Intern Adventures – Women’s Division

Introducing, Katherine and Nathan! We are so excited to be joined this summer by two Plano Independent School District students, Katherine Han (Plano West) and Nathan Gong (Plano East), as summer interns for the Plano Chamber. Their internships through the Plano Mayors Summer Internship Program have been generously sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and FedEx Office – thank you for your support! Please be sure to welcome Katherine and Nathan to the team when you see them this summer!

The Plano Chamber interns are thrilled to present their NEW blog series, Adventures of an Intern. Katherine and Nathan will be joining the Plano Chamber at our various events during their internship.  Follow along on their adventures as they recap our events from a fresh perspective.

Katherine shares with us her experience & takeaways from our July Women’s Division Luncheon.

I had an amazing time at the Women’s Division Luncheon where Cheryl Jackson, Denise Mudigere, AJ Barkley, and Dione Beilgard had a discussion on networking. Through a humorous role-play, the speakers were able to convey the importance of attitude in first impressions. While it is helpful to be friendly and persistent, it is important not to be too aggressive. Oftentimes, it is more valuable to respect someone’s time to gain their acknowledgment rather than harassing them for attention. Cheryl gave an amazing example of her opportunity to meet with and interview Magic Johnson because she had caught his attention but hadn’t disrespected his personal time and space.

The speakers also emphasized that networking is about creating a mutual relationship, this means that to communicate to someone how they could help you, it is just as important to communicate what you could do for them. By being willing to give, it will always come back; this was exemplified by LaCrystal Parker’s offer of free advertisements in her magazine, Glow Up Network, for the audience. Cheryl explained how through LaCrystal providing this service to the audience, they will likely naturally pay it back by posting the magazine on social media or spreading the word about it. This was an interesting explanation that I would never have realized on my own.

I’m thankful to Cheryl Jackson, Denise Mudigere, AJ Barkley, and Dione Beilgard for their incredible interactive explanation of the nuances and complexities of networking! I look forward to implementing what I learned in the future!

Katherine Han