Students and alumni combatted the snow to arrive back on campus for Colgate’s annual alumni networking event for sophomore students, SophoMORE Connections, which took place on January 18 and 19.

Over the two day event, 100 alumni volunteers along with Colgate faculty and staff organized panels, focus groups, dinners and speeches to expose 425 sophomore students to the professional world. Attendees jumped right into their busy schedules, which began for most students with attempting to find the perfect business-casual outfit.

Students received their nametags and their weekend began with “First Stop,”an introduction session led by alumni that included tips on how to capitalize on the opportunities that sophomores would be presented with over the weekend.

Next, students participated in a workshop sequence called “Colgate and Your Career.” In these workshops, faculty and alumni explained how to approach internship, research and job opportunities. Students could select to attend “Networking 101,” “Building a LinkedIn Profile,” “Starting your Internship Search” or “Thinking about Grad School.” Workshop leaders gave their advice on how to take advantage of opportunities offered by Colgate and alumni.

Throughout the first day, students were asked to register their events on Colgate’s mobile app so they could later receive information about opportunities related to the topics they learned about.

During a seminar, career advisor Kat Kolozsvary emphasized that the mobile registration helps create a clear path for students to continue their search based on events they attended.

Students were given opportunities to attend two of these workshops, while faculty and staff set up coffee and snacks in Colgate’s newest building fully funded by alumni, Benton Hall.

These sessions were followed by “Lunch and Learn” seminars, where students brought their lunches to panels of peers who had already taken advantage of internships, independent studies and travel opportunities. Topics included Health and Wellness, Government and Law, Creative Industries and Non-Profit.

Senior Julia Klein sat on the Creative Industries panel.

“I really enjoyed being able to share my experiences and intern- ship search with the sophomores. Networking and professionalism are skills that I’ve learned and practiced throughout my time at Col- gate, so it’s really rewarding to feel like they’ve paid off, and that I can help someone else,” Klein said.

Following lunch, students attended their first “Career Clusters.” These consisted of a panel of alumni in a certain field who discussed their experiences at Colgate and the trajectories in their respective fields. These panels covered finance, entrepreneurship, consulting, journalism and advertising.

Sophomore Bella Gonzalez said she was excited by the opportunity to learn from professionals in her field interests during Career Clusters, and was reassured by what they had to say.