Alright, boys and girls, here's an important departure from the usual. Y'all know I'm not the most serious person in the world, but I just had a chat with my law professor and I think this is worth sharing.
Most of you guys know I had a hard time during undergrad. Let me rephrase that: most of y'all know I had multiple hard times in undergrad. It was one thing after another, every semester, every day, every hour. I can only really recall one or two periods of college when I wasn't miserable 75% of the time because of an unexpected death, problems with my advisers, my family going batcrap crazy, my roommate trying to kill me with her pet hair, mold in my apartment; you name it, I dealt with it. But there is one thing--one incident in particular that, so many years later, still really sets me off.
Have you ever been harassed?
I'm not talking, "Johnny asked me out yesterday; as if I'd ever go out with him ew." That isn't harassment. That's slightly annoying, a little bit funny, and really unfortunate if you're Johnny, but it's not harassment. I'm talking "to trouble, torment, or confuse by continual, persistent attacks, questions, etc." Because for a period of time, I was.
I won't go into details. Most of y'all probably already know them. If you don't, shoot me a message and we'll talk. The point is, I filed a complaint and got told, "He's just being immature." I insisted that some higher ups be spoken to, was promised something would happen, and then I never ever heard anything about it again.
And the next year when I returned to campus, one of the first things I saw was that absolutely nothing had been done.
And according to my law professor, whom I spoke with today about the situation and what maybe could have been done since we were discussing anti-harassment laws in class, if something had happened to me I could have sued the university for gross negligence and a boatload of other fancy law terms that I won't bother naming.
I will definitely be mentioning this in the letter I'm writing to President Barker explaining to him why I will never ever ever donate one red cent to Clemson University. EVER. And he'll be damn lucky if in the future I even admit that's where I went to college.
I guess my point is if someone is bothering you, or hurting you, or generally making you uncomfortable, find a way to document it.
And if it doesn't stop, you go get yourself a lawyer.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Interview Worries
It's that time of the semester again when I'm running around to every single career fair I can. I know I mentioned the career fair last semester, but this is a different one. I skipped the career fair at Littlejohn this semester because let's face it: they don't really do much good. This is typically what happens (to me) :
"Hi, my name is Alyssa Sullivan. -blah blah blah talk about me blah- I'm looking for positions in -name appropriate metiers for a college educated young woman here-"
"Oh... well, we're really just looking for someone to run our production floor."
I seriously can't tell you the number of times that happened. I've worked in a factory before. It wasn't fun. I have no desire to return, not even if I'd have an air conditioned office this time instead of being on the production floor that's 100+° by 9 AM. No thank you.
And there was that one time when I introduced myself to the guy and he immediately told me to come back when I'd taken an interviewing class. I guess the way I say, "Hello, my name is Alyssa Sullivan," isn't right. Shaking my head. Moving along.
But this isn't the Littlejohn Career Fair. It's the MBA Networking Forum that I would have missed out on if I hadn't gone to see my adviser. I thought it was going to be in the evening so I decided to sit out (doing things in the evening is tricky for me), but when I said that she kind of stared at me and went, "No no no; it's at like 9 in the morning!" She then set diligently about the task of penciling me in wherever she could; wonderful, useful Clemson administrator that she is. Trust me. Those are very hard to come by.
The MBA Networking Forum works like this: you sign up for whichever companies you want to potentially work for, and over the course of the morning you have 10 minute one-on-one interviews with them. Jamie, my adviser, describes it as "speed dating for jobs." And it's on Valentine's Day! How appropriate!
So today I will be running around Greenville looking for interview clothes because I have is really seasonally inappropriate, and when I get home I'll be researching companies, running through sample questions, printing off ten thousand copies of my resume, and making myself look presentable.
Y'all root for me. Throw up a Hail Mary. Cross your fingers. Sacrifice a possum. I have to have an internship in order to graduate (again), and if I could land an actual paying job sometime here soon that would be great too. Student loans don't pay themselves back, and baby needs to buy her textbooks.
"Hi, my name is Alyssa Sullivan. -blah blah blah talk about me blah- I'm looking for positions in -name appropriate metiers for a college educated young woman here-"
"Oh... well, we're really just looking for someone to run our production floor."
