If you never toured the beautiful campus of USC or conducted extensive research on the wonderful aspects of it, you may have never heard of the existence of the "Trojan Family." And if you have heard of it, there's a possibility you may have been skeptical about it. But let me assure you that the Trojan Family is a real family; it's not some idea the admissions center contrived to lure you into an expensive private institution. When you meet another Trojan, whether they're a current student or an alumni, there's an instant connection and an instant desire to help them. "After you graduate no one cares that you went to USC unless they went to USC." I heard this quote last night during my Trojan SCupper. What is a Trojan SCupper you ask? Well, I'm a member of the Student Alumni Society which is spearheaded by Society 53 which is an exclusive student-alumni connecting group. Every year Society 53 puts on a bunch of "SCuppers" - dinners hosted by a handful of USC alumni with the end goal of networking. Last year I went to one in Newport Beach at someone's BEAUTIFUL house and there was delicious catering and it was a pretty good time. Unfortunately for me, the alumni had absolutely no connection with my career goals AND they didn't even live in LA. While I talked with some alums, I didn't really see the need in trying very hard to make a connection. This year was a bit different.
For starters, instead of attending a SCupper at a beautiful mansion in Orange County, my SCupper was at a town house in Studio City. I was a little shocked and disappointed because of the size of the place (okay, if you go to USC you're held to pretty high standards because. You. Go. Somewhere. Or you're expected to, at least) but I then learned that the host of the SCupper was only 25 years old. I stepped into a beautiful two-story "town house" (as she called it) and was suddenly transported five years into my future. If this was where I was living, I would be doing something right.
After dining from the delicious homemade taco bar and slurping down glass bottles of Mexican Coke, the alumni told us about their experiences thus far. They were all part of the Young Alumni Club so they all had just graduated USC pretty recently. While they all had their stories of success and failure, I was enamored with the host, Julie. She described her college self as "a communication major, business and cinema minor" who "knew [she] wanted to work in the industry but didn't know where." Literally me. Well, except the business minor. She also mentioned that she studied abroad through Annenberg in London, which is my plan for next spring. She works at Warner Bros. in the HR department, even though she didn't think she wanted to go into HR at all and she absolutely loves her job and she has a dog and lives alone in the beautiful two story town house and she works as a "page" for the Oscars every year and dated an Australian actor and had "stories" about Ben Affleck and Tom Cruise and basically had me hanging on her every word. She was strong and level-headed and hilarious. I didn't really get a chance to talk to her or any of the other alumni because of the nature of the SCupper and because we ran out of time very quickly, but I hope/plan to send her an email to stay in contact. I felt like this woman exemplified my five-year goal. Not that I really have a five year goal, but if in five years I'm working in the industry in a job I love in a cute house I purchased with a dog and good friends and hosting USC students in my house, I would be so damn happy.
"It's not about what you know, it's about who you know"
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