Ever wonder how the journey of a first-generation college student at Harvard looks like? Meet Kassandra Rodriguez, a determined Harvard student with ambitions of making it big in the field of surgery. Kassandra's inspiring journey, filled with hard choices and smart decisions, serves as an excellent guide for students and parents embarking on the challenging voyage of higher education.
Kassandra's academic journey was no less than an adventure, where she judiciously balanced academic rigor and extracurricular activities to stand out in the crowd. She didn't stop at that! She harnessed the power of several external programs like Matriculate, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and Questbridge, that paved her way to Harvard. Kassandra’s story is a testament to the power of setting goals, taking small steps to achieve them, and utilizing resources effectively.
Kassandra’s experiences go beyond just academics. She stresses upon the importance of building connections and networking for a prosperous future. By sharing anecdotes from her life, she emphasizes the power of good communication skills and how mentors can play a substantial role in shaping your college journey. Wrapping up the episode with a call to action, we encourage you to remain focused and spread the word about the community. We welcome you to join us, as we soak in and learn from Kassandra's wisdom throughout this enlightening episode.
Connect with Sonia Cacique
LinkedIn
Instagram
JOIN OUR CAREER NEWSLETTER here.
🚀 I'll help you rediscover who you truly are, provide clarity towards your future and be your personalized coach with Multiple Service Package options. Your Coach Sonia is ready to help you!
"Stay well, be present, and enjoy the journey"
Ever wonder how the journey of a first-generation college student at Harvard looks like? Meet Kassandra Rodriguez, a determined Harvard student with ambitions of making it big in the field of surgery. Kassandra's inspiring journey, filled with hard choices and smart decisions, serves as an excellent guide for students and parents embarking on the challenging voyage of higher education.
Kassandra's academic journey was no less than an adventure, where she judiciously balanced academic rigor and extracurricular activities to stand out in the crowd. She didn't stop at that! She harnessed the power of several external programs like Matriculate, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and Questbridge, that paved her way to Harvard. Kassandra’s story is a testament to the power of setting goals, taking small steps to achieve them, and utilizing resources effectively.
Kassandra’s experiences go beyond just academics. She stresses upon the importance of building connections and networking for a prosperous future. By sharing anecdotes from her life, she emphasizes the power of good communication skills and how mentors can play a substantial role in shaping your college journey. Wrapping up the episode with a call to action, we encourage you to remain focused and spread the word about the community. We welcome you to join us, as we soak in and learn from Kassandra's wisdom throughout this enlightening episode.
Connect with Sonia Cacique
LinkedIn
Instagram
JOIN OUR CAREER NEWSLETTER here.
🚀 I'll help you rediscover who you truly are, provide clarity towards your future and be your personalized coach with Multiple Service Package options. Your Coach Sonia is ready to help you!
"Stay well, be present, and enjoy the journey"
Welcome to the College and Career Ready podcast. You go to resource for all things related to preparing our students for success in their college and career journey. My name is Sonia Casique and I will be your host and guide on this exciting journey towards a bright future. Our mission is simple to empower our parents and students by elevating their confidence and resourcefulness. We believe that you deserve all the tools and support necessary to open the doors to endless possibilities of success and, with our community, you don't have to do this alone, so come with me and let's get started. Welcome, my friend, to the College and Career Ready podcast. As always, I'm your host, Sonia Casique, Thank you for being here with me today. I want to take a minute to share with you what others are saying about our podcast. Here is a review from one of our listeners, and she writes Sonia is so caring about young people finding their path that after listening to one of her podcasts, you feel motivated to become better self. She is a teacher, a motivator, a counselor and a genuine great person. To our sweet friend Bhatti, thank you for sharing this with us. Friends, I love hearing from you and what you love most about our podcast. You, too, can share with me what you like most, what's your favorite episode or even what you would like to hear more of. I love hearing from our community, so email me directly at info at collegecareerreadyorg. That is, info at collegecareerreadyallonewordorg. Thank you again to our listener Bhatti, and for sharing this with us.
Speaker 1:Today we are taking a trip down memory lane as we revisit one of our all-time favorite episodes. We thought it would be so much fun to relive some of the best moments and highlights from this episode. Back in April, we interviewed one of our favorite guests, Cassandra Rodriguez, who is currently a Harvard student. She is majoring in human developmental and regenerative biology and economics, with the ultimate goal to attend medical school to become a surgeon. She will be sharing tips on how parents can better support your children in their academic and career journey, while also giving our students an inside look to her experience at Harvard, while also sharing helpful tips to better equip you with resources and these are all free, yes, free resources that can help you along the way.
