Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
So, what are your plans for this short week away from school? Are you going to be sunning and sailing, reading a book on a beach somewhere? Or do you have a trip planned to Vegas or LA or NYC for some fun? Or will you be working at your job and preparing for next term? Maybe you’re going to keep it low key by spending your days relaxing at home. Well, some OSU students are going to have a pretty incredible experience this coming week doing an alternative to all of that: Alternative Spring Break.
Instead of spending the week with the usual spring break activities, three teams of 12 to 20 OSU students are going to spend their spring breaks serving others in several Pacific Northwest communities. The participants on the first trip go to Yakima, Washington to learn about the city and the local Native American Reservation, Yakama Nation, and help nonprofit organizations there serve residents. The participants in the second alternative spring break experience this year are headed to San Francisco to work with the local homeless population. Finally, the students on third trip are staying close to home to restore vital ecosystems near Newport, Oregon. The trips cost $120 to $350 for a week of lodging and most meals as well as all programming and transportation, pretty minimal.
Why would someone devote their spring break to learning about Native American culture in Washington, helping the homeless in California, or cleaning up the beaches in Oregon, you may ask? Well, for one thing, Alternative Spring Break is a great way to engage in a meaningful service experience while having fun and traveling. It’s a way to make a difference. Participants will challenge themselves and form lasting friendships. And as a bonus beyond the inherent value of the experience, Alternative Spring Break is a way to gain leadership experience that can go straight on to a resume in a compressed amount of time. In a week, with some preparation before and debrief time after, students will gain knowledge, insight, and leadership skills that an employer would be excited to hear about in an interview.
So, next year, ask your advisor about going on an Alternative Spring Break trip or apply directly through the Center for Civic Engagement, http://oregonstate.edu/cce/alternativebreaks. You’ll get more out of the experience than you ever thought possible.
Can you believe it is week ten? This term has flown by for me; I wonder if it has for you too. Terms didn’t fly by like this in my previous graduate degree. We were on semesters! Sixteen weeks to delve deep into subject matter or get tired of subject matter that no longer interested you. In my last Career Changer post, I started my graduate program at Colorado State University in Creative Writing. My first year, I spent tutoring in a writing center, but I really wanted to get a teaching assistantship, so that I could teach and try out my chosen career path. So, I worked really hard my first year and applied for my second year. And I got one! A graduate teaching assistantship meant that I would teach one or two sections of college composition (similar to OSU’s Writing 121 Course) each term, and I would receive a tuition remission and a monthly stipend.
At the beginning of my second year, I went through an intense training course for two weeks to prepare for my first class. We were given a syllabus, readings, and lesson plans to follow. We gave practice lessons to each other and wrote personal teaching philosophies. This experience, I decided, was going to be great fun. And it was fun. Looking back on my first semester teaching college composition, I truly enjoyed the interaction I got to have with my students, learning their stories, and working with them on their writing. Each day I was teaching, I geared up to seem confident and act like I knew what I was talking about. That is the crazy thing: a lot of the information I was teaching to my students was information I was learning along with them. Not to say that I wasn’t a good writer, I was. But I hadn’t learned the rhetorical strategies, the structures, the genres, the ways to learn how to write. I just knew writing was something I was good at, but I didn’t always know the best way to teach it to others.
This fact became especially difficult in dealing with one particular student in my first semester. I had one older than average student in my class. He was in his mid-50s, and for most of his life, he ran a successful photography shop. He could see the direction that the industry was moving, however, with more digital and online media, so he retired and closed the store. Now, he wanted to begin again in a new career. But sometimes it was difficult for him to take direction from a teacher more than 30 years younger than he, and sometimes it was difficult for me to have the confidence to teach someone with so much more life experience than me. It was also tricky for him to have patience with some of the traditionally aged students in the class, who sometimes came to class late or fell asleep in the back row or didn’t turn their work in on time or didn’t come prepared for a peer review day. I learned a lot from this student, and this learning is why I most enjoy teaching and working with college students. I end up learning more than I end up teaching, about myself and about other people.
Happy Week 10, Everyone! I’ll be back in the spring term with more episodes about my wavy career path. Have a great finals week and spring break!
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
Sometimes we need to stop and reflect about what comes next.
