San Francisco Trek Experience
By: Emily Piskulick
Hello, Zag families! My name is Emily Piskulick and I’m currently a senior at Gonzaga majoring in Public Relations with minors in Marketing and English. I also serve as the Career Center & GAMP Social Media Intern. Over spring break (my last spring break ever!) I had the pleasure of attending the San Francisco Trek. Being that I’m from San Francisco anyway, it just made sense to take part – however, many of my friends who also attended were from Seattle, Portland, Spokane or even Southern California.
Students could participate in two Treks during Spring Break—the Silicon Valley Trek was on Thursday, March 13th; students visited Google, Fire Eye, Chegg, and other amazing companies. I attended the San Francisco Trek on the Friday of Spring Break, where I met up with my Career Center & GAMP colleagues, along with about 40 other enthusiastic students, to embark on an exciting day. Since I’m a Public Relations major, I chose to attend the LinkedIn and Weber Shandwick excursion (excursions are corporate visits organized through the help of Gonzaga alumni working at some truly amazing companies); however there really was something for everyone – finance majors could choose to visit Wells Fargo and Capital Group while general business and liberal arts majors could visit Salesforce.com and Birst.
The event was scheduled from 12:30-5:30, followed by dinner. During those five hours I visited LinkedIn in the Financial District, which was an experience in and of itself. The culture at technology startups like LinkedIn is completely contagious – employees worked on laptops on beanbags on the floor, enjoyed a full snack room (free snacks!) and complete gym, while also working at one of the most productive and innovative companies in San Francisco. To think that those people were single-handedly running LinkedIn in their jeans and t-shirts was unfathomable – and made me want to work there immediately! Any company that truly values their employee’s individuality and creativity like that is a place anyone would want to be.
Next up on the agenda was Weber Shandwick, one of the largest and most successful PR firms in the world. We had the opportunity to hear from eight Gonzaga alumnae who all started at the company as interns and worked their way up over only five or six years to where they are today. Their stories and their passion for what they do, and for Gonzaga, were inspiring! Hearing of the companies they’ve worked with – Bank of America, Stanford Hospitals, Genentech and Clorox, to name a few – was amazing. To think those eight girls who were only a few years older than me were handling some of the largest companies and products in the world was truly motivating. I hope to be joining their ranks here pretty soon.
Following the excursions on Friday was an incredible dinner at The Olympic Club. Being a San Franciscan, I was so excited to finally eat in the members-only establishment, and that night certainly didn’t disappoint. We started off with about an hour of networking, during which I got to see recent Gonzaga grads who now live in the Bay Area, network with contacts I made at excursions earlier that day (and take home some business cards!), and eat a fantastic meal. My dad was even able to join me, which made the night that much better. Listening to speeches by a successful alum in San Francisco who was awarded “Alumni of the Year” and even our school’s president, Thayne McCulloh, made the evening one I will never forget.
Overall, I really can’t stress enough the importance of the Treks. It doesn’t matter if you’re an accountant, English major, or history buff; the Treks have something to offer everyone. I left this year even more confident in my networking skills, with business cards of people I want to work for and excited to move back to San Francisco in two months to begin my career.
Keep an eye out for information about the Career Center & GAMP’s upcoming Trek events next year, and encourage your student to participate in all of them!