The all-day conference will take place February 25th, 2012.

This will be a wonderful opportunity for our SAGE Scholars to develop their burgeoning leadership skills!

Course start date: January 20, 2012

A significant portion of SAGE’s halmark Professional Development course is devoted to actively exploring a career field through informational interviews and research. This project enables Scholars to dig deeper into all aspects of a potential career, including work experience/education requirements, the day-to-day nature of the work, salary ranges, its potential to personally fulfill the Scholar, and more. Scholars present their findings to their peers, which allows Scholars to hear more about careers they didn’t have the chance to explore themselves. SAGE also advises Scholars on how to prepare for their future plans.

Professional Development Course (Fall)

All SAGE Scholars attend a Professional and Career Development course sponsored by the Haas School of Business. These classes are conducted by faculty and business professionals who are leaders in their fields. In addition, SAGE Scholars also network with corporate executives by attending SAGE sponsored meetings and events.

The course curriculum includes:

Personal Finance and Strategic Planning Course (Spring)

Based on extensive feedback from SAGE’s growing pool of successful alumni, the Program will be introducing a new course offering for Spring 2012: Personal Finance and Strategic Planning. When asked, many of our alumni expressed that they felt unprepared for their first “real paycheck” and the accompanying financial responsibility. Where and how should they invest? How does one decide whether to rent or buy a home? What are the most relevant financial considerations when weighing job offers? How do I compare benefit packages? These and many other questions arose for these alumni as they entered the working world, and they want to give back to the current SAGE Scholars by sharing the wisdom they’ve gained in finding their way in the world as successful SAGE alumni. This new course has already received support from the Office of Equity & Inclusion, but we are seeking collaborators and other sponsors as we move toward implementing this exciting new class.

The course curriculum includes:

Events

SAGE offers several events, designed to enhance professional skills and spur career exploration, to its Scholars each semester. Some of these events revolve around:

• Professional Etiquette
• Resume Writing
• Networking
• Public Speaking
• Personal Finance Management

In each meeting, the student chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the student into action. Coaching concentrates on where students are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future. Coaching accelerates the student’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaches help students become more self-aware as a way of determining what goals are worthwhile for the student. Coaches bring wider perspectives about careers and life so that students can spend their time wisely. Results are a matter of the student’s intentions, choices and actions, supported by the coach’s efforts and application of the coaching process.

It’s so rewarding to have an opportunity to contribute to a young person who is already a great leader in her own right. I can’t think of a better way to spend my time. Thank you SAGE Scholars! —Shoshana Rosenfeld, SAGE Coach

Coaches:

• Help people set better goals and then reach those goals.
• Ask their clients to do more than they would have done on their own.
• Help their client to focus better so as to produce results more quickly.
• Provide clients with the tools, support and structure to accomplish more.
• Bring out your best.

Coaches work with students to:

• Brainstorm options for effective action.
• Update or expand visions and goals.
• Increase ability to see high leverage opportunities.
• Find balance in life between work, school, and family.
• Improve communication

Consulting – Coaching is like consulting, however, the coach stays with the client to help implement the new skills, changes and goals, to make sure that they really happen. Unlike consulting, coaches empower their client to come up with the aswers.

Therapy - Coaching is not therapy. Coaches don’t work on “issues” or get into the past or deal much with understanding human behavior. That knowledge may come as clients move forward toward personal and professional goals that will give them the life they really want, but it is not the focus of a coaching relationship.

Sports - Coaching includes several principles from sports coaching, like teamwork, going for the goal, being your best. Unlike sports coaching, most professional coaching is not competition or win/lose based. Coaches focus on strengthening their clients’ skills, not on helping them beat the other team. Coaches look for win/win solutions.

Mentoring – A mentor takes the leadership role and the mentee looks for the mentor for advice. The mentor is a positive role model. In coaching the coach asks the questions and it is the client who has the answers and it is a professional relationship.

Companies and organizations partner with UC Berkeley’s SAGE Scholars Program by offering paid internships to the SAGE Scholars according to their field of study and/or professional interests. Sponsors provide invaluable experience and training, as well as significant mentoring opportunities.

SAGE Scholars attend career and professional development training workshops taught by experts in their field of expertise before their internship begins. Students, supervisor and SAGE staff agree on goals and objectives of the internship, and students are evaluated on these objectives by their supervisors.

There are 3 different agreements offered to organizations:

• 12 Month Agreement — Students work full time in the summer and part time during the academic year
• Summer Only Agreement — Students work full time in the summer
• Academic Year Agreement — Students work part time during the academic year and may be available for full time work during holidays

SAGE Scholars are paid a competitive wage for their work as determined by the organization.