The following blog post was written by Khadija Lalani, UHP alum and current PAF fellow.
Last Thursday, four awesome UHP Alum participated as panelists on our first Alumni Panel. Thank you to those who attended, and for those who couldn’t make it, this won’t be the last of Alum events, so keep your eyes peeled!
Our alum had plenty of career insights and wisdom to share. Here are some of the highlights:
Humility is important: After four challenging and intellectually stimulating years at the UHP, you finally land a job at your dream workplace, walk into the beautiful space, and your manager asks you to complete the glorious task of…making copies. Say what now? While making copies is clearly not what you pictured doing after earning your degree, it is critical to have the humility to recognize that everyone in the workplace starts somewhere. Rio Hart, now at the Brookings Institution, shared some feedback his supervisor provided him after his first few weeks. While he excelled at researching and writing, he admitted falling short on managing his boss’s calendar and other more menial tasks. Rio emphasized that this feedback was a learning experience, and made him realize the importance of giving your best to every task, no matter how inconsequential it may seem.
Passion is key: Andrew Hori, now a cook at Rose’s Luxury, described his experience breaking into the culinary world. It certainly wasn’t easy, and still isn’t easy. In his field, the Jose Andres’s of the world are few and far between. Andrew knows that achieving success in the kitchen requires tremendous time, unparalleled work ethic, and a lots of personal sacrifice. Nonetheless, he loves cooking and is at his best when working with food. In addition to his talent, his passion for food is evident, and motivates him to spend time learning in the kitchen, even on his occasional day off.
People are people: When answering a question about making friends and maintaining a social network after graduation, Shailly Gaur provided valuable insights. She currently serves as a scribe at Children’s National Medical Center, and is very close with a number of her colleagues, who vary in age, experience, and background. However, she noted that when you spend your days working side by side, a sense of teamwork, camaraderie, and friendship is likely to develop. Whether she is spending time with old friends from GW, or heading out with some colleagues, Shailly has been able to meet new people through shared interests and experiences. At the end of the day, people are people.
Time is precious: Reflecting on her time in undergrad as well as her current schedule as an Analyst at Deloitte, Rachel Weiss highlighted the importance of valuing your time. Her work schedule is more regimented now, and she no longer has the flexibility of time she had while in school. However, she does spend her time out of the office more deliberately than before. She noted, “since your time is limited, you think more about how you want to spend your time, and who you want to spend it with.” This resonated with the others on the panel, who agreed that there is more freedom after graduation to be more intentional and selective about making out-of-office plans.
Tag: alumni panel
UHP Young Alumni Panel
The UHP is excited to announce our upcoming Young Alumni Panel, “What’s Up Alum- One Year Out”! UHP alum, like our current students, are pretty awesome. They have a host of experiences, wisdom, and career expertise to share, and just recently confronted the post-grad “What am I doing” dilemma that many juniors and seniors face when it comes time to make career decisions. This will be a great opportunity to ask questions, share ideas, and network with some amazing alums and celebrate what makes our UHP community so special. So join us on Thursday, April 23 at 6 PM in the Club Room. Light refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP here.
Wonder who’s going to be there?
Below are the names, photos and bios of each panelist:
Shailly Gaur: BS in Biology ’14, Doctor of Medicine ’19, from Sayre, Pennsylvania. Shailly is currently an Emergency Department Scribe at Children’s National Medical Center. While at GW she served as Volunteer Coordinator for Camp Kesem GW and External Affairs Co-Chair for the UHP’s Student Peer Advising Program. She has worked at GW’s Gelman Library, GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences as a Research Assistant under Dr. Sally Moody, and GW’s Department of Biology as an Undergraduate TA for Dr. Randall Packer.
Rio Hart: BA in Political Science ’14, from Minneapolis, Minnesota. At GW, he was in the Honors Program (surprise!), was involved in the GW Radio, and studied abroad in Istanbul. Before graduating, he had internships with Senator Amy Klobuchar, Strategic Social (media monitoring in the Middle East), National Association of Conservation Districts, and Congressional Digest. He currently works at the Brookings Institution in the Center for Health Policy.
Andrew Hori: BA in Political Science, minor in Philosophy ’14 from Boston, Massachusetts. Cook. While at GW, he was involved in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, as well as a number of community service programs and organizations such as the Alternative Breaks Program, Community Building Community, and Alpha Phi Omega—the co-ed community service fraternity. Through his internship at World Central Kitchen–Chef Jose Andres’ humanitarian organization–he gained experience in sustainable international development, but also found a passion for cooking. You can now find him cooking full-time at two restaurants in D.C.
Rachel Weiss: BA in International Affairs ’14, from Highland Park, IL. Strategy and Operations Analyst at Deloitte Consulting LLP. While at GW she served as President of Balance: The GW Ballet Group. She has worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, the Democratic National Committee, Obama for America, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Don’t forget to RSVP!
