A blog post from SOLES MA in Higher Education Leadership Ambassador Laura Rivera.

I finished my first year of graduate school this past May in the Higher Education Leadership program. This summer, I am reflecting back on my experience on navigating USD as a private institution. It was not until my first arrival to the campus when I realized the privilege of “closeness” a private campus could actually bring. Many of the professors I had last year either: A. Took on another role on campus or B. Taught at another university. With a smaller community to be in, this presented a higher probability for professors to get to know their students personally, and I was even fortunate enough to have the same professor twice during the academic year! Getting to know my professor for more than one semester, led to my request for letter of recommendation for a summer internship. In the end, I was offered the position I applied for and I give credit to the strong letter I received.

A piece of advice I have for those in their first year in SOLES, or those considering USD is acknowledging the smaller spaces one has to navigate to reach out to others! Forming connections early on will help open doors of opportunities. While professors are there in their classrooms to teach their subject material, they are also present to be points of contact! 🙂