By: Sebastian Leung

We spend most of our day working, studying, or taking care of important issues. Sometimes, we can get so engulfed in our work that we don’t want to “waste valuable time eating a meal”. But this can be detrimental to our health and even our overall productivity. There are quite a few healthy snacks that are easy to prepare and can be kept at your desk, ready for consumption. Here are some options:

Fruit. Of course, fruits are on the list. Fruits are a great snack because they provide healthy, natural sugars and are quite tasty. You can cut them up fresh, eat them whole, or even buy dried fruit to keep at your desk!

Nuts. A great snack to eat is a variety of nuts. You can mix and match as you like, put them in a container on your desk, and have them ready to eat. Nuts are healthy because they provide some of the healthy fats needed with a good amount of protein.

Edamame. These beans are a great and delicious snack. Usually sold frozen, edamame can be boiled, pan fried, or steamed! My favorite way to make easy, delicious edamame is to roast the beans in an oven with a bit of olive oil and a touch of sea salt. Edamame is high in protein, calcium, and iron, and also has other great health benefits.

Trail Mix. Trail mix is a fun snack because it’s very versatile. You can buy it in stores, or if you want to have a bit of fun, you can pick your favorite dried fruits, nuts, and seeds, and mix them together! Trail mix provides a balanced amount of healthy fats and sugar, as long as you don’t buy ones with artificial sweeteners.

Seaweed. Last but not least on our list, we have roasted seaweed! This is one of my favorites, and it can be purchased in packages in stores. It’s easy because you buy it in individual portions. It’s also super-delicious, crunchy, and fun to eat! Roasted seaweed is high in key vitamins, contains protein and fiber, and low in carbs and saturated fat.

Hopefully, this list makes finding healthy snacks a bit easier. Bon appetit!

By: Sebastian Leung

Technology is evolving ever so quickly, and with these changes the way we go about our lives is never the same. The same goes for the business and career world. With so many technological developments, the way we do business is changing rapidly as well. One of these big changes is LinkedIn. Gone are the days when people searched the yellow pages, searching for “help wanted” signs or checking the classifieds.. LinkedIn has simplified that process by providing a home for your resume, job search, professional groups, networking tools and more. Because of this seamless tool and it’s increasing popularity, it is very important to create a LinkedIn profile that will be effective in aiding our job search.

To create an effective LinkedIn profile, follow the instructions below.

Create an Attractive, Findable Profile

Creating a profile that is visually appealing and easily found by employers on LinkedIn is key. Often, people will take a quick glance at your profile and the first thing they will notice is your profile picture and the headline underneath it. A professional looking headshot is always important (even if you can’t afford a photographer!).

What to wear/Where to take the photo: Make sure you’re wearing a professional shirt or dress. Additionally, you want a simple background that is not distracting and allows your picture to shine.

Macaulay Honors College’s  Career Fairs offer complimentary Linkedin Headshots.

Upcoming Fairs:

• November 9th: Health Resources Fair (10am – 3pm)
• March 1st: General Spring Career Fair (10am – 2pm)

The Headline: It should also remain professional. Emojis, slang, and swear words do not belong in your headline. Many people decide to list their skills and experience in the headline. This is always a good option; however, you may also want to add a personal touch, such as some hobbies or other interests you may have to make things a bit more interesting.

Use the Given Space, Don’t List the Bare Minimum

When searching for people, the LinkedIn algorithm doesn’t search just your job title or headline. It searches your whole profile, down to the descriptions in every experience or educational history you have.  LinkedIn gives you the space to describe what you’ve done at every job, at school, and even at any voluntary experiences or club activities. Use this space wisely. List your accomplishments, your projects, everything that you can’t put on your resume! You can even add links to any publications, videos, or work you may have done that you want to showcase. Regardless, make sure you take advantage of all the space LinkedIn gives you to really exhibit anything you may have done.

Your resume should typically be 1 page. Rule of thumb: For every 10 years of work experience, you get an additional page. Thus, Linkedin defies that rule by allowing you to list all experience dating as far back as high school.

Make Meaningful Connections

One of the main features LinkedIn has to offer is not only the ability for you to be discovered by employers, but the ability for you to find people you may already know, people you want to work with, or even people you don’t know at all who you simply want to learn more about! However, this doesn’t mean you should connect with anyone and everyone on the site. Connect with people you know, such as family, friends, employers, past employers, and co-workers. You can also search for people in certain industries who you may want to meet. If you’re sending a connection request to someone who you do not know, be sure to include a personalized message. Saying something along the lines of: “Hello, my name is Sarah, and I noticed you work for X company/industry and I’m interested in learning more about the company and/or industry. I’d love to ask you some questions to learn more from your perspective. Hope to hear from you soon! Best, Sarah”

Bonus Points: if they’re an alum of MHC/your CUNY home campus or you have a mutual friend/connection. People are more likely to help others from their alma mater or through a personal reference.

