Interview with KC DeSarno – Colby College

Interviewer: Well I start every time by saying how excited I am, and I mean it every time. I’ve got some fun questions, hopefully you’ve read some of the other posts and we’ll kind of go through those questions, but a really quick intro. Today we have KC Desarno joining from Colby College. We met through my work with Tuck School of Business where she attended one of our programs. KC went to High School in Queens, was top 5% in her graduating class of 400 students, she is a softball player, a Dean’s list student, and so much more. I also noticed you’re going to be doing a cool internship this summer and we’ll get into that for sure, but again, really excited to have you here. Just want to jump in with the first question…

My favorite question: how did you end up at Colby College?

KC: Yeah, so growing up I knew I wanted to pursue softball at a higher level. My brother plays baseball, my dad’s a baseball coach, and I’ve always had a love for the sport. While working hard in high school, I knew I wanted to go to a good academic school for college and my dad told me about the NESCACs, how they were all Division III schools, known as the Mini Ivies, and I kind of fell in love with Colby immediately. My coach was super supportive of me, and made me understand why Colby is such an amazing school and once I toured, I fell in love. And it’s just a perfect combination of athletics and academics

Interviewer: That’s great. So, through that process, you’re getting recruited. Was the visit through the team? Was it primarily through the coach?

KC: So I had a little bit of a weird recruiting scenario because it was post-COVID. So right now what we do is we host recruits, we have them sleep in our dorms, we go to dining halls with them. However, I wasn’t able to have that experience. I came in August when no one was on campus. The campus was kind of dead, and my coach assured me that this would not be the case when I got to school. I went in August and I met with the coaches, and I mean Colby’s campus, like I just fell in love with it.

Interviewer: Remind me what position you play?

KC: I’m a pitcher and outfielder.

Interviewer: Okay awesome, I played baseball but it’s different in softball. You can pitch almost every day in softball which is so cool. So you visit campus, connect with the team and the coaches a bit, and so it’s a combination of the beautiful campus, what the team needed as far as the positions you play…

What else did you consider during your college search? I know you mentioned NESCAC schools, but were you looking at other colleges or was Colby just the number one and that’s where you wanted to go?

KC: So for some reason I convinced myself in high school that I wasn’t good enough to play in college. I kind of told myself I needed to be ready for softball not being an option. I kind of thought if I wasn’t going to play softball I’d just go to some big state school like University of Georgia, my dad went there, go Bulldogs! So, I kind of convinced myself of that initially, but my travel coach really pushed me like, ‘Hey Casey, put yourself out there and reach out to coaches because a school is going to love you.’ And I mean, luckily I gained some traction from there. I was also looking at Franklin & Marshall, but really Colby for so many reasons just stood out above all the other schools that I was looking at. I actually made a pros and cons list and it was just so long for the pros for Colby.

Interviewer: So a mix of so many things. It started with you deciding you’d really like to play college softball, you have sports engrained in your family’s blood and you had several versions of support from coaches, family, and friends, which is so important. And then as you just said, you were super organized which helped you stay at the top portion of your class academically.

So you decide on Colby and the coaches think it’s a great fit, so that process is done. You’re finally accepted and you’re going to campus, what was it like getting to campus in that transition? What was your first impression as a student?

KC: Yeah, so um, it was definitely a big difference from where I grew up in a way, but also very similar. I went to high school in Queens, so I live on Long Island but I actually commuted to a Catholic school in Queens. There were 1600 kids – it’s a very small building; we had no campus really. I always had like a track with a baseball field inside the track. And I mean going to from class, it was just like bumper to bumper almost. Then I came here, and I felt like I had the whole campus to myself. But since I went to school that was 1600 kids, and I think Colby’s around like 2200 to 2400, I knew that a really important thing was to make my own community because I was able to make that at my high school and since there was like a similar size, I knew I wanted to do that as well. So, my first week here was orientation week. It was just the freshmen and the orientation leaders, so I really made an effort to meet everyone. And this is a little silly to say but I purposely didn’t go straight towards my teammates because I knew I was going to get close with them later on. So I went to my roommates, my roommates’ friends and just tried to branch out as much as possible which I think really helped me create my community.

Interviewer: So, two things there. Being from Vermont, I tried to do some digging from but I have very little understanding of New York, especially near the city. To me it looked like you lived and went to school on Long Island. So to confirm like you said, you live on Long Island but went to high school in Queens. And then again that point you made about…

…branching out making your own community outside of the softball team, was that something you were looking for in a smaller school? Is it easier to meet people?

