Networking

Although it might sound strange at first, he made a very good point – if you want to experience global perspectives, if you want to meet personalities of a world character and name, and if you want to make connections to all parts of the world, come to the middle of cornfields: to Grinnell, Iowa.

This school year, I had the chance to shake hands and take a “selfie” with Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley. All of the major Democratic Party candidates for the post of presidency stopped several times at our small town. They spoke at our gym, they answered students’ questions, and they gladly enjoyed the free publicity that students bring by flooding social media with photos and posts about their visit.  

Although many Americans have trouble locating Iowa, when it comes to making decisions about who will be nominated as the presidential candidate, we are the first state to decide. Along with that, we also enjoy quite a bit of publicity and attention.

Although presidential candidates visit Grinnell only once in four years, we enjoy more frequent visits from other important figures in all industries, and also from our alumni. Alumni? I am not even sure if there is such a term in Czech. But if there is not, there certainly should be.

This semester, I decided to take three four-credit classes, and divide my remaining four credits to three short courses. Besides continuing with Spanish, Political Science, and Art, I am taking a one credit class of Spanish conversation, another one credit class focusing on Refugees in Complex Emergencies, and finally a course called Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni.

The last mentioned class is a seminar, where we have alumni coming from all possible industries who give a presentation about their career paths, and then as homework, we have either a cup of coffee with them, or go for a dinner to get to know them better. Doesn’t that sound like the best class to prepare you for the post graduate life? It pretty much is.

The primary goal of this class is to create a broad network of contacts that we can use while searching for internships, answering career-specific questions, or looking for jobs. Alumni that are coming back to campus to give presentations about themselves are enthusiastic Grinnell graduates who are eager to help us, students with our plans, dreams, and careers.

After three weeks of classes, I have added seven alumni on LinkedIn, I have send several messages to their friends who are working in the non-profit field, and I secured a place to stay for my Spring Break travel to New York and Washington DC. All that with Grinnell alumni.

This idea of having a strong bond to an educational institution is incredible. Making connections between past and current students opens many doors to further contacts and makes the transition to a working life very smooth and as easy as possible. There is something like a pre-arranged bond between us, Grinnellians. No matter the year of graduation, nationality, sex, race, or religion, we create an incredible web of connections all across the globe. Bonded together by the shared experience of studying in a rural middle-of-nowhere makes us relate to each other in a second. Not only does this residential campus truly create a close knit and caring community as many college’s websites claim, but the fact that the people who have gone through this educational institution take the time to fly back and share what they are doing with current student only affirms the uniqueness of this place.

So, if I have not emphasized it enough in the beginning of this article, I would like to highlight it again: if you want to experience global perspectives, if you want to meet personalities of a world character and name, and if you want to make connections to all parts of the world, come to the middle of cornfields: to Grinnell, Iowa.