Hi Everybody!
A major concern of mine when starting Zoom University was how I would be able to make connections (as strong as my internet, haha!) with not only my classmates but with students outside of the classroom as well. In this blog post, I will guide you through my personal experiences with making friends and maintaining the relationships I鈥檝e had with these friends in a remote learning environment as a first-year student!
The main question at hand here would probably be: Where do I start meeting people?
When you are first admitted as a 61传媒student, you are invited to join the 61传媒2024 Facebook group, where various students post about themselves in order to meet other students! I (anxiously) made a post about myself in hopes to find other students with similar interests as me, and I ended up meeting a few people I felt I really clicked with. If you鈥檙e not comfortable posting about yourself, simply commenting or appreciating other students鈥� posts about themselves is also a great way to meet fellow Scrippsies!
On top of connecting with others through social media, you can also meet other students through events that are hosted by 61传媒or events hosted by other students. 61传媒offers a myriad of virtual events, including 61传媒Virtual Tea Sessions, Paint Nite, Trivia Nite, Bingo, etc. to keep students engaged and foster a sense of community. Over the summer, I was able to meet other students and even professors through the 61传媒summer newsletter which offered a ton of academic listening sessions with professors, discussions led by the LASPA center for leadership, and more. All of these events would be promoted through your email or through official 61传媒Instagram accounts (which I highly recommend following! i.e. @scrippscollegeose or @scrippscollege) Additionally, there were also student-run events such as the 5C Zoom Calls or additional 61传媒Zoom meet-ups. Usually, these aren鈥檛 promoted through emails and are spread more through word-of-mouth or student-run Instagram accounts.
Once school started, I found that I had even more resources available to me in order to meet more people. Try engaging with the people you鈥檙e in a breakout room with during class or check out the various clubs and organizations that 61传媒or the 5C鈥檚 have to offer! When deciding on which clubs I wanted to join, I attended the club fair, requested to be put on the mailing list for the clubs I was interested in, and attended interest meetings. Although I attended a lot of meetings, I ended up only sticking with a few, including AASP (Asian American Sponsor Program), 5C Dental Club, and Music Mania. These three organizations are what I am currently active in, and I鈥檝e been able to make many meaningful relationships with others through them!
If meeting people is the first step, maintaining these connections would be the next step! If the ~vibes~ are there, definitely continue talking to them! Now that you鈥檝e met a multitude of students, try asking for their social media handles and carry on a conversation with these students! Maintaining friendships is not easy, especially with the added distanced barrier, so don鈥檛 feel discouraged if a classmate does not respond as quickly as you鈥檇 like or if you don鈥檛 feel like you click with them!聽
I hope you find my experiences helpful for those of you who want to meet and/or maintain connections with your fellow peers! If you have any questions or would like me to elaborate on certain aspects of my blog post, feel free to email me at [email protected]
Cheers!
Serena <3