the SYEP process that you

will need to complete prior

to applying for the Urban

Alliance College Internship

Program.

Finally, we encourage Alumni

to find their own internships

to ensure that the oppor-

tunity is in line with your

professional interests. Un-

paid internship opportunities

can be funded through the

College Internship Program.

Please contact the Alumni

Services Department for

assistance with finding your

own internship.

The Alumni Services Depart-

ment is diligently preparing

for summer internship sea-

son. It is our goal to provide

Alumni with the opportunity

to participate in a profes-

sional summer opportunity.

In order to participate in

the College Internship

Program 2013 you must:

1) Register for the Summer

Youth Employment Program

at summerjobs.dc.gov - Even

if you were put on the wait-

ing list, send us your confir-

mation email. In the past,

many Alumni were able to

get off the waiting list and

participate in CIP.

2) Send your Confirmation

Emails to Alumni Services,

alumni@theurbanalliance.org.

3) Present Certification

Documents at an SYEP Cer-

tification Event. Click here

for a list of eligibility docu-

ments you will need to pre-

sent.

4) Send a screenshot or

copy and paste the page of

your SYEP youth portal that

indicates your "Complete"

Certification Status to us at

alumni@theurbanalliance.org.

5) Complete the CIP Appli-

cation! Once Alumni Ser-

vices receives your certi-

fication confirmation, we

will send you a copy of

the CIP (College Intern-

ship Program) Applica-

tion.

6) Please read all emails

from SYEP and Urban Alli-

ance; there are many steps in

COLLEGE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM (CIP) UPDATE

BUDGET BASICS : TRAVELING ON A DIME

Last month’s newsletter

featured an article on the

benefits of participating in an

alternative spring break pro-

gram. We hope that some of

you were inspired to spend

an upcoming school break

serving a community in need.

Regardless of what you de-

cide to do, we also want to

make sure that you have the

tools to travel on a young

professional’s budget.

eHow Money suggests that

you create four large catego-

ries when designing your

travel budget: transportation,

hotel, food, and entertain-

ment. You should expect to

spend one third of your

budget on your hotel and

food.

When booking transportation

you can save a great deal of

money if you are flexible.

Book your flight six weeks in

advance, on a Monday or

Tuesday, and fly Monday—

Wednesday, early in the

morning, or late at night to

maximize savings. Avoiding

weekend and holiday travel

(Continued on page 4)

Inside this issue:

Make Social Media Work

for You

2–3

Alumni Spotlight 3

News and Updates 4

Special Points of Interest:

Get hired using social media

Alumni Spotlight—Paloma Johnson-Walker ‘09

Baltimore summer internship information

THE ALUMNI

CONNECTION

FEBRUARY 2013

VOLUME 7, I SSUE 4

The Urban Al l iance

Summer internship season is in full swing. Registering for SYEP and CIP is the best way to con-nect to summer opportunities.

Source: www.beyond.com

Source: www.dells.com

Many Alumni are either in the

process of searching for a job or

will be beginning a job hunt in the

near future. While the economy

and job market have shown small

signs of improvement, this re-

mains an incredibly difficult time

for young people to find jobs. It

is important that you secure eve-

ry possible advantage when look-

ing for work, including creating

the right social media presence.

It is no secret that employers are

using social media sites such as

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

to sort through the many applica-

tions they receive for each posi-

tion. According to a study by

Reppler, a social media monitor-

ing service, 91% of the employers

surveyed review social media

sites of prospective employees

and 69% had rejected a candidate

based on something they found.

Now before you close this news-

letter, log in to your social media

site(s) of choice, and put them on

lockdown, consider this, accord-

ing to the same survey, 68% of

employers had hired someone in

part because of what they found

online.

So, what does this mean for you?

Is it best to play it safe and adjust

your privacy settings so that no

one can ever find you? Hiring

managers and recruiters disagree.

