GWSB Senior: My Dinner with Alumni Experience

Katherine (Kate) Pena is a rising senior in GW’s School of Business and a member of the Colonial Ambassadors. Last semester,  Pena attended an alumni-hosted dinner through the popular Dinner with Alumni Program:

This past March, I was fortunate enough to take part in the Dinner with Alumni program.  My dinner was hosted by Dan Curran, SMPA BA ’10 & GSPM MS ’11, and Marcia Newbert, SMPA BA ’10.

Three other students and I met up with Dan and Marcia at Vapiano, an off-campus GW favorite.

Marcia is currently a senior account executive at Edelman Public Relations, where she works on the digital team.

Dan is an associate at the Podesta Group, providing media relations and strategic communications counsel to clients  — he specializes in reputation management and rehabilitation.

As someone who hopes to pursue career in PR, the dinner was a perfect fit for me. It was great to hear about both Dan and Marcia’s experiences in the field.

While at GW, both Marcia ad Dan took advantage of the opportunity to intern at a variety of companies. During our dinner, they both emphasized the importance of interning in order to secure a career and build a valuable skill set.

In addition to sharing their career experiences with us, Dan and Marcia also shared parts of their GW experience, to which we could all relate — especially those late nights in Gelman!  Dan and Marica recalled favorite classes and professors, as well as campus traditions and students orgs they took part in.

Dan and Marcia met at a GW event before freshman year and are still close friends today. It was wonderful to see how GW brings people together and provides the opportunity to make lifelong friends during these four years.

As a rising senior, I really appreciated the advice from both Dan and Marcia, as I will soon be entering the workforce full time.  It was both informative and helpful to hear from professionals in my chosen field.

The Dinner with Alumni program is a great series that allows students to connect with GW alumni and receive valuable advice on how to achieve their career goals. I highly recommend that all GW students attend a dinner!

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