By Ally Marecek and Mariah Manzano New year, new intentions. Whether you’re looking for a change or want to sharpen your current habits, there is always space to both acknowledge your growth and pivot to progress even more. Below, we’ve highlighted a small monthly challenge or reflection to up your…

By Ally Marecek and Mariah Manzano It’s that time of the year. Holidays have passed. It’s almost time to really get back to work or school. It’s the perfect time for a fresh slate, a new you. But wait. If we hop into the new year so soon, how can…

By Mariah Manzano A few years ago, I volunteered frequently. The weekend before the world was summoned to shelter-in-place, my peers and I had wrapped up a 9-week program to teach local middle school girls how to code. …

By Ally Marecek In October 2020, the Opal team launched the Shine a Light On podcast. Over the course of its first year, the podcast has explored a range of academic and career topics, shining a light on career centers, sustainable self-growth, international student experiences, and much more. …

By Sarah Ahmed Your career is defined by your skills and how you’ve used them, not by any external measure of your progress. — Julie Zhuo Have you ever fallen down a Wikipedia rabbit hole? Luckily, the hours many of us spent on Wikipedia were not a waste. Lifelong learning…

By Ally Marecek One of the greatest benefits of being a part of a team is the opportunity to network and build connections. Incidentally, this has become one of the greatest challenges as jobs, internships, and other organizations moved to the virtual — and isolated — workspace. There are plenty…

By Sarah Ahmed Finding and nurturing connections with cool people is one of the most effective strategies to explore your professional possibilities and develop your future. Virtual internships offer their fair share of perks, but perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks of going all-virtual is the lack of social interaction…

By Sarah Ahmed and Ally Marecek Summer. The best season of the year. That is, unless you’re drowning in the pressures to find something productive, life-altering, or incredibly meaningful to do with your few months off from school (or permanent graduation from school!), as college students everywhere have been doing…

By Mariah Manzano Welcome to April 2021. Not your typical spring. We have a bit more to think about than flower blossoms and allergies. We’re more than a year into a global pandemic. And as you know, stress levels are high. There constantly seems to be a light at the…