After graduating from Mason, so many people say that the key to a successful college career is to get involved in order to leave your “mark” on the school. Even though she’s all the way from California, Lauren Lapid has definitely already left her mark on Mason. Not only is she just a sophomore Art & Visual Technology major minoring in business, but she also interns for the Fairfax Economic Development Authority and is the current Director of Marketing for her sorority, Chi Omega.
Why did you choose to come to Mason all the way from California?
LL: At first I thought I wanted to stay in-state, but after I visited Mason for their annual journalism conference I quickly realized how much of a bubble I lived in. I want to be able to explore rather than spend the rest of my life in one place. That experience was super eye-opening for me. Mason was a great choice because it’s a great place to grow and earn some independence.
Did you ever think that you were going to join a sorority?
LL: Yes, I did actually! My older sister was in a sorority all four years when she was in college, and I got to see her have so much fun with her sisters. She even ended up as president of her chapter! Seeing how much more a sorority was than just a group of girls “hanging out” made me want to go through recruitment myself. Now, I am not only blessed to have been a sister of Chi Omega for over a year but I am currently the Director of Marketing for the chapter!
What do you do as Director of Marketing on a day to day basis?
LL: It’s a lot of work being the Director of Marketing, but honestly it’s so much fun too! Every day, I check up on all of our social media accounts and see if there’s anything we should be posting or sharing, and I spend a good amount of time checking my sisters’ feeds and finding things that would be great for Chi Kappa to share from them. I also maintain correspondence with our Recruitment Chair on a daily basis to make sure we’re keeping up the image we want to portray.
How do you manage to keep up with academics, greek, life, and your current internship?
LL: Honestly, it’s not as easy as I hope I make it look! I sacrifice a lot of my personal time and sleep. There are days I go without even messaging my boyfriend or calling my parents because I try and make every second count. At the end of the day, grades always come first so I’ve learned to be unafraid to delegate and ask for help too. It helps that my Marketing cabinet is extremely motivated and respectful too! Having a whole team makes everything even better, because we get to feed off of each other’s positivity. It also helps that the nature of my current internship is to promote the company with social media, so often times I get to multitask at work too!
What was one of the highlights from your freshman year of college?
LL: Freshman year was a rollercoaster, from adapting to life away from my family to really delving into the life of an art student. But all of the hard work paid off when I was offered an internship at the Adobe Systems headquarters in San Jose! I’ve been using Adobe products for as long as I can remember, so it was really really satisfying and rewarding to land an internship there, especially as a freshman.
What was one thing you learnt at Adobe that you think will help you after you graduate?
LL: My internship was really interesting—I was actually less of my team, so I wasn’t just designing. I had to lead research, conduct interviews, design, AND present my work to some really high-ranking people within the company. It was really daunting at first because I was designing a campaign for a financial services company—a realm I truly have no expertise in. But I learned to really just stay positive, fact check a lot, and again, ask for help. It proved to me that I don’t have to be an expert at something to succeed; I worked really hard and stayed positive, and everything paid off in the end!
What is your favorite quote to live by?
LL: “And in the midst of winter I found there was, within me, an infinite summer.” -Albert Camus.
Growing up, I had a lot of self-confidence issues and suffered from anxiety due to problems at home and in school. I was bullied a lot and went through a lot of dark emotional times, but it was literature and art that really got me through even the worst of days. Even when things got bad in my personal life, I found strength and resilience from the people who cared about me. Thus, this quote has always resonated with me. When times get tough, I just remember that I’ve been through worse and I’ll always come out stronger.