Speaker 1:And before we get started, I did want to mention a special person who connected me with Cassandra, and that is Ms Vanessa Manrique, an amazing teacher at South Texas ISD, and to her I want to say thank you for connecting me with Cassandra. I love building connections and to you I am forever grateful. Thank you, Ms Manrique, and without further ado, let's get started. Welcome, Cassandra, Welcome to the College and Career Ready podcast.
Speaker 2:Hi Sonia, I'm super excited to be here. How are you doing today?
Speaker 1:I'm doing great. Thank you for joining me. I'm super excited. I know you have a great story to share with us, some pretty exciting stuff that's going on in your life, but why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience? Tell us a little bit about who Cassandra is?
Speaker 2:Yes, of course, honored to be here. Just a brief intro of who I am my name is Cassandra. Right now I'm in Harvard Student at Harvard College studying human development when regenerative biology, with double concentration in economics. My ultimate goal is to attend medical school to become a surgeon, either a cardiothoracic or a plastic surgeon. I am originally from Brownsville, texas, but I am also from Mexico. At the same time, I have a dual citizenship, so I have both a Mexican citizenship and a US citizenship.
Speaker 2:In regards to academics, I attended elementary school in Mexico up until sixth grade and I moved to the US in seventh grade, the end of my sixth, starting seventh grade, to a public school in Texas. I spent there two years, seventh and eighth grade, and then I moved into a magnet high school medical professions in Olmito, and it was more geared towards medicine. So that's where I solidified my pursuit to continue studying medicine in the future. My mom has about eight siblings, so it's a very extended family. I am an only child, so even though it's only me and my dog, I have to say I love my dog. I do have a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles just a very extended family.
Speaker 1:I love it. Super traditional and I can completely relate with that. Yes, Awesome, awesome. So tell us a little bit about where you are now in your education. So you told us you're at Harvard. What year?
Speaker 2:are you in? Yes, I am a first year student. This is my second semester here, spring semester. I am class of 2022 for high school, class of 2026 for college and, yeah, harvard has a residential system for housing. So we get assorted our freshman year into Harvard Yard, which is all the freshmen are living together their first year, and sophomore, junior and senior year you get sorted into one of their upperclassmen housing, which I didn't think about. It's like Harry Potter when they put the hat into the kids and then they get sorted into like Rippon D'Arrest. That's what we like to think about it. And actually yesterday we were filling out the housing forms. It's a random assignment, so you don't know what you're going to get. Wow, that's exciting.
Speaker 1:That's super, super exciting. So tell me a little bit about growing up. What career were you wanting to pursue?
Speaker 2:When I was very, very little I wanted to be a teacher. So I remember going back home and at the end of the school year it was the summer and I used to have like all the stacks of books I had from my kindergarten, like the alphabet and stuff, and I would just open them and with my pen I would like be the teacher and check them off and like stamp them like six times. And that was like when I was very little. But then as I grew up, I started more looking into, more into medicine and just becoming a doctor. And you feel like it is also very common for parents to always be like, oh, you want to be a doctor, you want to do this. And I feel like it really resonated with me at the time and I was like, okay, a doctor.
Speaker 2:And then when I started middle school I was like, okay, like I saw the possibility of becoming more of a doctor. Then in high school it was even more of a possibility with all the opportunities we had, which I can expand later on when you ask about it. Yeah, and after high school I was like this is for sure what I want to do. In middle school I really didn't want to go into college not knowing what to do, and that's totally okay. There's so many people that I know here that are undecided majors. But for me personally, with how I work and how I plan ahead for what I want to do, it was more of like I need to have like a career goal that I want to have. So it was always medicine and I wanted to come into college, just sure of what I was doing. I am a first generation student in the US. I did have some family that it's in the college in Mexico, but not to the moment, right now, that they're pursuing medicine.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is incredible. That's so exciting. And you're at Harvard, which we'll get that soon. Man, you have just so much to share here with us. Tell us a little bit about your high school, so what classes really impacted you?
