Establishing Networking as a Focal Point for Incoming HRSM Students

As a student the past four years, I have had first hand experience hearing about and participating in networking events through the University. I previously spoke about the significant effort made by the University of South Carolina School of HRSM to give students the knowledge about the importance of growing their professional network. However, I believe that the University can go a step further with their efforts of establishing this as a focal point for new students, while also helping them feel a bit more at ease about adjusting to the college life.

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Incoming college students are often quite nervous when they first step foot on campus. Personally, I can attest to this. To say I was anxious or tense for my first few weeks as a student would be putting it mildly.  With that being said, I think that there is a way to help incoming HRSM students feel a bit more comfortable as they adjust to college life. By establishing a new orientation program for incoming HRSM students. The University would have plenty of options as it pertains to this program; however, I believe something as simple as a luncheon would be the perfect choice.

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The University of South Carolina's new student orientation program is a two day event where incoming students get their first introduction to the school. Students are able to meet with professors, their advisors, and are able to get their first experience at being on campus. Typically, most students have the standard orientation experience, which includes hearing from university faculty and staff, meeting with an Orientation Leader, attending an academic college visit and learning about university resources. However, the university also offers specialized academic orientation programs, and this is where I think the College of HRSM should take advantage and create this luncheon style event. 

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My main idea for this specialized academic orientation HRSM luncheon would be to simply give incoming students the opportunity to meet current Junior and Senior HRSM students. Like I previously mentioned, incoming students are often nervous starting college and I believe that this would be the perfect opportunity for these new students to put names to faces, as well as allowing them to get an early head start at creating and expanding their network. This event would also serve as an introduction to networking and would absolutely establish the importance of making connections for these new students.

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I believe an easy approach to getting Juniors and Seniors to participate in this event would be to send out detailed volunteer work opportunity emails on the SPTE ListServ in the Spring Semester prior. This would give the current SPTE students time to think over if they would be interested in participating, and would give them a comprehensive list of what to expect. There could also be the possibility of offering volunteers some type of reward, which could incentivize more students to participate.

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The first steps towards success in this industry is by growing your network, I learned this throughout my time as a student. This event would give these new students the opportunity to do so, while also possibly helping them feel more comfortable at the University of South Carolina. Personally, I am quite interested in the idea of this event and want to look more into the possibilities. I would love to take a leading position at creating a proposal for the University, and one day hope to make this event a reality.

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