Sitting down with Sandy Lin, a College senior with education-related professional experience

The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with Sandy Lin, a College senior who is passionate about helping others through education and hopes to gain a wide breadth of professional experiences.

Can you tell me about yourself and your professional experiences? 

Most of my professional experiences have been education related. Most recently, I have worked a few years with Steppingstone Scholars, a nonprofit organization aiming to increase educational equity by providing various learning support for students in low-income communities. In my time with the organization, I have worked in various positions, including operations assistant, teaching assistant, after-school club leader, and assistant data analyst. This summer, I worked with my local nonprofit, NPDC (Northeast Philadelphia Development Corporation), as a coordinator for their first-ever summer camp. We noticed that many young students from immigrant parents often struggled most with English. Thus, our goal this summer was to provide various educational support, with a focus on English and visual arts enrichment, for young Asian American children in the Mayfair community of Northeast Philadelphia. We hired teachers and recruited high school volunteers to assist the students. 

How did you decide to pursue education?

I’ve been working with younger youth/children since eighth grade, and over the years, found the experience really enjoyable. Initially, I volunteered, out of boredom, at my local community center after school, assisting elementary school students with their homework and helping staff facilitate afterschool. As I entered high school, I continued to volunteer at the community center to earn service hours, and by senior year, I was offered a position as a formal counselor. This experience essentially became the stepping stone that opened the path, more readily/accessible to me than other fields. Over the years, I have worked with organizations and age groups, literally spanning from Pre-K to high school seniors

While I admittedly entered the field out of convenience, I could only stay for so long because I found value in the impact that I was making. I enjoyed building connections with the youth that I worked with, and genuinely appreciate their trust in my guidance. I saw the difference that I made even in the most subtle ways: like how offering a simple word of encouragement on a bad day could rekindle hope in a child’s eyes for a better rest of the day. In a way, knowing that the students/youth looked to me as their role model helped motivate myself to work hard and be my best self.

Did you participate in any extracurricular activities at Penn that got you more exposed to education experiences?

Honestly, high school had seen some of the lowest points in my mental health, in part because of an overloaded schedule. Entering college, I felt that I needed space to regather myself, and chose to slow down in joining clubs/extracurriculars. I had already found a part-time position with the Free Library of Philadelphia (mentoring high school students and promoting literacy among youth), and did not want to burden myself with more responsibilities/clubs. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and joining clubs became even harder. Quite frankly, I’ve also never even considered how I could “expose” myself to mentoring/education-related extracurriculars at Penn. 

Do you think that your classroom experiences have had any effect on your professional path? 

Somewhat. As a Cognitive Science major with a computation concentration, I’ve taken several Psychology and Computer and Information Science classes that helped me better understand some aspects of the roles I’ve taken on. Psychology has given me some better understanding on cognitive growth levels/patterns in children, which in turn guided me on how to approach children of different age groups (although I would say the hands-on experience accumulated over the years is far more helpful than any of my classroom experiences). Additionally, taking various Computer and Information Science classes have definitely helped me when I took on the position of a robotics coach with Steppingstone. These classes helped me better understand concepts that I could then relay to the students I worked with.

Is looking for a job and recruiting a self-driven process? 

Most of the jobs I have taken have come to me either from looking at job postings online, or by word of mouth through a friend. I am from Philadelphia, and therefore already have knowledge/connections of certain organizations here. For instance, my current job with Steppingstone had initially been found through online job posting. My job from this summer was introduced to me by a close friend, who was affiliated with NPDC and thus knew of the position. She recommended the job to me as she knew it aligned with some of my career interests.

Do you have any advice to anyone beginning to look for a job or recruiting in general? 

Don’t hesitate to reach out/apply, and embrace the difficulties/rejections. Many times, I found myself shrinking away from some jobs and positions because I felt I was not qualified enough. Even this summer, I hesitated to accept the position because a little part of me was worried about all the unknown burdens I would be taking on. It was my first time taking on a coordinator/director role of a summer camp, and the organization’s first time establishing a summer camp. We were going to be working from the ground up, and I questioned if I had the qualifications to do so. Looking back, this summer had been one heck of a roller coaster ride, and while I hesitate to determine how good a job we did, I definitely learned a lot from the experience. 

If you did network, how did you reach out?

Mostly through friends, word of mouth, and online search. 

Is there anything you wish you did differently while looking for a job and participating in the recruiting process?

I wish I was a little more proactive. Oftentimes, I feel like I hesitated applying to different places because I felt like I wasn’t going to get in. I have also been meaning to try my hands in other fields, to potentially explore other career options, but have been rather unfruitful because I felt as though my job experiences have already largely been skewed toward education. I lack experience in other fields, and hence, lacked the confidence to apply to them in fear of rejection. While I really enjoy working in education, I am still trying to explore what more I can do.