Speaker 2:I know you went through a certification program, so share with us about that, yes, yes, I attended medical professions, which is part of the South Texas IEC district, a very great district, especially for students who already have in mind something they want to pursue or just like solidify what career they want to go later in the future. They also have like the engineering, more like STEM engineering based, and they also have like the medical profession, which is more like medicine, and of course, there's always students that don't want to go into medicine, but just getting exposed early on is always beneficial. My freshman year I took a lot of AP classes. By the end of my senior year, which was something that not a lot of high schools offer. I took about 14 AP classes by the end of my senior year. I started off my freshman year with just one AP Spanish. I believe I was only one of two freshmen taking AP classes. Freshman year Wow. But since Spanish is my native language, I was like, why not? And medical professions is unique. When I was there.
Speaker 2:Your freshman year you started off with like an intro class to medicine, just like what it is instrument systems, just like a basic science class. And as you move on to the year sophomore, junior, senior you really get into like a more specialized program, which is what I did senior year. Sophomore year we had like anatomy and physiology and pathophysiology, just for a lot of labs, and junior year was COVID. Unfortunately our clinical rotations were impacted by that and we didn't get the full experience because usually junior year is the year where you go out to shadow and like do clinical rotations. But we were able to get the CPR certification that year. So my junior year I did get CPR certified and by senior year you get to choose what program you were interested in.
Speaker 2:The school offers like EMT, flood bottom, pharmacy tech, medical assisting, and I chose to pursue pharmacy technician, which is also with caduceus we use caduceus too throughout all the program great program to prepare us for the test.
Speaker 2:And I chose pharmacy because I thought that at the moment you're going to get, if you want to go into medicine of course drugs and medicine is always you're going to have to know and memorize. So that was kind of my motivation to pursue pharmacy and also I love my teacher. So that was like a win-win for me and I was between pharmacy tech and EMT and the only reason I didn't choose EMT was because I was really interested in I love the adrenaline and learning so many skills. But I felt also that it was. It establishes some financial security when you move into college, having a job that you can assist. And EMT, I felt, was something that sometimes you have to take, shifts that are later on in the day or at night. That I wasn't going to be willing to do in college. So pursuing the pharmacy tech certification was more of like viable option for me when I came into college.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome and that got you some great experience and some things to put on your resume, is it not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a win-win for everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome, awesome. So what made you apply to Harvard? What's?
Speaker 2:the story behind that? Yeah, so the thing is I didn't have any pressure from my parents or anyone in my family to really pursue all of this. Of course, my mom was always very supportive of me and always trusted and had confidence that I was going to do great things, and I thank her for that, for all the support that she has given me throughout all these years. But it was never something that some parents are really strict with their kids a lot of pressure of like you have to go to college, to a good college but I never really experienced that. It was more of like an internal drive in my case that I wanted to pursue something more and I feel like sometimes, even though, when parents are strict, if the child doesn't want to do it, they're not going to achieve it, and in this case, it was just a drive for me and I am a strong believer and I always tell this when, like many people have asked me, like, oh my gosh, you got into Harvard. Like, what did you do? You really have to set a goal since the start of your freshman year, like, and it's small steps, you know it's not going to, you're going to go into freshman year and everything's going to work out and everything's going to be amazing and you're going to get here suddenly because of luck. Right Starting high school, I said what do I have to do to get here in the first place? Academic rigor is something really important. Even though grades don't define you as a person, at least in this situation, they do in some sense. You have to filter for all the students who are applying. So I was like okay, I know this. Then what do I have to do? Well, I have to be top of the class or achieve really high grades, you know. So since freshman year, I was like I want to be top of the class, I need to get the good grade, and I did. At the end, I graduated by the Victorian of the class. So that was like a small step the freshman year, just setting your goals, planning everything out, and throughout all the years, it's just working towards that goal.
Speaker 2:I took part of a lot of lecture curriculars and I also like worked hard to do good things in them, just not to say, oh, I did this, this and this, but then no results, which is something that universities and colleges are looking for. I wanted to stay committed to some extra curriculars more than others. I did several extra curriculars for my whole high school experience for four years and that was mostly something known as UIL and HOSA. Ui was supposed to be the ID history nothing not being related to medicine but it ended up being one of the best experiences with my mentor and coach, which became my letter of recommendation. I believe I started actually applying and looking into colleges.