KC: Definitely, Colby is absolutely amazing, it’s an amazing small knit community, and when choosing what school I wanted to go to, I knew I didn’t want to be just another number. I wanted to have a purpose and choose my own purpose. I knew Colby would allow me to do that.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s great. Did we meet on Colby’s campus for the first time or was it through the program?

KC: We met through Tuck.

Interviewer: Yeah, okay, yeah. I think every time I go there it’s like a hundred students in the audience, I try to remember everybody, but it’s easier once they actually do the program. Colby is a beautiful place, really quiet, like you said, and it makes me so curious about the cultural aspect of the college.

Are there popular places to hang out with your friends on campus? Do you guys go off campus a bunch or is it a combination?

KC: We hang a lot on campus because most students live on campus and then there are some students who live off campus. We have beautiful downtown apartments for example. But Colby is all about its community and we want to extend campus culture towards the town of Waterville and form a relationship with them, so if you live downtown, you actually have to volunteer to live there. But most of the time people are just around campus or downtown.

Interviewer: Gotcha, yeah. So really close-knit from a student standpoint and from a town standpoint. It’s a great thing to point out because something I really want to learn a lot about at different schools are the kind of support systems students have.

What kind of people are supporting you? Is there anyone like faculty or an advisor or staff? Obviously, you have your coaching staff, but are there any professionals that you’ve connected with that have been really supportive of Colby?

KC: 100% I mean every single professor and coach that I’ve met want nothing but the best for you and I have a few examples of this if you don’t mind.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, dive in as deep as you want!

KC: So one example is I took a course last semester called Micro Theory, in economics for my major, and I’ve formed a really great connection with my professor. I’m actually working for her now, I’m a research assistant for one of her research projects right now. Another example, this one is my favorite, Colby is really unique and has something called Jan Plan which is in January, and you just take one course for the whole month. And so last year I took in a marketing class called Make Advertising That Doesn’t Suck and it was with a Colby alum who was on the soccer team, and you know he came in and kind of said to us like, ‘Hey, if you ever need anything, I’m always here.’ So I kind of took advantage of that and you know stayed in contact with him, reached out to him like throughout the course. By the end of the class, he said to me, ‘Hey, KC, just so you know you got the best grade in this class, would you come work for me this summer?’ And so I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, definitely.’ And so after Tuck Bridge actually, for the month of August, he did me a huge favor and connected me with someone and I was able to work with her in the city and gain a lot of insights into marketing world, which was really interesting.

Interviewer: Those are some really cool examples. I think it’s hard for me not to be partial to student athletes because that’s the experience I had, but part of the reason I want to have these conversations and I’m not just targeting student athletes, but when it happens, you’ve just highlighted so many experiences outside of what you manage as a student athlete. So obviously you have the softball commitment, you’re in season right now and games are coming up soon.

Another one of the questions that I think is really popular and what students want to hear about is how do you manage all these things? Because you’re trying to address professional experience, handling your academic workload, and then obviously all of your in-season and your off-season training. How does it all work?

KC: Yeah. So, I mean, it can be tough. I mean, it is a big adjustment from your high school structured life to college. You’re making your own schedule. But the thing I really want to highlight is there’s enough time for everything. If you can manage your time properly, it’s easy to make the most of it. So, personally, I love Google calendar.

Interviewer: Love it. I’ve heard that one on here before.

KC: And I’ve really realized what I love doing. So yes, softball is one thing, but I’ve been able to branch out outside of softball and even through softball. So for example, through softball, I’ve been able to join SAAC here. I’ve also been able to  create my own segment on our softball Instagram called KC’s Corner, like with a backwards K for strikeouts in softball. And so, I mean, with sports too, I’ve also become like a student game worker for the men’s soccer team. I’ve also joined student government this year actually. It’s just what you make of your time and just make sure you’re doing stuff that you enjoy, because if you are doing things that you don’t enjoy, then it’s just going to suck the life out of you. And you feel like you’re not going to have time for everything.

Interviewer: So it sounds like it’s, it’s kind of like a wake up and go situation for you every day, where all the examples you just gave from research projects to game staff, to all the things you’re doing, you’re just meeting so many different versions of the community. And I love hearing about that because as an undergrad, I really fell into some of those lazy tendencies where maybe it was off-season and I’d have training, but then the rest of the day was slow and I didn’t organize it as well as I could have. And I found in my grad year that I really picked it up schedule-wise and I kind of had your mentality where it was like, okay, I’m going to do a research position and do my training for baseball and take an extra class and volunteer my time. So it took me a while to wake up, but so to have students join me and talk about, they’re doing this from their first year, or even you were doing it in high school in some ways. I think it just comes back to taking initiative and then it’s the motivation behind doing it.