Employers want to see if you are

professional and if you will fit

within company culture. Ulti-

mately, the choice of how you

present (or hide) yourself online

is up to you. If you want to make

yourself invisible on social media

you will need to adjust your set-

tings appropriately, provide dif-

ferent email addresses and phone

numbers to social media sites than

you do on your job applications, and

perhaps even give yourself a different

username / profile online. Social

media was originally a fun way to

connect with people close to you, so

if you want to keep it personal you

may choose to do so, but please ad-

just your settings so that potential

employers do not see anything you

would not want them to see.

However, if you want to create a

social media presence that could help

you land a job, consider the follow-

ing:

Rethink and Review: Go through

posts, pictures, and Tweets and re-

move ones that reference drinking

alcohol (especially if you are under-

age), drug use, sex, and other poten-

tially offensive topics. Do you need

to remove every picture? No way!

Employers want to see that you have

personality, interests, and friends;

they just do not want to see the ris-

qué stuff.

Clean Up: Foul language is also a

red flag for employers and does not

represent you well. Consider using a

new online app, SimpleWash, to scan

all of your Facebook posts for bad

words and remove the posts.

Be Searchable: Use your real name

on social media sites and adjust your

settings so that potential employers

can find you.

Adjust Settings: Become familiar

with the privacy settings on all sites

and adjust accordingly. For example,

Facebook has a setting that allows

you to review all posts other people

tag you in before the post goes up on

your page. Enabling this setting gives

you the power to decide what goes

up on your Timeline.

(Continued on page 3)

MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA WORK FOR YOU

Page 2

THE ALUMNI CONNECTION

Summer internship season is

rapidly approaching! DC

Alumni are busy registering

and preparing their resumes

for SYEP and Alumni Services

is putting together an event

for Baltimore Alumni to con-

nect to meaningful internships

this summer. With all of that

going on, we caught up with

Paloma Johnson-Walker

‘09, to see what she is up to

now and if she has any advice

for Alumni navigating the

summer internship process.

This past summer, Paloma

interned in the Human Re-

sources Department of the

Washington Nationals base-

ball team. Paloma has a pas-

sion for sports and sports

management, which she was

able to explore during this

internship and during her

Urban Alliance internship with

the Washington Mystics of

the WNBA. She applied her

UA experience to her intern-

ship with the Nationals, saying

that the most important les-

sons she learned from UA

were “how time management

and punctuality give you a

good reputation around the

office” and to always “reach

out and talk to other people

in your workplace.” Due to

her efforts to get to know her

co-workers, Paloma was

asked to work a few home

games with the promotions

department; an experience

that she says was the most

fun part of the summer.

At times, Paloma was chal-

lenged because so much infor-

mation in the human re-

sources office is confidential,

so she had to find creative

ways to help out as much as

she could. The biggest lesson

she learned from her experi-

ence last summer is that “no

matter what the work is,

whether it seems to be im-

portant or not, do it humbly

because people notice and

they will remember your hard

work and your character.”

Paloma hopes to land an in-

ternship with the Washington

Redskins this summer, but

admits that “any sports job

will do.”

This May, Paloma will gradu-

ate from Fayetteville State

University in North Carolina

with a Bachelor’s degree in

Business Administration with

a concentration in Manage-

ment. Upon graduation she

plans to continue her educa-

tion and pursue her passion

for sports by going to gradu-

ate school for a Master’s in

Sports Management, hopefully

from her number one choice,

Northwestern University in

Illinois.

Throughout her education

and professional experiences,

Paloma is grateful to Urban

Alliance in part because

“[b]efore working with Urban

Alliance, I used to be afraid to

interact socially with people

on a business-professional

level because I wasn’t sure

how to do it properly; Urban

Alliance showed me the prop-

er way to network and make

business connections, and

now I do it effortlessly.”

We are so proud of Paloma

for following her interests,

look forward to hearing

where she ends up, and want

to extend early congratula-

tions to her for graduating in

May!

viduals related to your career

interests is a great way to

share with potential employ-

ers that you take your future

seriously.

There are just a few steps you

can take to present yourself

well online. Social media sites

have become inescapable in

our society and the trend will

likely continue, so we recom-

mend making the effort to

display your personality and

Use Proper Grammar and

Spelling: Communication

skills are very important to

employers, so they will be

reviewing your posts to get an

idea of your writing abilities.

