Experience Davis

What advice do you have for students looking to get involved on campus and how would they begin to get involved?

1st stop in Fall Quarter is the Activities Fair on the Quad and the Fall Internship & Career Fair, the Dorm Area Resource Fairs, RA sponsored events etc.….get basic info about wide range of community service, volunteer opportunities, etc.  

Sign up for ‘list serves’ aka mailing lists like the Community Service List Serve, Internship & Career Center list serves, pre-grad school advising, etc. etc.  And just learn what opportunities are out there. New freshman are so busy with so many other adjustments, there is no need to do more than just check out what is available. New Transfer Students may  want to get involved with projects, clubs and activities that continue what they were doing in the past…or what they wished they could have done. Consider what matters to you as an individual.  Do you want to gain skills like leadership or organizing, do you want to learn about a career area, do you want to explore or research a topic, do you want to help others (if so whom and how and where).  Look for ways to address your interests, test out your long range plans, team up with like minded students to do or learn or help someone/something. Some resources to explore are below.  One thing any student can do is walk in and ask the staff to tell them about what this office/program/service does and how and when they as a student can use it.
  • Internship & Career Center
  • Cross Cultural Center/ LGBTRC/Women’s Resource Center/
  • Student Academic Success Center (lots of supportive resources re:  academic advising & help, transfer students, etc)…website LSC.ucdavis.edu
  • ARC (look beyond the ARC building to the Crafts Center, Outdoor Adventures, Equestrian Center, Aquatics, intramural sports and sports clubs)
  • Center for Leadership Learning
  • Center for Undergrad Research
  • Center for Student Involvement (clubs)

What advice do you have for students on how to succeed at UC Davis?

Success in the broadest sense would be gaining a solid education in the student’s area of interest, learning to HOW to learn, taking learning from the classroom into the lab, the community, the next step—and learning how to learn from mistakes.  Success also includes learning to become an independent and inter-dependent young adult with a commitment to using their assets to positive productive role in society.

So this means doing well in class but it also means learning to be responsible for one’s own life and learning, learning to work with teams, gaining experiences being a leader and a follower, using resources and opportunities.  These non-classroom efforts are the balance, the stress relieve, sometimes the source of positive support that helps UCD students handle the demands of courses.  In many cases they also help to focus ones long range goals.  Explore and try lots of the rich collection of resources.

What should students be aware of in today's Workforce?

Staff at the ICC may speak better to this and there were 2 recent articles you might reference.  Cal Aggie & Sac Bee this week, both page 1.  http://www.ucdavis.edu/spotlight/0510/how_to_get_hired.html?homeflash=true

Employers have more applicants than openings.  That is often true and more so now than ever before.  Employers are seeking new staff who have the skills they want AND an attitude of cooperative, open-to-criticism, multi-tasking, hardworking, flexible team members.  Having some volunteer or work experience, especially related to the type of work one is seeking does make for a stronger application/resume.  It shows a work history, allows for references, provides experience, etc. etc.  There is much more to say about this, but it would be better to get this from the ICC.

Cynthia Goldberg