This is a guest post by Sarah Dinning ’20.
On September 14th, the Honors Entrepreneurship Living Learning Community students gathered to hear Eliza Starr as the inaugural speaker of the Honors ELLC’s “Alumni Speaker Series.”
Starr, who was a member of the first Honors ELLC class last year, talked about her internship at Boeing and the important lessons she learned while working for the company.
Although Starr is a Computer Science major, she accepted a marketing internship and did 60% marketing-related work and about 40% computer science-related work. Her presentation was an excellent resource for the Honors ELLC students as 12 of the 19 are computer science majors, and a number of them are interested in marketing or business.
“EQ – or emotional quotient – has more of an effect on success than IQ does. Developing soft skills – such as using communication effectively – is very important” Starr said.
Starr explained to the students that an employer is looking for more than just grades or IQ level, and that having good communication skills was a substantial factor in getting her internship.
The Honors ELLC is made up of Honors College students, many of whom aspire to be technology entrepreneurs. The students live and work together all year in Berry Residence hall while taking the course, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, with Professor Lancie Affonso. The students are also heavily involved with supplemental lectures and events, such as the ICAT Genius Hour talks, and the Computer Science Research Series to equip them with the skills necessary to become an entrepreneur and garner creative mindsets. To learn more about the Honors ELLC, visit honors.cofc.edu.
Starr met her connection at Boeing at a Genius Hour event, and she left the Honors ELLC’s current class with an important piece of advice: Be a higher level of a student. Honors students are expected to get good grades, but push yourself to do side projects and really get involved on your own time. Those are the kinds of things that impress a future employer.
Loved reading this article about the ELLC and the great work going on there!