Through the Career Center’s Chapters initiative, Carleton alumni from the Twin Cities working in certain industry “chapters” come to campus for a half-day to meet with current Carleton students for one-on-one advising and candid, informational interviewing sessions. Last spring, author Patricia Wrede ’74 came to campus to talk to aspiring writers. We asked her to share a little bit about her experience with us.
How is the one-on-one structure of the program beneficial?
I can focus on exactly what each student wants and needs to know. I’ve occasionally managed to confuse people in group situations because I will tell one person to do one thing and then I’ll turn around and tell somebody else with almost the same question to do something else, because it’s a very individual profession and what’s going to work for one person isn’t going to work for another person. I think a lot of people want a “one size fits all.” You know, here’s how you do it, follow the directions, and then it comes out right, and it doesn’t work that way. With a one-on-one conversation, I can focus on the individual.
What do you think the students got out of the experience?
We mostly talked about the business side of writing. Writing’s different from a lot of careers in that you really are self-employed. I always try to tell the students the things I wish I had known that nobody told me. There are aspects of the job that nobody thinks about and nobody really talks about, because if you’ve been in the business for a while you take those things for granted, but someone who’s just getting started might not have made the connection. Whatever questions students may have, I always try to get in the things that they don’t think to ask and that people normally wouldn’t think to tell them.
What would you say to potential volunteers?
The Chapters program is well worth doing and a lot of fun. It was really great meeting the students. They’re like my friends and I were—they’re very smart and articulate and interested and curious about everything. I always have a good time talking to people who want to go into writing. If it’s your first time, just try to remember what it was like getting started—things that you take for granted now are going to be new news. It can be kind of hard to make that trip back, but coming back to Carleton certainly helps. You think, “Oh, I remember what this was like!” It was just really fun, and I really enjoyed the pizza party with the students at the end!
This fall, the Career Center will be hosting four chapters of alumni in the areas of law, medicine, business/finance, and public policy. If you are interested in advising students in any of these fields for a half-day on any Thursday in October, sign up using our Volunteer Enrollment Form or contact Jessica Mueller at 507-222-5503 or jmueller@carleton.edu.