Career Changer, Jessica, here, ready with another episode in the tale of my wavy career path. Last episode, I was in Colorado, working at the Gifts & Gas, when I decided I would go to graduate school. I made this decision for a couple of reasons, some good and some not so good. First, as part of my winter in this small mountain community, my favorite memories occurred during a Women’s Writing Group that I helped create. Six or seven women would gather at one of our homes on a Tuesday or a Wednesday night, share things we were writing, respond to creative writing prompts, and share those impromptu writings as well. I really enjoyed coming up with writing activities for the group, challenging myself with writing, and the whole experience allowed me to share things through writing that I might not share in casual conversation. So, I thought, why don’t I go to school to do this as a job? Why don’t I get a degree in creative writing so that I can be a writing instructor and do this all the time?
I mentioned that there were good reasons for me to go back to school and a couple of maybe not so good reasons. One good reason was that I was truly going to pursue something that I loved doing. Another good reason was that I could see myself in higher education, working in some capacity at a college or university. I loved college towns, and I could see myself raising a family in a college-centered community. However, some of the other reasons I went back to school involved a lack of knowledge, about myself and about the field I would enter. I didn’t quite know what was next for me. I felt a little lost, and thought, why not more school? I wasn’t a person who was motivated by writing; I didn’t need to write, but I enjoyed it. Also, the creative writing instructor market is pretty saturated with MFA graduates trying to secure professorships. I didn’t know then that it can take 10 to 15 years to find a secure creative writing job at a college or university. I probably could have done a bit more homework investigating my own strengths and ultimate goals and what I could expect afterward.
Without acknowledging all my reasons, good or bad, I applied to 9 programs across the country. I applied so many places because creative writing programs can be competitive. Only three of the nine schools admitted me, and I decided to go to Colorado State University.
In August of 2006, I began my first graduate degree, an MFA in creative writing with a concentration in poetry. We found a house to live in, and I settled into the fast pace of graduate level coursework. Let me tell you – it was intense! I tutored for several hours a week in the writing center and spent all day Saturday and Sunday each week reading and writing. Remember that I’d been out of school for 6 years; it was difficult. But I eventually found my footing and made it through my first year, studying poets I’d never heard of before, writing my own poems and critiquing my peers work, and investigating theory, something I’d never engaged with before. Next time, I’ll tell you about my 2nd and 3rd years of school and what happened when I graduated. Have a great Week 8, OSU!
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
Here I am in a musical called, "A Wonderful Noise" at the Creede Repertory Theatre
Hello, OSU Career Services blog readers. I’m back with another installment of “Confessions of a Career Changer”. I left off last time with the recent death of my mother, acting in a professional theatre company in Colorado, and wondering what to do next. The following winter I wanted to regroup, ask questions about who I was and wanted to continue to be, and plan my next move. I stayed in Colorado with my boyfriend (now husband) to reevaluate.
Of course, I still had to make a living. So, by virtue of the very small community I now lived in, which dwindled down in population to less than 400 full time residents within the city limits in winter, word of mouth quickly spread that I was looking for a job. But my situation was enormously lucky. We lived in a home owned by a good friend who charged us a miniscule amount for rent. Plus, there are very little opportunities to spend money in Mineral County, as the closest movie theatre is an hour and a half away and the closest shopping center even further. In Creede, Colorado during the winter months, people have potlucks and board game nights for their entertainment. So our expenses were very low, basically food and utilities. Also, my mother left me a legacy of support with her pension. She was able to will it to me, and I suddenly had a small but reliable monthly income, courtesy of my mother. So, I was looking for a part time job to help us fill the gap between the income I received through her kindness and our bills. And I found one at the Gifts & Gas.
The Gifts & Gas is the only gas station in Creede. It is more than a gas station; it is a hub of information sharing, community gathering, and social work. Most people who live in the county need to patronize the Gifts & Gas over the course of a week, and these people share stories and information as they come in to pay for their gas, their candy bars, their dozen eggs, or their lined notebook. Because there are so few shops open all year in Creede, the Gifts & Gas provided a lot more than just your typical convenience store fare. And the manager of the store at the time was a true local. A woman who taught me a lot about caring and communicating, Kris had lived in Creede most of her life. The wife of a retired silver miner, Kris ran the Gifts & Gas as the social institution that it should be. As my boss, she showed me how a community can use whatever means necessary to care for its members, including discussing the latest troubles of those who lived in the community, trying to get them direct help, and referring folks to the resources they needed (the health clinic, the sheriff’s department, the city council). She did all this while fulfilling her title as the manager of a gas station. I didn’t realize it then, but this is the kind of worker that I wanted to be in the world: engaged, compassionate, and interdisciplinary. We all need role models and mentors in our workplaces to see what is possible. I was lucky enough to watch and learn from Kris.
