创业专业的学生以乐观和坚韧的态度回顾了艰难的一年

Paul Benedict
April 30, 2021

The last year has been hard. Full stop. 我们中的一些人(包括我自己)真的很幸运,基本上毫发无损地度过了这场大流行. 其他人遭受了难以想象的痛苦——失去了亲人,失去了工作和生意,等等. 我们的心与每一个在过去一年中挣扎的人同在. 

And yet, in the face of these challenges, 我们知道,企业家往往是乐观和有弹性的. 我们问了一些学生,下面是其中四位学生的回答:

问:2019冠状病毒病大流行在很多方面都令人痛苦, but entrepreneurs are optimists by nature. As you think about the last year and looking ahead, what has been a "silver lining" in the dark cloud for you?

凯西·塞德罗斯:“我的一线希望是,在过去的一年里,我个人成长了很多. 这次大流行把我塑造成了一个不同的人,我对现在的自己很满意."

Dengler:“我得到了机会,如果没有大流行,我可能找不到机会. For example, 我参加的市场营销实习与我以往的任何实习都不同,因为它受到了疫情的严重影响."

Zoe Felber:“我可以花更多的时间与家人和亲密的朋友在一起. 也因为我不能把自己的日程安排得满满的, I have been able to rest and relax more!"

佐伊·梅多斯:“尽管COVID-19大流行让很多事情变得困难, 它也打开了在所有东西都被隔离之前我无法想象的大门. 在过去的一年里,我帮助管理了三场舞蹈音乐会. Because of COVID, these dance concerts looked a lot different than your typical performance; one concert was live-streamed, one took on a drive-in format, and one took on a walking-tour format. As vice-president of the Movement Organization, I assisted in organizing a concert, 2020届的8位校友在哪里完成了原创作品, which audiences viewed on a live stream. Then, as part of my Dance Capstone course, 我在GoFundMe上发起了一项活动,并申请了CRSCA赠款,以资助一场汽车舞蹈音乐会. This semester, for that same course, we are organizing a concert that is hosted all over East Green; the audience walks from location to location, aided by a tour guide, to see the whole show. 因为我上学期的融资活动非常成功, the senior class was able to fully fund the concert, buying speakers, costumes, and props from our GoFundMe funds. If it weren't for COVID, I wouldn't have thought to create such innovative formats for dance concerts; now, as I look ahead to the future, 我很高兴能运用我在专业舞蹈领域筹集资金和组织活动的技能和经验. Not only that, 在COVID期间组织舞蹈音乐会让我从企业家的角度思考表演活动——仅仅因为观众一直坐在黑暗的房间里观看表演,并不意味着他们必须这样做. 创造独特的音乐会形式,使观众更多地参与到表演中来, and thus, more excited to attend. More audience means more ticket sales for dance companies. Yet, 我经历了一场世界范围的流行病,才意识到有时限制和限制会带来比你自己所能实现的更大的创造力!"

Entrepreneurs are resilient. We all get knocked down. 成功者和失败者的区别在于我们起床的速度有多快. What's a challenge you've faced, overcome, 并从去年的经历中学到了(也许会让你变得更坚强)?

凯西·塞德罗斯:“我一直在与心理健康作斗争,而这次大流行确实使情况变得更糟. 我有过很多黑暗的时刻,但我知道我很坚强,我能挺过去. I know I am not alone in this and that has helped me as well, I have support and care from others even from afar."

Emily Dengler:“我不得不面对的一个挑战是日程安排的急剧变化. 秋天的时候,我所有的课程都是在网上和公寓里上的. 这给了我大量的空闲时间去做我想做的各种项目,我也可以和虚拟的人联系. 现在,我在一家公司实习,在那里我每周工作40个小时,从周一到周五,朝八晚五. 这是一个巨大的变化,但它告诉我,我真的在固定的时间表下茁壮成长."

Zoe Felber:“我面临的一个挑战是试图建立更多的私人甚至职业关系, all over Zoom or Microsoft Teams. For my summer internship last summer, 我完全是远程工作,直到实习的最后一天才见到我的老板或同事. We all had to adjust to less interaction, 但幸运的是,我一定给他们留下了足够好的“虚拟”印象,因为今年夏天我又要和他们合作了!"

佐伊·梅多斯:“这一整年充满了小挑战,其中最重要的可能就是在家上学. 在家里,大学和面对面的指导是不一样的(尤其是如果你是舞蹈专业的)。. 去年春季学期,在得知我将无法返回校园后, I started to lose motivation to study or work on classwork. However, after reading the book Big Magic, (it's kind of a weird book, 但它对我的影响还是很大)我开始意识到我必须自我驱动, 如果我想在我的生活和事业上取得成功,就不是教授驱动、老板驱动或父母驱动. 自我驱动让我按照自己的标准生活,而不是寻求别人的认可. It gives me greater agency and passion for my own work. COVID challenged me to work less closely with my professors, but it also gave me the agency to do my own thing. 我对此心存感激,因为我正学着越来越相信自己和自己的直觉."