Annette joined the Development Office at CIS over the summer to lead an alumni project which aimed to connect more alumni on LinkedIn. She successfully created a platform which allow alumni to share career-related initiatives and events among the community. Annette shares with us her experiene working at CIS…
- Name: Annette Kim
- Graduating Year: 2018
- College & Degree: University of Cambridge, English
- Current city of residence: UK
Could you introduce yourself a bit (background & profession)?
I’m about to enter my second year at the University of Cambridge, where I’m reading English.
How did you get into the summer internship at CIS?
One of our class reps shared the email from the Alumni office on the Class of ’18 Facebook group. I consider myself lucky to have seen that post on time because I’d missed the email. I applied because I’d wanted to get some experience working in the office before my penultimate year in 2020 (!).
What was it like interning at CIS as a CIS alum?
In some ways, it was definitely a little jarring returning to CIS as a member of the staff when it was only last year in 2018 that I was still a student at CIS. Seeing the school from the perspective of neither a CIS student or purely an alum is different from that of a CIS staff member.
Would you recommend this internship to other CIS alumni?
Absolutely. I’d especially recommend this internship to others like me who have never worked in an office before. The work is very manageable even as new skills are being learned, and everyone in the office I’d worked at was always friendly and supportive.
What are your plans for the future?
I see my future as a process rather than a means to ends. So I like to keep my options open, whether those include banking, marketing, publishing and education. I think I’d be happiest with something that offers me some sort of creative outlet, such as writing and editing, and an element of communicating with other people. Then I guess that I’m inclined towards the idea of working in the publishing sector. But the publishing industry itself is huge and offers diverse positions, meaning that there are various ways of entering its workforce, so I’m in no rush.
What was your most memorable CIS moment?
I’d say that every English and History class I had in my last two years doing IB, and most before then, was a memorable CIS moment. I was very privileged to have the teachers I had for English and History because I believe that what I’d learned in those classes have had, and will continue to have, a lasting impact on my learning beyond the classroom.
How did your CIS experience contribute to who you are today?
As I’ve said, I was very privileged to have the teachers I had for English and History. Schoolwork, especially during the two years of the IB program, can be very gruelling and I admit that it is easy to become disillusioned with not just the program but the very idea of education today. But those classes kept a small fire going in me then, a fire that encouraged me to continue and enjoy learning, and which I consider as an essential part of myself.
What was your favourite subject at CIS and was it related to anything you actually ended up doing?
My favourite subject at CIS was English (History comes as a close second). It’s probably self-evident how my favourite subject is related to the degree I chose to pursue in college. That I’ve enjoyed studying English as much as I did naturally lead me to conclude that I’d like to continue to do for at least another three years.
Please read the following questions and write down the first answer to pop into your mind (3-second limit):
- What is your favourite movie/production: Oldboy by Park Chan Wook
- What do you have for dinner on a weekday: chocolate protein shake and some fruit
- What would be your last meal on death row: brownie with vanilla ice cream
- If you could have a one-hour conversation with anyone – historical or current – who would that be and why: Ocean Vuong, because I recently read and immensely enjoyed his debut book, as well as his latest work, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
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