Lauren Swiggum

I attribute most of my success and experiences to Aaron Miller, who was a parent of one of my classmates in high school. He was the one who got me plugged into job shadowing at chemical plants during my junior year of high school, and he's continued to root for me and help me make connections throughout my college journey. We still correspond regularly - we just checked in about a month ago to see how things were going. Having that kind of mentor who believes in you and opens doors for you has been invaluable. Beyond that, I think signing up for things and getting involved has been huge for my success. I do undergraduate research, compete on both the soccer and golf teams at Trine, and plug myself into several different areas. It's not only a nice break from schoolwork, but it helps me develop different skills like communication and leadership. The undergraduate research has helped me get used to actually being in a lab and doing things that my career path might lead me towards. The best thing to do is network through all of these different groups of people.

Honestly, I think the biggest thing that's been a benefit for me, especially in college, has been to sign up for things and get involved. I do undergraduate research, I'm part of both the soccer and golf team at Trine, and I get to plug myself into several different areas. It's not only a nice break from schoolwork because I'm doing something completely separate, but it's also good for developing different things, whether it's communication-based or leadership-based. The undergraduate research has helped me get used to actually being in a lab and doing these things that potentially my career path might lead me towards. So just signing up for stuff, going to meetings - the best thing to do is network through all of these different groups of people. That networking and involvement has opened so many doors for me.

Straightforward communication is the biggest thing that I value, across the board. There are a lot of times where I get confused with something, and the best thing I've found to do is just say I don't understand, can you explain this differently? Can we find a way to talk about this face-to-face so that we're avoiding any miscommunications electronically? Another thing that I'm a big fan of is time management and respecting other people's time. With all the stuff I've signed up for, my schedule is pretty packed, so if I've got a meeting with somebody at a certain time, I'd like all of it to be timely so that we're all concise and on the same page and we don't have to reschedule a bunch of times. If I know I'm going to be running behind, I text as soon as I'm aware of that. Or if I notice that we've all got this one time slot and this is the only time we can meet, let's try to get everybody in and out as fast as possible to make sure we're all covered and good to go. Being timely about getting stuff done is really important to me.