So you get this really cool offer and, kind of like the Tuck Bridge Program we touched on earlier, higher education is really focused on creating career opportunities from the classroom and campus experience. Cause that’s where you can get the return on investment as a student. So this research project happened through an academic connection and I’d just love to hear about what you’re working on and what you’re researching.

KC: Yeah. So I can’t disclose the specifics of the research. But my professor and a few of her colleagues are doing a study in a different country and they performed this study a few years ago. And so basically I’m combining a lot of the data and kind of organizing it for them to make it easily legible as they move forward. But then also, um, what the, the goal moving forward is I just took a class called Research Methods and Statistics and Economics with a different professor. And I learned a lot about the platform called Stata. So we’re hoping that my knowledge in that can also assist in their research as well.

Interviewer: So there’s always an opportunity to kind of skill develop and relate it back to classes you can take. And project details aside it’s really just about practicing and having more experience. And then maybe at some point when, if, and when the research is released, it’s a great talking point for you for an interview or something later. So it’s a forward-thinking process where maybe right now it’s more skill-based and then it’s something to again, apply later on. It sounds like you have an internship too, at AlphaSights?

KC: Yes. Yeah. So that’s this upcoming summer.

Interviewer: Congratulations, that’s awesome. How did that process work?

KC: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. I’m going to be honest, I got super lucky with this. It actually all goes back to the Tuck Bridge Program. When I was applying to Tuck Bridge, first of all, I, I feel like this is important kind of highlighting Colby as well in that we have a program called DavisConnects where DavisConnects funds you, basically to go places, or to do things that you want to pursue. There are multiple opportunities where you can get funded by them. And so, after I got into Tuck Bridge, they actually funded me to go and they paid a good amount for me to go. And I had an amazing experience. At Tuck Bridge, I met a lot of, I met a lot of fellow NESCAC and Ivy kids, which was a great experience. And I’m still in touch with a lot of them. And so while there, we had our career day. And I was looking through some of the interviews for career day. And I was like, I don’t think I could see myself at this company. And then I came across AlphaSights, and kind of just the description of being well-organized, having good time management skills, working in a fast-paced environment, I was like, wow, that really speaks to me. So I wrote a cover letter, and I submitted my resume. And I was like, you know what, I’ll take this as a practice. Because, you know, going into my junior year, I’m going to probably have to interview a lot. And this will be good practice. So I get to the interview, and for some reason, I don’t know why I was really nervous. My mouth was getting dry. It was unlike me. And so I show up, and I think it was like a 30-minute to 45-minute interview. And I thought it went well, but I had no idea. And then later on, there was the networking event with like hors d’oeuvres and stuff. And I ended up accidentally talking to more AlphaSights people at that ceremony. And I think just me being myself outside of the interview, I honestly think helped. Because I wasn’t talking about anything related to what the job is like, I was just being myself and having relatable conversations with them. And so I was super excited when I got the call back for my second round, and then my third round. And then I actually received the job offer in August. So it’s great. So I got lucky, I was a little ahead of the curve. And I mean, the community at AlphaSights really stood out to me. And I could, I just definitely saw myself working there.

Interviewer: Yeah, AlphaSights is a very recognizable brand. I am I just did another interview with a student from Duke, and she’s on the field hockey team there. And she’s interning there this summer. And she said the same thing, she got lucky, and it just kind of fell into place, which is cool. So hopefully, that’s another potential connection for you. That would be really fun. So yeah, you’ll kind of continue networking. So that buzzword of networking, you’ve probably heard it in my recruiting presentation for my job, of course it comes up now. And you just touched on such a big piece where everyone wants to make the most of networking, but no one really knows how to do so. There’s no magic formula of like, do this and this and you’ll get a job offer. But like you’re saying, it’s almost like, when companies do their behavioral interviews where they want to get to know you. But like you’re saying, really weird, you feel really nervous for no reason, or not no reason, but it’s out of character. And you can’t have that like normal conversation, necessarily, you’re always answering a question, you’re trying to remember your resume, all that stuff. So yeah, those little just like laid back networking conversations, you really get to know the team, you get to meet additional members, like you said, and so I think it’s a great tip and just something to always seek out, whether it’s a virtual event or some other way to go beyond the interview. And like you heard at Tuck Bridge, it’s always that follow-up email and saying thank you. And that’s an opportunity. So I think that’s really cool. And you touched on, again, AlphaSights and DavisConnects, and just really random someone at another school has that same internship.

But so yeah, around AlphaSights, all the things you’ve done internship wise, jobs wise, what are you thinking future goals, short term, long term for your career?

