Welcome to the Spring Semester!

by: Rebecca Webber
Co-op MBA student studying Health Services Management

Welcome to the Spring Semester my fellow Zarbians!

My name is Rebecca Webber and I am a member of the Zarb University Co-op Program, studying Health Services Administration. I’ve just completed not only my first fall semester as an MBA candidate, but also my first January session, and am the new graduate assistant at GBCS.

All of break however, I have been anxiously awaiting the spring semester so that I could return to classes with my fellow co-op students, and today it’s finally here! Here at Graduate Business Career Services, we often tend to focus on the future and what will come once we’ve finished with school and received our graduate degrees, so I wanted to take a moment to look back and review on the Fall semester. Join me as I review some tidbits of what I learned throughout last semester:

●  As part of the Co-op program, my classmates and I really had a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another in and outside of the classroom! This is great because your classmates are your future workmates, networks, connections, and hopefully, new friends! Making meaningful relationships with them now will only benefit you in the future. Although as part of the co-op, I had a special advantage in doing this, all the MBA/MS students can connect with your classmates! Make group-me’s for your classes, have FB pages for class outings together. Even something as simple as going for dinner after your team for a class project works on it together will make a huge difference in your overall experience at school, and ultimately, in your life.

●  Speaking to that point, for me, interacting with my co-op members outside of the context of our classes, homework, and projects, really made an impressionable difference in how we worked together as a team. I really can’t reiterate getting to know your classmates as one of my strongest pieces of advice in this post! Not only will it improve your day to day interactions at school, but you’ll learn so much, like the difference in point of view that a different culture brings to a subject, how to recognize a team’s strengths and weakness, or even what traditional Chinese tea and snacks taste like.

●  Begin reading your textbooks early on, especially in classes that are heavy in accounting, or discussion based classes. For the former, having read the textbook prior to class drastically impacted me, allowing me to have a more successful understanding during class. As for the latter, being able to truly pull from the readings in class aided me, and I’m sure will aid in your learning and understanding of the topic, as well as the rest of your classmates, so it’s definitely worth it! Plus, you might get brownie points with your professor, and let’s face it, who doesn’t want a few brownie points?

●  This is a big one!! Always be in the mood to boost morale! Obviously we all have a bad day every once in a while, but when you arrive at school, put it all behind you because you’ve got to be on your best game, in your best mood with your best attitude. What I figure, is that this is great practice for when you become an employee. I don’t want to bring my personal issues to my co-workers or let it affect my job, so I should do the same with my classes and classmates. I know there were times in the fall semester where I was thrown off my A-game by things that weren’t related to my candidacy as an MBA student, and in retrospect, I definitely see how I would have benefited from remaining more focussed on school when I was at school.

●  That being said, make time for yourself and your social life outside of school. When your classmates happen to be your friends (as they are for me!), remember to separate work time from social hour! Delineating between the two will help you with the above point of keeping your focus and your positive morale when you need it the most.

●   Another important thing is to always make time for yourself. Whether it be by taking photos, going the gym sometimes, working out your mind with crossword puzzles or reading books that you enjoy, I noticed that those students who took this time to take a break from school while continuing to work towards better versions of themselves are the ones that performed the best, and at the end of the day, felt they’d had a positive experience by the end of the semester.

●  Finally, get involved with clubs on campus and most importantly, attend Graduate Business Career Services events! A lot of time and effort are put into planning these events so that they’ll be beneficial for us, and attending them opens up many more opportunities.

Hopefully some of what I learned in my time at Hofstra last semester will be helpful for other students going into the new semester. Ultimately, these tidbits are merely things that I found I’d like to focus on in the new spring semester after reflecting on the fall, and I hope that you find them helpful to think about as well. 

**As is always said, “new year, new me!” so make this year the best yet and subscribe to our blog (at the top of the page) to receive all the latest updates and recaps of our events! We’re also on Instagram @GBCS.Zarb , Twitter @ZarbGBCS, LinkedIn @ Zarb Graduate Business Career Services, and Facebook! Check us out via the links below!  Don’t forget to schedule an appointment with GBCS by dropping in or registering through Handshake found on the Hofstra Portal to speak to one of our Career Coaches, or review your resume!

I’m very much looking forward to seeing you all around campus and I hope everyone has a great semester!

Best,

               Beca