In today’s modern world, sometimes who you know is more important than what you know. University Housing Services’ (UHS) programming team created an event for students to practice their networking skills.
In the multipurpose room behind The Den, Link Up and Drink Up took place from 5-7 p.m. Nov. 19. UHS plans events targeted toward residential students, however anyone is welcomed to attend.
Ten small tables were set up around the room with a different icebreaker card on top. These cards were meant to help students get comfortable with each other and spark conversation.
Area coordinator for UHS Maria Cerce said, “Our programming team in its current fashion is new this semester. We’ve been doing a lot of large-scale events that are based off what our student needs are. This is our sixth event; this is a specific one on networking. Last week we had one on LinkedIn and your digital identity.”
Kelcie Hartley | The Poly Post
There are three events left for fall semester: tutors with women from engineering, identities and treats and hush puppies.
Student turnout for Link Up and Drink Up was much lower than expected.
“We had an RSVP, and this is more than our RSVP. We had five people actually RSVP to the event. We were hoping for 100 people and we got about 20 people to attend,” Cerce said. “Our marketing in the past has been free food, and people show up and don’t really know what they are doing. We made it more about the learning.”
Third-year aerospace engineering student Jarred Ludwig played a huge role in making this event happen. The name “Link Up and Drink Up” was one of many things he was responsible for.
“I pretty much set up everything for this event. I contacted the people for the tables, we ended up getting them from a company called Dolphin, and the food I ended getting from Los Olivos. The space, I ended up going through my boss, which is Maria Cerce, in order to reserve this space,” Ludwig said.
The Collins College was contacted for students to create signature mocktails by Ludwig. He also bought the ingredients, created the icebreakers, designed the posters and emails.
Ludwig said, “This was hopefully an event that was geared more towards transfer students which is why it’s on this side of campus (suite side). In order to give them more experience, and hopefully further their careers because they are farther along with their education.”
Due to the lack of attendance, Cerce was trying to get the attention of students passing by, hoping they would come check out the event.
First-year business administration student Sophie Agnew said, “I thought it was a good thing to do with my time. It was interesting, even though there weren’t a lot of people here, it was nice meeting people and learning how to network professionally. Sometimes I’m shy and don’t want to talk to people, but I found it pretty easy here.”