While I worked at the Gifts & Gas that winter, I began to apply to graduate schools, and I will tell you about this next step next time in “Confessions of a Career Changer”.
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
Hello!! Jessica, the Career Changer here, and I left off last time with my first job experience as an actor in the mountains of Colorado. At the end of that summer in 2004, after some traveling and visiting with family and friends, I returned to New York City. I quickly found a job back in the restaurant business at a very fancy restaurant in the TriBeCa neighborhood. They trained me to be a hostess, and I had to memorize the faces of a slew of famous and not so famous but important people that would be seated first, treated better, and given whatever they asked. The whole thing made my skin crawl a bit. This was the first place I worked where they actually trained me to treat some people better than others, and I did not like the concept at all. I’m one of the people who wouldn’t get treated very well, and so are my parents, and so are my friends. I followed the procedures I learned, but whenever possible, tried to treat everyone, famous or not, the same. I went back to auditioning periodically and performed in a couple of small projects.
But here is where my story gets a bit dramatic and complicated. That year, my mother was pretty sick with cancer, so even though I was living in New York and working at this fancy restaurant and auditioning for theatre, a lot of my time was spent at home in New Jersey with her. And here is another lesson I’ve learned. There are more important things than work. I needed to work less that year and spend time with her more because I knew she might not be around much longer. So, I let my supervisor know this situation, and he was very understanding. I left that job and my apartment in February of 2005 to live with my parents and help take care of my mother. My plan was to return to Colorado for another season of acting in May.
In May, just before I was scheduled to leave for the summer, my mother passed away. I believe she did that on purpose so that I could be there with her and with my dad. I still made it to the beginning of my contract in Colorado, but I knew then I probably wasn’t going to back to the New York City area. I’d worked really hard to make a life for myself there, but in Colorado I didn’t need to work quite so hard at jobs I didn’t like or didn’t feel right about doing. The community in Colorado embraced me and took care of me through this grief, through a time of mourning, and also showed me where to go and what to do next. And I did figure it out… Next time, I’ll let you know what I figured out in “Confessions of a Career Changer”.
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
My Professional Actor Headshot: What Do You Think?
Remember me? I’m Jessica, the Career Changer, telling you the story of my wavy career path. Before the winter break, I wrote about working at a pretty fancy New York City restaurant. I was let go from that particular restaurant because of new management, and I soon got a job at a café as a hostess. I worked until May of 2004 at this café, which was a stressful, busy Austrian dessert and gourmet coffee café on the Upper East Side. But then I got an amazing job offer. I was offered, along with my boyfriend at the time (who is now my husband, by the way), an acting job in a small mountain town in Colorado. I was going to work as an actor at the Creede Repertory Theatre for the summer. Continue reading →
Hi, it’s me again with the final installment of “Confessions of a Career Changer” for the fall term. Last time, my tour of Superfudge the Musical was coming to a close in the middle of 2002, and I was left wondering what might be next for my work life. The job climate in New York City was very different than before 9/11; things had slowed and were slowing even more, including theatre work. I had to find something to do in this environment, and although I was not excited about fulfilling the cliché of the actress/waitress, one of my best friends was working at a great restaurant in midtown Manhattan. She told me they needed someone new, and I went in to talk to the manager and got the job.
So, waiting tables at a fancy restaurant in New York City was both a good and bad experience. I learned a ton about food, about wine, and about the “correct” way to serve, a job that I would return to many times over the course of my life. The chef at this restaurant was an amazing chef and a nice guy who really cared about the food and service at his restaurant. So, he trained us well and allowed us to taste specials and the menu items for a reduced price. He also fed us a “family meal” every night that was healthy and tasty. The manager of the restaurant was pretty hands-off, trusting that the servers were doing their jobs well and not micro-managing our performance.
But I also learned that being a server means that some people believe they have the right to treat you poorly or disrespect you by tipping badly. At the time, I made less than $3 an hour through the restaurant, so practically all my money came from my tips. The restaurant was quite small and the prices quite high, so I could feel a significant chunk taken out of my nightly pay if even one table tipped poorly. For some people, this discrepancy was because of their culture or nationality. But for others, I believe it was simply the result of disrespect, a sense that servers aren’t worthy of making a decent living.
