Case

Introduction:

Cecelia Bittner is a senior at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. She is in a transitional stage in her life between the end of her undergraduate education and the next step on her path. She is taking 24 credits (6 classes) this semester along with a part-time job at the technology desk in the Simmons College library. On top of that, she is expected to work for 208 hours (16-20 hours per week) at an internship at the Harvard Skin Disease Research Center. Along with the enormous fiscal and academic demands are many challenging decisions about her professional and personal future.

"Aha" Moment:

Although Cecelia is under pressure, her recent mentoring experience with the Success Connection program helped her to understand what she will need to do if she wants succeed during this challenging point in her life. The program sent Cecelia to West Palm Beach, Florida to shadow a highly successful Simmons alumna for one day. Joyce Elden is a partner at a large, well-known law firm in West Palm Beach. Although she works between ten and twelve hours a day, she also enjoys a rich personal life that involves organizing large charity functions such as a Breast Cancer walk, while also finding the time to keep in shape and read many books.

Current Time:

In just one day, Joyce taught Cecelia numerous valuable lessons on topics ranging from proper business conduct to how to project confidence when networking. But the most important lesson she shared with her mentee was how important it is to maintain a balanced life that is held together by passion, hard-work, and most importantly, organization. Cecelia now understands that it is important for her to excel in her classes and perform to the best of her ability in the workplace while also making time to go to the gym and see her friends. In other words, it is absolutely vital that she maintain a balance within her life.

Wrap up:

Although Cecelia now knows what she needs to do, she is having trouble establishing that balance. She has difficulty managing her time and tends to crash as soon as her school/work day is over. Whenever faced with the decision between her professional/academic needs and her personal needs, she almost always chooses the former. Although she feels concerned at the moment, she hopes that her time management skills will improve and that she will be able to push herself to succeed during her final semester at Simmons.