Speaker 2:My junior year or kind of end of sophomore year summer, I started attending like live information sessions. Universities have a lot of resources and I feel like sometimes students and parents don't know of how many resources there are out there for students especially like me, like first generation low income, and how much support you have, and sometimes it's just exploring, just searching on Google Harvard Info Session, yale Info Session, university of Texas at Austin Info Session and that's something I always recommend just starting to get exposed to what's out there, knowing what they're expecting of you, and that's what I did mostly my sophomore and junior year just going into this info sessions, contacting like admission officers from your region, like oh, I have this question about this, I got this question about that. Just a lot of communication in that sense. And also applying to external programs outside of school. I always recommend these few programs that I participated in high school that really helped me a lot as a first generation low income student, which are like matriculate so program for high school students, high school juniors and seniors, and they match you with a mentor at a top university in the US. I got matched with a mentor in Johns Hopkins and she helped me throughout my junior year and senior year with any questions I had about the application process, my essays, my resumes, so she was a great help. Also, I applied to something known as the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
Speaker 2:I identify as the static, so that was a perfect program for me and they also had a program in the summer to get exposed to college application process. They had like workshops, seminars, that sort of stuff. And the good thing is that all these programs are free and I feel like there's a lot of misconceptions that you have to pay so much money, especially like for SAT prep for instance, that you have to pay thousands of dollars for SAT prep, or. But there's so many programs out there that are free and provide you with a lot of valuable experiences like that and I'm not going to lie, it was a hard process just over all the college admissions is very stressful For me as a person that I really like to know what's coming ahead. Just being full of uncertainty throughout my senior year, not knowing what was going to happen next, was stressful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I applied to about 18 schools total. How many 18. Oh, wow, yeah, and some of them were Texas schools. Of course, I am from Texas, so it was like UT, austin, texas A&M, ut, rgb, just a lot of Ry's University, and I also applied to mostly all of the Ivy Leagues, so I was like Yale, stanford, harvard, columbia, johns Hopkins, mit. You know there were a lot of rejections, but there were also a lot of acceptance letters, which is something that I'm really grateful for. And oh, one big program that I forgot to mention was Questbridge. I really really recommend Questbridge for students who also identify as first-generation and low-income, or even if you don't consider yourself low-income, first-generation students are also welcome. It's an application-based program that you apply your junior and senior year of high school and they provide you with so many opportunities and resources for the college admission process. Questbridge was definitely one of the main programs that I feel like helped me get here where I am today.
Speaker 1:Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So I was wondering how did you narrow down to the school of?
Speaker 2:choice. Some schools, of course, definitely come first and other. So I knew that I got accepted into UT, austin and Texas A&M and UTRGV because, of course, if you're in Texas and you're like top 10%, you have automatic admission. So I already had a safety net there. If something else didn't work out, I was going to come back to those schools. And by no means I'm saying like those were the last choices, that's not what I mean here. It's just that in my personal case I really wanted to move out of Brownsville and just pursue something else different and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. Maybe I was going to go out and say this is definitely not for me, I'm not used to this, and come back, but I just wanted to get exposed to something else.
Speaker 2:And then, after the Texas schools, I think I got accepted to Johns Hopkins after and I was like the biggest acceptance, the first big acceptance that I got. And when I got accepted there I was like I really don't care where else I get accepted. You know, like whatever happens, I'm coming here and they gave me a like full ride scholarship and they weren't even doing me money back. So I was like this is amazing, like I'm set. And then Ivy League they came it was, I think, march and I had high expectations but not, honestly, no, I did not have any expectations at all. I was like whatever happens happens. And actually the first school that I opened my admission letter was Harvard, because I was like if I get in, then this is the best day of my life and if I don't, then I just know, you know it's okay. And I opened. I was on my computer and I opened the letter and it said congratulations, you're in and I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2:I started crying. I'm not saying goodbye. My parents weren't home either. My mom wasn't home Because I was like I'm just gonna open it. I don't have many expectations at all, and yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Well, you chose Harvard. It was your first choice. Can you tell us a little bit about your financial opportunity that you got there?