KC: Yeah, I like to tell myself that I’m still young, and it’s okay not to know. I feel like especially at higher academic schools, there is kind of this unspoken pressure that you always have to know what you want to do. But I’ve kind of embraced that, no, it’s okay to explore. So I’ve kind of had a dip my toe in mentality, where I’ve just been trying everything possible. And I think you can kind of see that through what I’m studying. I’m an econ major and a science, psychology, and society minor. So kind of just a big umbrella holistic view. But so looking forward, I mean, or what I’ve done, I’ve done Tuck Bridge, I’ve done marketing, I’m going to be working in the private equity sector of AlphaSightss, which I’m really excited about. But I think it’s really important to see, to dip your toe into all like different facets, because you get to see what you like and dislike about the job. And I think the dislike is probably the most important. Because personally, I feel like you shouldn’t constantly be doing something that’s just going to tear you down.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that’s one of the lines I use in my job, when you try a program or you try an experience, sometimes it’s like nothing what you want. But that’s good information, because it allows you to redirect, and you can try something new. So yeah, I think you’re building your experience really well. And you’re kind of having that, like, well, I don’t really know, I’ll be really open-minded and try things out. You never know, with internships, there is a very high percentage conversion rate for getting job offers, whether where you intern or another company in the same space. So again, just more opportunity, trying things out. I think that’s huge.

For the sake of time, last couple questions, just really kind of on the college topic in general, what’s like the biggest surprise that you had when you got college? What was the biggest surprise coming out of high school?

KC: Oof, biggest surprise I mean oh, this is a hard one. Well I think one was just the relationships that I was able to build. I knew that Colby was a small community, I’ve said so many times but from my high school I mean I thought that nothing could be closer-knit than that and I mean I was proved wrong. I was very much so proved wrong. I was also surprised about how determined and helpful everyone was and especially, especially how nice everyone is. I mean that was awesome. I mean I’m in the gym like lifting on my own and I’ll see two of my econ professors and I’ll just start having a conversation with them and they’ll start asking me like just how my life is. They genuinely care which was something that really surprised me, how much people care.

Interviewer: That was always strange that you’d have like faculty and different people around the gym – it’s such a different setting than in a classroom so that’s cool and the fact that you keep re-emphasizing it I think it just really shows what the community is like so it’s good to talk about it over and over again. I’m sure as you talk you probably have 5, 10, 15 people that come to mind that you’ve had those experiences with, which is so cool. It brings me back to that thing you hear in middle school and high school, like you won’t get away with certain things in college, and then it just reminds me, you get to school and everyone’s so nice and supportive, and you can get extra help, and you have all these groups and support to lean on. So I think that’s great.

So last question for you, hopefully not as difficult, one bit of advice or your greatest tip for making the most of your college experience?

KC: I would say, do things that make you happy regardless of anything anyone might think and that could be for so many different things. Like I said, dipping your toe in everything is important. I mean, I’ve had some personal experiences with that. I mean, I’ve always been interested in student government, but kind of was a little scared, like well what if I’m not good at it or what if I don’t get elected and so I had the opportunity this year actually, I’m taking my own advice, and I was like you know what, like why not, like I want to do this, so I ran for class president and luckily I got it and I’m so happy that I did because I mean I’ve been able to make even more um connections with people I probably normally wouldn’t have. So like I said, do things that make you happy. I feel like a good experience to do that is we have something called COOT here which is um Colby’s Outdoor Orientation Trips. You basically sign up for a trip before coming to Colby and I was really scared because I signed up for white water rafting, and I feel like those are the decisions you make to learn the most. do it so like that you’re happy and everything will kind of fall into place.

Interviewer: I think it’s great advice, and another fun part of this is well, these conversations in general are so much fun. I just keep reflecting on the fact that I just turned 30. So, 2017 was when I graduated undergrad, and one thing that ties into your bit of advice is that the trying things is so important, and I definitely did certain things like you’ve been talking about with your experiences in undergrad. But what I learned in my mid-20s late 20s and now, is college is the time to try all of it because if you fail, it’s on the college stage. If you get to your early career, your first job or you get to grad school, the stakes just get raised a bit more as you have more responsibility, and your life kind of takes over. So, if you have those doubts, those moments of hesitation, where it’s like, should I really try this? The answer is yes. I don’t know as much about student government. I think just learning those things and having those lessons in undergrad like you’re saying, it’s so much easier to move on from it and try something else in undergrad as opposed to like 30, 35 years old; then you start trying things, and you’re like, ‘Well, now there’s all this pressure, and maybe I have to move somewhere, or there are financial complications with it.’ So I think that’s great advice, and just really tapping into your community. So we’ll pause there. One more huge thank you this is so much fun.