However, another great result of my experience at this restaurant was meeting the diverse group of employees who worked there. Anwar was a busboy from Bangladesh; there were cooks from Mexico and servers from Tennessee. Learning about their cultures and getting to know them was a really great opportunity for me, and because of the friends I made at this restaurant, I was encouraged to stay for a fairly long time. I stayed at this job for 18 months while I auditioned and did as much theatre as possible during my off time. Unfortunately, when the management changed, 1 year after I started, so did the climate at work. As the last person hired, I was the first let go when the new management began to make some cuts. It was better for me in the long run; I got to focus on my auditions and took some much needed down time. I’ll be continuing my story in the winter term. Hope you are enjoying hearing about my wavy career path. Have a great winter break!!!
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
Jessica performing improv comedy with troup called Boomtown.
Hi, it’s me again, talking about my wavy career path, through hill and dale, over rivers and through woods to, not grandmother’s house, but Oregon State University! When I last blogged, I was talking about the national children’s theatre tour gig I landed in the aftermath of 9/11. So, today I’ll talk about what that was like, 6 months on the road in a van with 5 other actors and a stage manager. We went from school to school, and from venue to venue, rarely staying in one place for more than two or three nights.
The show was Superfudge, and I don’t know if you read Judy Blume books when you were a child, but it was based on the Judy Blume book of the same name about a kindergartener called Fudge who gets into all kinds of shenanigans and, of course, lessons are learned in the process. This book was preceded by Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, a quite famous children’s book that maybe you read. In this musical adaptation of Superfudge, I played the mother of two boys, Fudge and Peter, who were played by grown men. Both of them towered over me at 6 feet or more, and I was 22, definitely not the right age to be a mother of an 11-year-old. There were three other actors in the musical, a guy who played the dad, and a man and a woman who played all the other characters. So, I was one of two women on the tour; the stage manager was a guy too. The other actress and I shared hotel rooms to save money because we were given a “per diem” as part of our salary that was meant to cover our daily expenses, so if we could cut costs on hotels, we would make more money in the end.
Each morning (And many of the show times were in the morning. For some reason, schools like morning shows. Have you ever had to sing for 45 minutes at 8 am? It’s not easy!), we would drive our two vans to a venue, put up our set, put on our costumes and microphones, do a sound check, then have about 20 minutes to warm up before we performed. The contract I worked under for this tour employed me as both an actor and a stage manager so that I would be contractually obligated to unload, put up, tear down, and load our set back into our van. Lots of work! We often did more than one show in a day, and sometimes in different locations, so we could end up doing this routine more than once in a day. But we were being paid pretty well, for actors, and we were contributing to our union initiation fee as part of our paychecks, which would, in turn, entitle us to health insurance. Whoo hoo! I hadn’t been a union actor before this experience, and it felt good to be paid well and treated with respect.
It turned out that we needed that respect and those union rules a couple of months into the tour. Remember that the seven of us are crammed into two vans over six months, and we didn’t know each other before the rehearsals began. Would you ever take a six month long road trip with strangers? It was inevitable that personality conflicts would arise. The other woman thought she was being harassed by the man who played the dad; she complained to the stage manager and the union representative; and all hell broke loose. For a week or so, I didn’t want to room with her and ended up paying extra for my own room. She eventually left the tour, as did our stage manager, and we got a new actress who became a really close friend. Conflicts like that are going to come up when perfect strangers spend months together, 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. We did get one day a week off, but on this day, if we were out on the road, we were limited by the available transportation (our two vans), so we really couldn’t get away from each other. In all, touring with Superfudge was a pretty stressful, amazing, great, and fraught experience. I recommend everyone try it. You’ll learn a ton about yourself and what you are willing to tolerate in others.
When my tour ended, I needed to find work, so I began asking around to friends and friends of friends. This strategy paid off. I’ll talk about what I did next in “Confessions of a Career Changer”. Hope you are enjoying my story and have a great Thanksgiving break!
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
The last time we talked, it was 2001, and I mentioned that I had a job as a receptionist in New York City; I went to Texas to do a film for the summer, thinking that I would just slide right back into my receptionist job when I returned. But as I was returning, while I was driving through Nashville toward home, a couple of planes crashed into the World Trade Center in my city.