Speaker 2:persistence- yes, most of the schools I got into and I don't think I've mentioned this, I have some all the schools that I applied from the ones that I was choosing from was Columbia, johns Hopkins and Harvard. Those were the three main schools that I was deciding in between. All of them gave me full financial aid. I was on a full ride, so it wasn't a matter of money, which was amazing, and I am so grateful for that, because there's no way that my parents or my family could pay for a tuition like that. But that's another point that I really wanna emphasize that usually private schools and Ivy League schools like this one have very, very generous financial aid, even compared to, like Texas schools. In UT, austin, I still had to pay a lot of money to attend and Harvard and Columbia, I had zero dollars to pay.
Speaker 1:That, yeah, that is amazing, and I'm so grateful that you and I have connected, because this is the information that I wanna share with others. It really gives a lot of hope for students and parents too. Oh man, I have so many questions, we're gonna run out of time. Okay, so who influenced you the most?
Speaker 2:I would say my mom and my family. Overall, as I said, I'm in a very excited family and I felt like I've always had the support of my parents there, my family just always being there for me, and it is a very important thing to feel supported and just encouraged, and especially throughout the college application process, it's full of uncertainty In someone where you're fighting like adversity. You're a first-generation low-income student. You know, none of your parents have really gone to college in the US. We didn't even know how to navigate the applications or even like how to do the forms through the FABSA, you know. Everything was so new to me and just having them there and just encouraging me to everything's gonna be okay, like if you, even if you end up here, which is not where you want to be, you're still gonna get a degree, you know, and you're still gonna continue your education and everything's gonna be fine. So just having them there as a support was definitely something that really helped me throughout the process.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, amazing, amazing. How did you manage your time? Well, let's break this up into two parts how did you manage your time in high school and how do you manage your time now?
Speaker 2:Because you actually had time to fit me into your schedule. No, yeah, I feel time management is definitely the main thing in college and I can say that for sure, 100% In high school. It's very different to what college life is. As they say, freedom is a tool and sword. You can do whatever you want, but then if you just do whatever you want, then things don't get done. You know, in high school, having the structure from like 8 to 4 pm, you know your schedule, you follow your classes, you know that at the end of the day you're gonna go and do your extra clearings and at the end of the day go home, do your homework, sleep and again, and then college has sound like that. You would choose whenever you want to wake up. You would choose.
Speaker 2:Especially here at Harvard, we have a lot of freedom to choose what classes we want to take. We don't have a certain curriculum that they tell us to take, so it's more free. You can choose whatever you want to take. Of course there's some prereq classes that you have to take, but it's not like they're telling you to take this class at this hour or do any of your circuitry at some point. So in high school, just having that structure and it's gonna be the same thing. You know you're gonna follow a pattern. You know that at the end of your senior year you're gonna take 8 AP classes, so you know what's gonna happen. Everything is more systematized, I would say.
Speaker 2:But then in college it's like what is going on? And that was my first semester and this semester now, no-transcript. I really really have to learn how to manage my time really well, even just what time I go to eat. You develop some habits that you didn't have in high school because your parents were there. You had pressure time to eat, time to sleep, time to do this.
Speaker 2:And then, now that I'm here, it's like I have to block out time on my calendar on J-Cal to go eat. Like it comes to that point everything has to be blocked out in order for me to do it. And sometimes I feel like for last semester I had this problem a lot, that and I'm doing this now this semester like blocking out my times in the calendar because I say some days I'm going to wake up, go to class and then I'm going to do work at night and then I don't do the work because I did something else or I got distracted or I had a meeting, or I had this, or I had something else. So just to really really being organized with yourselves and not over committing is another thing, yeah, in high school, I feel like you.
Speaker 2:I was in all the clubs in my high school, mostly with the exception of like three, but I was part of all the organizations and I had like a leadership position. I was like the trencher for one, the president for the other, the vice president for the others. I was involved in all of this and then doing my classes as well, but here, just the rigor, the academic rigor is so different and you can't do everything. Yeah, and I feel like the first semester I did over commit myself with the more things that I could handle at the same time and then that caused you to not be good at anything at the end. No, it's like I'm doing all of this but if I'm just giving 20% to each thing, then it doesn't work out when I can get 50 and 50. So it's just like really managing and being strategic of what you want to do and what you want.
Speaker 1:Good point. Good point. What tips as far as managing mental health, stress, anxiety. Do you have anything for us on that? Yes, definitely.
