Six students took a trip to New York City over spring break with career services, touring major companies and sightseeing, in accordance with student preference.
Every spring break, career services plans a trip to visit a city students are most interested in living in after graduation. The trip was three days and cost $350 for students. In past years, students have traveled to Grand Rapids, Detroit, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. This year, most students were interested in publishing and editing. They visited Penguin Random House Publishing, National Review, CNN, and Grey Advertising. Students also visited the United Nations headquarters, where they met U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
“The trip itself was a lot of fun and pretty exhausting,” sophomore Chloe Sparks said.
Sparks found visiting Grey Advertising, one of the oldest advertising firms in the world, the most rewarding and enjoyable.
“I would love to land an internship there maybe next summer,” Sparks said. “The people we talked to seemed to have above-average working relationships, maybe even friendships, and each had their own role in putting a project together.”
The great teamwork and congenial employees weren’t the only parts of Grey Advertising that Sparks found attractive.
“The atmosphere was incredible too. From the rugs, to the smell of the building, to how everybody dressed, it was all very comfortable, pretty, and new,” Sparks said.
Grey Advertising was also a favorite for senior Nathan Steinmeyer. He said he most enjoyed seeing firsthand what is required of all the positions beyond their job descriptions.
“The most interesting thing that I learned was just how important networking is,” Steinmeyer said. “The business people we met with said that it is almost the most important thing.”
Editing and publishing were not the only interests of students, however. Students interested in teaching also had the opportunity to visit Brilla Charter School, which was represented at Hillsdale’s Classical Job Fair in late February.
In his fifth year at Hillsdale, David Whitson decided to go on the trip to experience what living in a big city after graduation would be like.
“The biggest thing I learned was the vast amount of opportunity there is out there,” Whitson said. “I had thought that it would be limited, but I have really seen that not to be the case. There is really a lot to be optimistic about.”
The students in New York City had a broad experience, not only visiting post-graduate job prospects but being able to enjoy tourist aspects of the city as well.
“Even though the trip is focused on careers, we always try to do something fun,” Sophia Donohoe, assistant director of career services said.
Students also went to the World Trade Center and were able to go in the observation tower and visit the 9/11 memorial.
One of Whitson’s favorite parts of the trip was being able to simply tour the city.
“My favorite part was going to see the entirety of the city. I had never been before, and it was a lot to take in at once, like the subway, the towering skyscrapers, the majors sites,” Whitson said.
On Monday, the group left the hotel at 9 a.m. and stayed busy touring the city until 9:30 p.m.
“The trip was tiring, but well worth it,” Donohoe said. “I think the trip went really, really well,” Donohoe said.