I had the true pleasure of interviewing and conversing with Jenny Ni, a recent graduate from Drexel University. Ni successfully graduated this past spring with a Bachelor of Science in Biology as well as a minor in Psychology. Professor Shiffert graciously connected me with Ni being that he had taught her during her pre-junior year in Communications 310.

Upon graduation, Ni obtained a position as a Clinical Researcher at Wills Eye hospital. The main role of her job surrounds assisting patients who have incurable eye diseases and have lost eyesight to be enrolled into clinical trials. Without these clinical trials, patients would be tasked with paying thousands of dollars out of pocket to receive the same treatment. The purpose of the trials is to help patients gain partial eyesight back or potentially relieve symptoms from the disease. Through Ni’s position, she also ensures that the study protocols are ethically correct. 

Through our conversation, Ni expressed that the most valuable lesson that she learned in college was “putting herself first.” She feels that college has truly helped her learn the importance of prioritizing oneself. I think we can all relate to Ni in the sense that college can become super overwhelming when friends, extracurricular activities, and academics are always in play. She also feels that this skill has helped her tremendously going forward after college.

I also posed the question of whether she learned more outside of the classroom or inside of the classroom during her college experience. Ni says, “Overall in general outside of the classroom. I felt like most of my experiences and skills that I have learned have been outside of the direct classroom.” Through her three co-op experiences she obtained, “social, professional, and corporate skills.” We discussed the fact that the co-op 101 course at Drexel is not that helpful. We both agreed that you need to leave the classroom to experience different situations that help you learn real life skills.

Ni brought up a very important point when we discussed what she wished someone had told her going through undergrad. She emphasized how important the power of networking is. She explained that going through undergrad everyone always told her how important it was to network, but she didn’t truly realize this until she was out in the real world. Ni “explains” “when you’re out of college it is harder to meet people “Networking is a skill that you have to build up over the years.”Another insightful aspect that Ni discussed was finances. She told me that she felt like students in college do not learn any aspects of how to do taxes, budget money, or about retirement funds. We talked about the fact that there is no life skills type of course at most universities. It appears that, when you are out in the real world, there is a lot to figure out on your own.