Take the time and show your

skills.

Share Your Interests: Liking,

friending, connecting, follow-

ing, and communicating with

organizations, causes, or indi-

(Continued from page 2) uniqueness while also pro-

moting yourself professionally.

Sources:

http://www.mediabistro.com/

alltwitter/social-media-job-

screening_b15090

http://simplewa.sh/login

http://mashable.com/2011/08/28/

social-media-recruiting-infographic/

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: PALOMA JOHNSON-WALKER ‘09

SOCIAL MEDIA CONT.

“Before working with Urban Alliance, I used to be afraid to interact socially with people on a business-professional level because I wasn’t sure how to do it properly; Urban Alliance showed me the proper way to network and make business connections, and now I do it effortlessly.”

Page 3

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 4

“It’s no secret that employers are using

social media sites…[they] want to

see if you are professional and if you will fit within company culture.”

ings. With these two sites your

travel experience will feel expensive

and your budget will remain in tact.

There is power in numbers and

traveling in a group can also offer

great benefits. Many hotels and

activity providers are willing to offer

additional discounts to large groups

to secure the bulk business. Be sure

to ask about discounts and promo-

tions before making reservations.

The opportunity to travel and expe-

rience new sights and cultures is a

great way to expand your world

view, but it shouldn’t require you to

break the bank. If you plan purpose-

fully you will be able satisfy all of

your needs.

will save you money and time;

crowds tend to be the largest on

these days. Kayak compares hun-

dreds of travel sites at once for

airfares, hotels, cruises and more

and displays the results all at once.

Their mobile app, equipped with

price alerts and flight trackers, will

produce the same results if you

need to search on the go.

When it comes to eating and stay-

ing entertained, Groupon and Living

Social can often give you the most

bang for your buck. Purchasing local

food and activity “vouchers” will

often result in 50% (or more) sav-

(Continued from page 1)

Urban Alliance Foundation, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) organization and our mission is to empower

under-resourced youth to aspire, work, and succeed through paid internships, formal training,

and mentoring. Founded in 1996 by a small group of business leaders to create employment

and educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged youth, we serve youth throughout

the District of Columbia, Baltimore, and Chicago. Through three distinct programs, the High

School Internship Program, Alumni Services, and Curriculum Outreach, we provide resources to

our youth to successfully transition from high school to college or career training, and ultimate-

ly to the working world. To learn more about Urban Alliance, visit www.theurbanalliance.org.

THE URBAN ALLIANCE

FOUNDATION

Employing Youth. Inspiring Excellence.

**Address Change**

Urban Alliance Headquarters

2030 Q. St. NW

Washington, DC 20009

Phone: 202-459-4300

Fax: 202-459-4301

E-mail: alumni@theurbanalliance.org

BUDGET BASICS CONT.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR RAFFLE WINNER! Michelle Brown ‘09 was the lucky winner

of our December book raffle. She won a copy

of The Young Professional’s Survival Guide

by C.K. Gunsalus. The book covers com-

mon difficulties that young professionals en-

counter by employing real-life scenarios and

discussing why they happen and how they can

be avoided and recovered from.

Michelle’s favorite advice from the book is:

“...you will not be able to keep hard problems

from arising, but you can avert the avoidable

ones and face the unavoidable ones on your

own terms. How you make choices will affect

how they play out. You're going to make

mistakes. Everyone does. The key is to make

mistakes from which you can recover. You

can make that choice."

We couldn’t agree more. Happy reading,

Michelle!

As a soon-to-be college gradu-ate, this book came at the perfect time in Michelle’s life.

BALTIMORE SUMMER

INTERNSHIP REGISTRATION &

NETWORKING EVENT

Source: www.madison.k12.wi.us

Baltimore Alumni: Be on the lookout

for information on an upcoming sum-

mer internship registration and net-

working event to help you land a

meaningful experience this summer.

More details coming soon, but you

won't want to miss out on this oppor-

tunity.