I seriously can't tell you the number of times that happened. I've worked in a factory before. It wasn't fun. I have no desire to return, not even if I'd have an air conditioned office this time instead of being on the production floor that's 100+° by 9 AM. No thank you.
And there was that one time when I introduced myself to the guy and he immediately told me to come back when I'd taken an interviewing class. I guess the way I say, "Hello, my name is Alyssa Sullivan," isn't right. Shaking my head. Moving along.
But this isn't the Littlejohn Career Fair. It's the MBA Networking Forum that I would have missed out on if I hadn't gone to see my adviser. I thought it was going to be in the evening so I decided to sit out (doing things in the evening is tricky for me), but when I said that she kind of stared at me and went, "No no no; it's at like 9 in the morning!" She then set diligently about the task of penciling me in wherever she could; wonderful, useful Clemson administrator that she is. Trust me. Those are very hard to come by.
The MBA Networking Forum works like this: you sign up for whichever companies you want to potentially work for, and over the course of the morning you have 10 minute one-on-one interviews with them. Jamie, my adviser, describes it as "speed dating for jobs." And it's on Valentine's Day! How appropriate!
So today I will be running around Greenville looking for interview clothes because I have is really seasonally inappropriate, and when I get home I'll be researching companies, running through sample questions, printing off ten thousand copies of my resume, and making myself look presentable.
Y'all root for me. Throw up a Hail Mary. Cross your fingers. Sacrifice a possum. I have to have an internship in order to graduate (again), and if I could land an actual paying job sometime here soon that would be great too. Student loans don't pay themselves back, and baby needs to buy her textbooks.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Happy Black History Month, y'all!
I love Black History Month. I really do. I love it love it love it. I also love Black folks that say they don't see a reason for Black History Month. While I'm at it, I especially love white people that say things like, "But why isn't there a white history month?!" You wanna know why there's no white history month? Holla at me. Let me educate you.
...that was a little scary, wasn't it? Yikes. Let's lighten things up! Here's a list of my favorite Black historical and contemporary figures: one for every day of the month! If you see some names you don't know, look them up! You might learn something!
1. Josephine Baker
2. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
3. Alexandre Dumas, père
4. The Statue of Liberty
5. Richard Allen
6. Mansa Musa
7. Zora Neale Hurston
8. Emperor Haile Selassie I
9. The Queen of Sheba
10. Saint Benedict the Moor
11. Madam CJ Walker
12. François-Dominique Touissant L'Ouverture
13. Alvin Ailey
14. Stagecoach Mary Fields
15. Nina Mae McKinney
16. King Peggy
17. Queen Nzinga of Ndango and Matamba
18. Lady Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies
19. Mary Edmonia Lewis
20. Abram Petrovich Gannibal
21. Alexander Pushkin
22. Eartha Kitt
23. Malcolm X
24. MLK jr.
25. Angela Davis
26. Grace Bumbry
27. Jackie Ormes
28. Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Touré)
They're all fascinating folks, really; or objects (Statue of Liberty). Seriously; do y'all think I'd bother making a list of boring people? Go Google them!
...that was a little scary, wasn't it? Yikes. Let's lighten things up! Here's a list of my favorite Black historical and contemporary figures: one for every day of the month! If you see some names you don't know, look them up! You might learn something!
1. Josephine Baker
2. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
3. Alexandre Dumas, père
4. The Statue of Liberty
5. Richard Allen
6. Mansa Musa
7. Zora Neale Hurston
8. Emperor Haile Selassie I
9. The Queen of Sheba
10. Saint Benedict the Moor
11. Madam CJ Walker
12. François-Dominique Touissant L'Ouverture
13. Alvin Ailey
14. Stagecoach Mary Fields
15. Nina Mae McKinney
16. King Peggy
17. Queen Nzinga of Ndango and Matamba
18. Lady Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies
19. Mary Edmonia Lewis
20. Abram Petrovich Gannibal
21. Alexander Pushkin
22. Eartha Kitt
23. Malcolm X
24. MLK jr.
25. Angela Davis
26. Grace Bumbry
27. Jackie Ormes
28. Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Touré)
They're all fascinating folks, really; or objects (Statue of Liberty). Seriously; do y'all think I'd bother making a list of boring people? Go Google them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)