"Alumni Success: Entering the working world"

By Angelina Sakkestad
When I entered the Writing Arts Internship this semester I was expecting to work on social media, flyers for new courses and guest speakers, and research outlines. I was familiar with these aspects and comfortable with them.  I wasn’t expecting to get a taste of life after Rowan University, exploring Linkedin and reaching out to Writing Arts alumni. The project came about as we explored the website for missing links, errors, and needed updates. The alumni page hadn’t been updated since 2016, which is plenty of time for accomplishments and new occupations from our Writing Arts alumni. 
​At first, I wanted nothing more than to be assigned anything else. I was apprehensive about emailing and contacting all these strangers. I was presented a list of people I had never met and didn’t know much about. I didn’t know how to proceed, despite our commonality through Writing Arts, I was stuck viewing the alumni as strangers. I procrastinated the assignment and always had reasons why there was a delay in its progression. I was busy working on all my other assignments. I ran out of time. I simply forgot. But then I realized that there was a point where procrastinating does nothing more than double the workload. 
I pulled up my metaphorical-work boots, sat down at my computer, and started at the first logical step: making a list. I made separate documents for undergraduate and graduate students and equipped both of these lists with a legend: Bold was for the initial message. Then bold italics for a response from the alumni. Asterisks (*) accompanied the name of individuals that appeared on both lists and bold underline italics signaled that the response was compiled and updated to the website. 
With my list and legend completed, I realized that I couldn’t send out messages with a half-completed LinkedIn page of my own. I updated my resume and uploaded it to the site, added my place of work, my “special skills,” and added as many familiar faces as I saw. Feeling accomplished and quite professional, I sent out the first messages. With each individual, I made sure to check any existing links already on our site. Did they have a personal website? Did that link still exist? Was this the right LinkedIn page? Where else could I find them if not on LinkedIn? 
I didn’t expect this last question to stump me as much as it did; I didn’t even know how to proceed with the project. I didn’t have a list of emails on my desk that would solve this problem. It took more procrastination and a brainstorm with the intern team for me to realize that there was still a platform I could use, and I used it every day: Facebook. Facebook had turned into the “moms only” social media in my young adult mind. It was a place for cheesy business social media and even cheesier mom content. I had completely forgotten that Facebook is designed as a networking platform. Anyone I couldn’t find on LinkedIn definitely had a Facebook page that I could message. 
​Of course, that was still the part I was procrastinating. I had figured out a Plan A and B for where to send messages but now I had to actually send them. Press keys on the keyboard and ask for a professional update from Writing Arts Alumni. It seems like an easy task, but it still was daunting to me. I pulled those metaphoric-work boots back on and drafted a message that was friendly and inviting, explained who I was, and why a Rowan University student they had never heard of was popping up in their messages. 
​The message looked like this: 
“Hi there!

I’m currently an intern with the Writing Arts department of Rowan University and we’re checking up on all Writing Arts Alumni to see what they’ve been up to! We’d want to update the alumni portion of the rowanwritingarts.org website and would love to showcase what you’ve been up to. 

Thank you!
Angelina Sakkestad
Rowan Writing Arts Intern”
I had to be short, sweet, and to the point. There were limited characters on LinkedIn and I couldn’t clog inboxes. By the next week, I had responses from most of the alumni. And now we have a living database of our Writing Arts Alumni and their professional accomplishments. 
Despite all my apprehension, this project reinforced my communication skills, both with the interns and alumni. All the worry and fear I had about contacting strangers has melted away. As an individual, I have a purpose, whether it be contacting fellow Writing Arts students, or any other “stranger” to fulfill a purpose. I have explored LinkedIn and realized that Facebook isn’t mom-content-only. I understand how to conduct myself in a professional way and have peaked into the world beyond Rowan University. I’m excited to see what it holds for me in the future. 
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