This is a good starter, and you can switch it up however you’d like. Remember, don’t connect with everyone – connect with people who will be meaningful connections or help benefit your career.

Tip: In your initial message, you will only have 300 characters to message them. Use the icon with three dots seen below under the name of the contact. Click Connect and it will prompt a message to Add a note. That is where you can start your conversation.

Be Active!

After you’ve set your profile up and made some connections, don’t leave your profile alone and expect job offers to come knocking at your door. Update your profile, share interesting posts (especially ones relevant to the industry you hope to work in) and look for new connections and opportunities. Employers notice when you’re an active user and if you make the effort to keep up with the latest news.

Overall, take the time and make the effort to really make a nice LinkedIn profile. Stay active, stay professional, and start your search.

By Sebastian Leung

Applying for medical school can be one of the most intimidating and overwhelming hurdles in pursuing your dream. There are essays to write, recommenders to find, research to be done – not to mention the fact that you’re applying while still finishing up the school year and taking care of other responsibilities. Given that you already have little to no time for yourself, why should you put effort into meeting with medical school admissions officers? Here are three good reasons:

• The School Will Get to Know You

Meeting with admissions officers allows them to put a face to your name, which will help them remember who you are come time to review the applications. Instead of picking up your application and viewing you as “applicant number 597”, you’ll be remembered as the applicant they spoke with a short time ago and someone they had a good conversation with.

• You Can Strengthen Your Application

Through meeting with a medical school admissions officer, you can learn how to strengthen your application. Why? Well, because they work there! The admissions officer knows what the school is looking for and may be able to help you with your application, giving you tips to make you a better candidate.

• You Learn if the School is the Right Fit for You

Lastly, meeting with medical schools is not only good for making you a better candidate, but it truly can help you decide whether or not the school is where you want to be for the next few years of your life. This is a chance to ask the admissions officer:

• what the school is really like?
• what the student life is like there?
• what does the workload look like?
• And any other questions you may have.

Take the chance to learn about the school!

Meeting with medical school admissions may seem like a time-consuming activity, but it is well worth the time. You’ll be able to get to know the admissions officers, strengthen your application, and learn about the school. Make the time to meet with them, and you’ll find that it benefits you greatly.

By: Megan Manlunas

So you’ve just graduated college and you’re deciding whether you want to go on to grad school and pursue a higher degree. However, you don’t have to go straight to grad school. A lot of students have been taking a gap year between college and grad school – which is just a year off from school. There are a lot of benefits and options for a gap year.

• You can explore and travel

A year off before grad school can be a great time to take time off to explore and travel. Although this can be an immersive experience it will be expensive. In order to make this happen, you would definitely need to set a specific time frame and budget. Once you’ve figured out where, how, and when – it can be a great experience. Getting to know the world is one of the best experiences out there, there is so much culture to help expand your knowledge. By traveling to various countries you’d be able to experience wonders that can’t be done through a textbook. Check out these tips to help you plan your gap year travels.

• You can gain more experience through working

Another thing you can do in your year off before grad school, is to start working. Through a full-time job or internship, you can gain experience to add onto your resume. A lot of students choose to work during their gap year because it helps fill their resume. Gaining experience is great for going into grad school. There are many gap year programs specifically for students who chose to work before going to grad school.

• You can relax and take a break

You’ve been in school from kindergarten to college, you have just spent the last 16 years in school. Another great thing that you can do it take a break. As students we often train ourselves to study, study and study. That is until you can take a break in your gap year. This is the year you can finally take time off your studies and be an actual person! This can mean picking up hobbies that you’ve put aside or even meeting with old friends you’ve lost touch with.

• You can improve your ability to adapt to new situations

While being away from school, you’re going to be put into new situations and you’re going to have to adapt pretty quickly. Being out of school is a whole new experience for someone who’s just been in school for 16 years (as said in the last bullet). But, in this time off you can really figure out what you are and aren’t comfortable dealing with.

Although it is a tough decision whether you want to spend a year off from school, taking a gap year has been proven to be very beneficial to many students. Although there are many exciting things you can see and do such as traveling, working, or picking up a hobby there are still downsides to taking a gap year. You have to make sure you weigh the downsides. Many students feel that taking a gap year ruins their studying habits and find it to be very expensive. Whichever decision you decide to make, make sure it is beneficial to yourself.