calmed down after I realized the two alumni in the breakout room were not judging me on any of the before-mentioned worries and had some really genuine advice to share. One of those people was Nick Sawicki who works for America Media, a Catholic publication out of NYC. He told us about the O’Hare Fellowship Program that America Media runs each year for recent graduates of Jesuit universities.

This connection was clutch because I was thinking about applying for the fellowship before our meeting and now I 110% plan on doing just that! I’m also grateful I attended this event because I receive newsletters from ASN all the time and, not going to lie, I typically delete them. However, I happened to open this one after a meeting with another Jesuit, Fr. James Miracky (pictured with below) who told me to check it out!

So long story short, check your email and make sure your Zoom background is a background you’d be comfortable showing your future boss! 😉