Alumni Insights Podcast by College Leap @ IVC: Recent Episodes
The College Leap at IVC Team
We are a local chapter of a national non-profit called College Leap which was founded at UC Berkeley. This podcast is a collection of voices of the Irvine Valley College community. Our aim is to help community college students navigate student life better, ease the transfer process, and provide career advice based on their field of interest.
In this episode, we interview Crystal, a sociology major at UCLA. Crystal discusses why she chose to go to community college, what some of her favorite classes at IVC were, gives advice about writing UC personal insight questions, and talks about her transition to UCLA.
In this episode, we interview Karis, an English major at UCLA, and a former College Leap President! Karis discusses her experience being on the pre-law track and shares her interest in corporate/business law. She shares how she graduated from high school early and explains the role that this played in her path to higher education. She also discusses many of her valuable experiences at IVC, and shares advice for current pre-law students!
In this episode, we interview Jaein, a first-year transfer who transferred from IVC to the University of Pennsylvania. At Upenn, Jaein is studying Marketing & Business Analytics, and minoring in design. Jaein shares about her experience transferring to a private school, the things she did at IVC that helped her to be successful as a first-year transfer, and the differences between her experience at IVC vs at UPenn.
In this episode, we interview Pards, a recent IVC graduate who transferred as a Business Administration major to UCI's Paul Merage School of Business. Pards shares insight into his transfer process, advice about getting involved at IVC, and tips on choosing the right major.
In this episode, this year's board members will be introducing themselves. We are all so excited to be part of College Leap and are looking forward to helping you with your transfer journey!
Join Trevor, a finance major at Santa Clara University, as he recounts his experiences at community college and invaluable advice to current IVC students.
Joseph is a business economics major at UC Los Angeles and aspires to work in the financial sector. Through his internship with Goldman Sachs, he has gained substantial knowledge of wealth management and work experience. Join Joseph as he unravels his transfer journey and internship opportunities.
Omar is a highly motivated and passionate scholar, offering counsel and advice to current IVC students aspiring to transfer to a UC institution. Currently, Omar is a EECS major at UC Berkeley, where he takes an active role in academic clubs, internship opportunities, and mentoring.
Listen to Isabelle, a UC Irvine student, as she discusses internships, student life, studying techniques, tips and suggestions, and more!
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
Learn about David's transition from IVC to Cal Poly Pomona, his advice to current community college students, and the importance of seeking internship opportunities. As a former NASA intern, David emphasizes the significance of work experience, connecting with your professors, and networking.
Join Alina as she discusses her transition from Irvine Valley College to UC Berkeley. Today she shares her experience and advice with transferring, along with some helpful tips, and emphasizes how her major has allowed her to gain some useful skills.
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
Transferring to a top UC like UC Berkeley or UCLA is completely doable! Don't believe us? Take it from this week's guest Ahmet who is finishing up his junior year at Cal! Tune in to hear about his best tips to maximize your chances of getting into your dream school and the organizations he's involved in at his four-year university!
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
UCs are great, but they're not the only option. Luke details his transfer experience to the CSU system, which provides plenty of hands-on experience for his major! Learn about his best tips to overcome self-doubt and apply for competitive programs.
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
Today, our team chatted about the emotional and crazy month of April filled with acceptances, rejections, and everything in between (waitlist folks, we're with you). Listen to hear our take on dealing with rejection and setting course for the next two years of our lives as transfer students!
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
Today, two leaders of the College Leap at IVC team tackle the topic of UC applications and nailing your personal insight questions. Listen to learn about our topics of choice, some common mistakes, and ways to stand out through your essays!
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
Today, two leaders of the College Leap at IVC team sat down to chat about their reasons for going to community college and their thoughts on UC and CSU schools for the business major. Listen to hear our opinions on UCLA vs. UC Berkeley and some common college misconceptions that we want to dispel!
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
Today, we sat down with Mansour Lawand, a junior at UC Berkeley studying Economics (with a Data Science minor). He spoke to us about his decision to attend community college, what he has learned during his time at IVC, and offered transfer advice for applying to a highly-competitive university. He emphasized authenticity and telling a compelling story through his application essay. With the transfer process behind him, he talked about his career goals and ideal work culture.
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleap...
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coll...
Today we sat down with Melissa, a past IVC alumna who transferred to UC Berkeley as an Applied Mathematics major! She takes us through the resources she took advantage of at Irvine Valley College along with her transfer experience.
Melissa now works at Facebook as a Technical Program Manager! See how she got her role at Facebook without a college internship and what she advises other students to leverage while in college!
Connect with Us!
IG: https://www.instagram.com/collegeleapivc/
Discord: https://discord.gg/2PYsEs2
Website: https://www.collegeleap.cc/ivc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-leap-ivc/
This is our interview with an IVC Alumni who transferred from IVC to CSULB as a Computer Science major and currently working at Amazon as a Software Development Engineer. His transfer GPA was approximately 3.2, and he highly encourages students to prioritize experience/skills over academics. He stated, “If your GPA isn’t great, that’s fine, just have the experience. That’s the route I went and so far it’s been really working out for me.” He has a lot of software engineering experience and worked full-time as a software engineer since he was a college student at IVC. He interned at NASA and was a teacher at a coding school. He worked on a lot of projects, not limited to software but also hardware. He was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities like ASEC and 3D Printing Club at IVC and also was the Engineering Chair of Theta Tau which is the nation’s largest Engineering Fraternity at CSULB. If you want to learn more about his involvement on campus at IVC, how he landed on a full-time software engineering position while he was only a college student, the great tips and detailed advice he has to give to students of computer science major especially to students who don’t have the greatest GPA, his professional life working at Amazon, the projects he worked on, and many more, listen to our podcast with Wesley Swanson.