Personal Experience

My dream first job was always being a hostess. As soon as I was able to get a job I started applying to every restaurant around me. And luckily enough, I was able to be a hostess at Chili's. I was there for about 2 years until I went on to be a server at Kona Grill in Carmel. I needed a change of scenery. I lost my job there after about 2 years due to COVID. Once restaurants opened back up again, I decided to change it up and go to a faster pace environment at Bar Louie.

All three jobs I have learned a lot and I will be able to use those skills and strengths in any future career path. Being able to talk to people and communicate well, whether that's in person or over the phone, is critical in any given job and in life in general. I enjoy working in a fast paced environment and I experienced that both at Kona Grill and Bar Louie. I learned to be able to multitask and how to better navigate my tasks and time to get things done efficiently. I hope in my future career I am in a fast paced environment where I am able to use those skills I have learned.

Although I liked serving as I was a full time student, I know it's not what I want to do long term. I am grateful for the people I have met and the connections I have made for me to be successful in my future career.

I was very fortunate to be able to work with the Fairbanks School of Public Health (FSPH) as an intern for their Marketing and Communications department. I didn't know much about marketing before this experience but knew I wanted to learn more.

Overall, my experience with FSHP has been nothing but positive from the beginning. I work with a small team of two other people and they have been welcoming and willing to help in any way they can. Due to COVID, my work is completed all online, so I knew communication was going to be key in gaining the most experience as well as making sure the work I was doing was accurate. My team was not accustomed to having an intern, so it was a learning experience for all of us. Since it is such a small team, I help them with tasks they might not be able to work on during the week as well as schedule posts on their social media sites and create blog posts.

As well as coming up with content to post, I have also been able to join meetings. We have a team meeting each week to talk about things that need to be done for that week or weeks to come. I believe that everything I have learned so far and will continue to learn will be beneficial in any career path I chose.