{"id":7164,"date":"2013-05-06T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=7164"},"modified":"2019-06-18T16:11:25","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T20:11:25","slug":"the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Steps on The Right Career Path"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/04\/ld3edited.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7165\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/04\/ld3edited.jpg\" alt=\"ld3edited\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/04\/ld3edited.jpg 200w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/04\/ld3edited-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/04\/ld3edited-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>A few years ago UCF came out with the slogan \u201cUCF Stands for Opportunity,\u201d and Lauren Doney, \u201911, credits her career success from the many unique opportunities UCF offers its students. While pursuing her bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and pre-law, UCF provided her with two years of internship and real-world work experience that gave her a competitive edge over other recent graduates, which ultimately landed her a job shortly after graduation.<\/p>\n<p>Doney explained that one of the most valuable aspects of her UCF education was being able to participate in multiple internship opportunities. She completed three to eight internship credits every semester during her last two years at UCF.\u00a0 In addition, she also appreciates the opportunity to be involved with the UCF College Democrats as a student.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UCF College Democrats were (and continue to be) an incredible resource for local campaigns and community organizations. I keep in touch with the people I met through College Democrats, and they\u2019re all doing incredible things now, locally and nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her best UCF memory is when she decided to switch her major from journalism to political science. She says that memory sticks out in her mind the most because it was exciting for her to realize what she really wanted to do in life and it meant that she was taking the first steps in the right career path for her.<\/p>\n<p>Doney is currently in her second year of part-time law school and serves \u00a0as the legislative and press assistant for Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-09) out of his Washington, D.C. office. \u00a0In her role, she handles legislative issue areas such as healthcare, transportation\/infrastructure, labor, agriculture, women\u2019s issues, foreign affairs and telecom. On the press side, she handles things like press inquiries scheduling interviews, drafting press releases and developing online content.<\/p>\n<p>She ended up with Congressman Grayson\u2019s office in D.C. because she had worked with him previously, first in his district office as an intern and later when she served as the finance director during his 2010 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a blast. The hours were insane and as a result, the whole staff became a family. It was the most supportive work environment I\u2019ve ever experienced. Everyone was on the same team and really wanted you to do well. I remember saying at that time, I\u2019m 21 and this is the best job I\u2019m probably ever going to have in my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Congressman Grayson lost his campaign she kept in close contact with the staff, but never thought she would get the opportunity to work with them again until Congressman Grayson won in 2012. At that time, most of Grayson\u2019s staff came back to work for him, Doney included.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t get a ton of second chances in life, especially not in politics, yet here we are. I think we all have a really unique perspective as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The UCF Creed is integrity, scholarship, community, creativity, and excellence. Doney says, \u201cAll of these principles are important, but I think \u201ccommunity\u201d is really valuable to me personally. UCF is one of the nation\u2019s largest schools, but our community is extremely tight-knit and supportive. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>When Doney was asked what advice she would give to current students as well as alumni she said, \u201cTake advantage of the unique opportunities available to you as a UCF student. The political science department offers flexibility with internships and online classes, freeing up your schedule to work on campaigns, in state and local government offices, or at law firms. That is not possible for a lot of other students working on the same degree at different state schools. Because of the growing political importance of the I-4 corridor, UCF students have incredible opportunities to get involved.\u00a0 To alumni, my advice is simple: pay it back. That\u2019s my goal. I hope to one day serve as a mentor and help other UCF students succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago UCF came out with the slogan \u201cUCF Stands for Opportunity,\u201d and Lauren Doney, \u201911, credits her career success from the many unique opportunities UCF offers its students. While pursuing her bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and pre-law, UCF provided her with two years of internship and real-world work experience that gave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5962,31,20,13,16,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-science-alumni","category-alumni-news","category-psaclassnotes","category-news","category-political-science-departments","category-shining-knights"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The First Steps on The Right Career Path - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The First Steps on The Right Career Path - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago UCF came out with the slogan \u201cUCF Stands for Opportunity,\u201d and Lauren Doney, \u201911, credits her career success from the many unique opportunities UCF offers its students. While pursuing her bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and pre-law, UCF provided her with two years of internship and real-world work experience that gave [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-06T10:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-18T20:11:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/04\/ld3edited.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"kristenq\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"kristenq\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"kristenq\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5cfe756387a60ef7a98738e5761b9cac\"},\"headline\":\"The First Steps on The Right Career Path\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-06T10:00:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-18T20:11:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":665,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/the-first-steps-on-the-right-career-path\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2013\\\/04\\\/ld3edited.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni - 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