Sherwynn Umali
The Person Who Gives People a Chance
Sherwynn Umali - Associate Dean of Students at Student Life and Leadership
A Story of how I met Sherwynn Umali
The Beginning
Back when I was a freshman, I remember that I worked at the Lot 5 Dining Commons. I have no regrets of working here because it taught me the value of being humble and taught me many transferable skills that I now use. For me, I was not satisfied with staying here for the following Academic Year 2016-2017. With this mindset, I started looking for different opportunities during my freshman year. I came across the Administrative Intern Program not know what it was. I applied and had to do my first interview. My interview skills as a freshman were not the best. I was terrible. (I remember that I spoked with the Admin Intern Coordinators and they said I was not good, but one of them saved me. He saved because when they asked "if you could be anyone in the world who would it be and why?" others answered by saying "I want to be this person" or "just like my professor", but I decide to say "I do not want to be anyone else because I am happy with who I am and what I have accomplished. This caught the eye of one of the Admin Intern Coordinators and that is how I passed the first interview).
Interview With Sherwynn
Afterwards, we had two events meet the mentors. I was not able to attend the events because of classes. I did not meet Sherwynn before hand, I just met her through the job description she made for her intern position. The job description amazed me. It said that I was going to be learning a lot of new tools such as using Adobe Creative Suite, Google Suite and other tools. I said this is the perfect choice for me! I need to work for this lady! During Draft Day, I saw the last opening to interview with Sherywnn. I quickly signed my name and got an interview with Sherwynn. During this interview, I am not sure what she found in me as a freshman (remember my interviewing skills were not great). Sherwynn decided to take me in. At the time that I was a Freshman, I did not realize who just hired me, who I will be working for, and who I was interviewing with. I just knew that I had to work with Sherwynn because she was the person that will teach and challenge me every way possible.
My Time as an Intern
I worked with her for the 2016-2017 Academic Year. I realized that thanks to her, I found my new goal of becoming a software engineer. As her intern, I created two websites, made a YouTube tutorial on how to create a personal website using Strikingly and an Intro to LinkedIn presentation. These presentation and YouTube Video were followed by two step-by-step guides. I event presented in front of 100 students at the All-University Leadership Conference. I also experienced what it feels like to be an interviewer since I interviewed next candidates for the 2017-2018 Admin Intern Program. I never imagined that all this would be possible, but thanks to having Sherwynn by my side I did all of these amazing things.
Moving Forward
I am truly happy that I still have another year with Sherwynn! Now I am get to work as her Administrative Intern Coordinator where I along with Natasha Kaushal, the other Admin Intern Coordinator, get to lead a class of 27 Admin Interns and helped develop them professionally and enrich their college experience. I am proud to say that I am Admin Intern Coordinator and I know that this year we will make things that no other Admin Intern has done before. Another big role that is unique to me is to create a new Web Application for the recruitment and interview process. Thanks to Sherwynn I am able to work on all of this! Thank you Sherwynn for giving me a chance. I will not let you down.
Thank You Sherwynn
Working with Sherwynn and Student Life and Leadership (SLL) is truly a blessing. All of the staff here helped me develop to who I am now. I feel that if you are a part of SLL, you are part of something big. All of this was possible because Sherwynn Umali gave me a chance back when I was a freshman. I do not know what I will be doing if it was not for her. Thanks to her I have a clearly defined goal and I have acquired experiences that I can talk about in many interviews. Let's keep making a difference Sherwynn. One last thing to say...
Thank you for giving me a chance Sherwynn.