Speaker 2:Definitely this semester, especially with more classes. I'm taking a more heavy science course load this semester, with two science classes especially. Each class has a lab component and a discussion component plus my economics class, and here at Harvard it's known to either like a PSET class, which is like a problem set class, kind of like a math worksheet in high school, or you're in an essay class, so it's like writing, and what advisors here tell you to do is really balance your semesters out and just finding the balance. You have time for yourself, and having the time for school is something that I really I'm in the process of learning. I'm not gonna say I've mastered it and I'm not gonna say that I feel like last semester I neglected that a lot. I was like I have to do this and this and this, but then you also need time for yourself.
Speaker 2:You know, especially with so many things going on and there's so many amazing people here that are doing so many things and you're like what am I doing? But then you have to realize, like I've gone this far, I am here for a reason and sometimes you have to put yourself first. Sometimes, if not, turning in an assignment means so you're gonna be fine the next day or something else, like it's okay, it doesn't matter. And that's something that I'm still learning right now. Like you see all this people getting amazing grades even though the class is extremely hard, and you're like me and my roommate, we're all struggling with the same class. It's like what's going on. You know Definitely what they call like imposter syndrome, and it's just realizing that you don't have to compare yourself to others. You don't know what path they're going to take, you don't know what career they're gonna have, what their intentions are. You know it's just you, do you. You have your own goals and just keep going. It doesn't matter, just prioritize yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it and I know I put you on the spot on that question, but I did it purposefully because it also allows you to kind of stop and think, like, do I have a system? And I appreciate your honesty about it, that you're working on it, because I think that's what people want to hear. They want to hear you know authenticity from others saying you know what I'm working on. That and that's okay too. So it's just becoming aware is a huge thing. If you'd go back in time, would you change anything?
Speaker 2:Honestly, at this point I wouldn't change anything. I have a strong believer that everything happens for a reason, and if I gave in my 100% and it didn't work out, then it was some other outlying factor or an outlier that didn't work out.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Do you remember a time, do you remember maybe a big struggle? Was there anything else impactful in your life that you felt it was a struggle, but then in hindsight it was well worth it, or it was, you know, kind of put you in a better spot afterwards.
Speaker 2:Being like a first generation college student, I didn't know how to navigate the process as well, and I do believe there is a big misconception of just like oh, like you're a first generation student, you're not gonna get really anywhere. Like you have your fate predetermined to go just here, community college, state school, and just move on and just not go the one step ahead and explore and do the things that I was doing right. So navigating everything and just being unfamiliar with what to expect, I feel like was to struggle as well. Definitely, I would encourage more high schools, especially like in areas or cities they're not big like my city just to like, really emphasize, like more college counseling, just to get more students, more resources than know they have options and it is possible, you know. Yeah, the big thing here is just the mentality If you think that it's not gonna happen, then it's not gonna happen, you know. But if you know that it can happen in your work front, then you know it can happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And listen, cassandra, you are really making change because we're spreading out the word. Right now, you are so kind to share with us a couple of organizations and resources, and that's one step in the right direction as far as getting those services for students, you know, and letting them know that it's out there and available.
Speaker 2:It doesn't hurt, like to just share what you did and just share the resources that you used If I can get them out and especially it helps us organizations as well and just know that there's a desire and like a will for students to use them.
Speaker 1:So tell us a little bit more about mentoring. We spoke about you having mentors, but what has impacted you most about building those connections and networking?
Speaker 2:Yes, networking is definitely a big thing, especially coming here into college and just being exposed more to like the business environment and what careers are gonna do later on in the future. Networking, I would say People emphasize a lot in high school great, great, great, great, sorry, amazing. And you need to have good grades to be successful in life. But then you come into a more me in my case you're exposed to more professionals and individuals who are actually out in the world doing stuff. And it's not about grades, it's not about doing good in school, it's not about getting a quendron on that science midterm you have last week, but just connecting and building those relationships with individuals and just getting to know them, having someone that you can reach out to, and just forming those connections. Networking is a big big thing. You can have the most perfect grades, but if you don't know anyone, that it's not going to help. Yeah, especially in medicine it is a bit different because in medicine, of course, you have to go to medical school and you do need a GPA and you do need amazing academic credentials, but that's specifically for medicine.
Speaker 2:If you go into the business world, for instance, business moves with people with connections, with talk right, so you have to know individuals in several industries.