New York City in the aftermath of 9/11 was, as you can imagine, a chaotic place. For several days, no one was allowed into the city unless they were emergency personnel. I stayed with my parents in New Jersey, watching the unbelievable footage on television over and over. When they finally opened the bridges and tunnels, I went to my old job headquarters on 6th Avenue and asked when I could begin working again. I needed to work. I had spent most of my savings doing an unpaid, low-budget film. My previous boss, a nice young woman from Staten Island, said they didn’t need me, and in light of the recent events, they needed to downsize and cut costs.
Many events converged to put me out of a job in September of 2001, but half of the city was out of a job. Lots of people were volunteering at Ground Zero or around the city to help families find their loved ones. I decided this was the perfect moment for unemployment insurance.
So, this stuff is insurance, and our employers pay it on our behalf. Sometimes we need to use those systems that are set up as safety nets. Sometimes we fall, and a program like unemployment insurance is designed to catch us. I used the few months after 9/11 on unemployment insurance to audition vigorously for any and all performance opportunities. I worked a day here and there as an extra on several television shows. I spent time with actor friends, working on audition material and perfecting my acting resume. And this work actually did pay off.
In early December of 2001, I found out I got a really good tour gig. This 6 month tour would be a children’s theatre production in schools and venues across the country. We would get in a van, drive to St. Louis or Montauk or Ithaca or Cleveland, check into a cheap hotel, put up our set, perform our 60 minute musical, and drive on. Sounds like hard work, right? It was. But we were paid fairly well; we got to join the actor’s union, and we got health insurance because of the union. In all, it was an amazing break for me.
Next time, I’ll talk about what happened on the road. Hope your semester is going great and that you’re enjoying “Confessions of a Career Changer”.
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
Jessica Baron about to sing "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm".
When we left off last time, I just got a cushy job as a receptionist in a technology firm on 6th Avenue in New York City, the Avenue of the Americas. (Don’t ask me why they call it that…)The building I worked in was one of those enormous high rises that can make you dizzy if you try to see the top of it standing outside looking up. It curves over your head, the windows getting smaller as they bend over and up and up. I only worked on the 7th floor, not the 77th, but I felt a kind of amazement every time I walked in at the sheer size of it.
As a receptionist for Radianz, I sat behind a desk in view of two glass plate doors and buzzed folks in when they walked up to them. (The doors wouldn’t open from the outside unless I buzzed. What power!) I also answered a general office phone number and transferred phone calls to their respective parties. Sadly or happily, that’s about all I did. So, when the phone didn’t ring or no one stood behind the glass doors, I did very little. Because of this, the hours went by slowly, and I found myself playing online games or surfing a lot. But then, my supervisor didn’t want anyone who I buzzed in to see a game or an unrelated website on my desktop. They began to assign small tasks to me, data entry and such, but most of those took very little time, and we were back where we started: me sitting, staring into space from 8 am until 2 pm.
That’s right, this was a part-time job! A part-time salaried job, when they offered me a salary and benefits after a couple of months of working through the temp agency. Because they wanted the desk manned from 8 am until 6 pm, there were two of us working, me from 8 am to 2 pm and another woman from 12 pm to 6 pm. This made it possible for each of us to take an hour lunch break in the overlap and pass off projects we were working on. But what it made possible for me was auditions and soon after rehearsals in the afternoons and evenings. I was doing what I came here for! I worked a half day, ran off to audition for a show or rehearse for another, and weekend nights I performed. It worked well for nine months or so.
What happened in nine months? Well, I got an offer to do a film for the summer in Dallas, and I felt it was a good opportunity (whether it was remains to be seen). I left the job at Radianz with the promise that I would be back in September. During the summer while I was gone, the other woman who did my job would be full time, and we would go back to the way things were when I returned. Well, here was lesson number one for me in the working world. Often, leaving a job for an extended period shows a company that they can get on without you. Even if you seemed indispensible before you left. I left in May of 2001, with a plan to return in September. Somewhere around the middle of September. In 2001. You can guess what happened when I did…
Stay turned to hear the rest of the story. Remember the career fairs are this Wednesday and Thursday. We hope to see you there!
Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.
So, what are your plans for this short week away from school? Are you going to be sunning and sailing, reading a book on a beach somewhere? Or do you have a trip planned to Vegas or LA or NYC for some fun? Or will you be working at your job and preparing for next term? Maybe you’re going to keep it low key by spending your days relaxing at home. Well, some OSU students are going to have a pretty incredible experience this coming week doing an alternative to all of that: Alternative Spring Break.