Speaker 2:You have to connect. What are they doing right now? You know some students here, upperclassmen, they are sophomores, and they are already applying for jobs they want to have next summer or next year, like two or one years in events that's a lot of time, right and they're like I have to go to this recruiting event, I have to get to know the recruiters, I have to get to know this and email them and chat with them and go to coffee chats and do all of this and then you just learn the importance of networking. You know, and it's a lot like I don't know, this isn't going to sound bad, but a 4.0 GPA with someone that doesn't know how to talk to people, not connect to people, and you have someone with a 3.6, which is not bad at all, or a 3.3 or 3.5. And knowing how to communicate your thoughts, talk to people and just empathize with other individuals, then it could overgo, you know.
Speaker 1:So, yep, oh, my goodness, that was amazing, because you're really telling our youth something that's very important and critical. Because they're so used to social media and the phones and sending messages, they're losing the connection skills that happen sometimes face to face in building communications and conversations, et cetera. So I'm glad you're making a key point about this. The other thing I wanted to mention this is specifically for our listeners it doesn't mean that you have to go to Harvard. It doesn't matter where you go. You have to build those connections, because you could go to a university in your town or in your city, but you're connecting with people outside of there or even within the university. That is going to be more of an impact than going to a top university and not speaking to anyone and just finishing your classes.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing that I'm also working on, as I said, with just prioritizing myself is just where to draw the line between academics and me getting out there. And it's hard because you have especially here you have the two extremes. You literally have the individuals who just focus on school, don't do anything else, and have the four-point OGPAs. And then you have the other individuals who literally emphasize or prioritize the extracurriculars, with a low GPA and I'm saying like a 3.5, 3.4, not something common for, like pre-med students, but they're getting so many more things done. So you're like what should I do? How do I balance my time? And for me that has been a big struggle, especially in college. Where do I draw the line to know what percentage of my energy and time to give to each one?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Because at the end of the day, you will graduate and you will get a job. You want to definitely set yourself where you can reach out to those people that you've connected with, to get yourself started with a great position or a great company or whatever it is that you're moving on to next. You're already starting at a different level, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yep, and it's a small world. I'm going to say that, especially here, there's so many individuals and so many people from many different backgrounds, but at the end of the day, it's the small world. Everything is connected and everyone knows each other. And you're going to go to a job interview and they're going to ask okay, what did you do? I'm not a professional, but I have a 4.0 GPA. Okay, but what did you do? Who do you know? It's the truth. Unfortunately, it just depends a lot on what career path you want to go. But no, working is definitely a skill that's necessary for everyone, regardless.
Speaker 1:I feel like you have stolen my tagline, because I have said that so many times. I have told that to so many students when I've done one-on-ones with them I have said that when you graduate this is why we emphasize getting out there or getting a certification in the next year, Getting yourself with some experience because when you graduate, they're going to ask you what you did and you say, okay, well, I got a 4.0,. Okay, but what did you do Exactly? You stole my tagline, but that's okay.
Speaker 2:I think mentors are a big thing. Having someone or a lot of people who you can connect and just learn about is something that I really emphasize for everyone, especially high school students and when you come here to college as an I don't know, this is because I am a college child and I've learned how to talk to adults a lot, but I really connect with older individuals, especially because I really appreciated value of the wisdom and experience they have. In high school I did have a lot of mentors and I said with all the programs that I was part of, really trying to build those connections with some individuals, just to know what to expect when I got here. And similarly, when I'm here, I'm trying to connect with a lot of students or professors who are at the medical school, just so I know what's going to happen next.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time, cassandra. I wish I could just hug you, give you a big virtual hug. I appreciate your time, your story, your motivation, your encouragement and, hopefully, our audience, our young adults that are listening, getting encouraged and motivated and then hopefully, we'll have you here in a couple of years. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:I love talking about all of this, especially because I really want to like inspire and just motivate other students that are in my position right now that it is possible, that it can happen. You just have to like put in the work and just be happy, be optimistic and everything's going to work out again.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thank you, cassandra, for spending time with me and hopefully we'll be in touch soon, thank you. Thank you so much for having me, fran. Wasn't that a great episode? What did you like most about it? I'd love to hear from you. You can always email me at info at collegecareerreadyorg, and we have the link to our email directly on our show notes for easy access. And please continue to spread the word about our community and our podcast. Keep dreaming, my friends. Stay present and stay well. Remember, together we can achieve anything. I love you and I'm always cheering for you. I'll talk to you soon.