Tag: alum feature

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Meet Alum Josh Ryor ’10, Assistant Secretary of Energy at Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Name: Josh Ryor

Class Year: 2010

Title: Assistant Secretary of Energy

Organization Name: Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I develop and execute strategic energy policy initiatives for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with a focus on EV charging infrastructure and clean energy deployment, and provide guidance and support on energy policy and utility regulation matters to officials in the Healey-Driscoll Administration, including Governor’s Office officials and the leadership of the Commonwealth’s energy policy and utility regulation organizations.

 

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?

This is a bit of a story. My first job out of Holy Cross was as a high school physics teacher at the Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest, New Jersey. Frankly, I didn’t have a plan for what to do after college. I just knew that I wanted to do something where I’d have a positive impact. I considered applying for the GE finance leadership program for a bit or applying for other positions in finance but it just didn’t feel like the right fit for me, plus I hadn’t done any finance internships while at Holy Cross. 

Second semester of my senior year two things happened. First, I started telling people that I was interested in getting into teaching, at least while I figured something else out. I’m not exactly sure who I was telling or why, but apparently that’s what I was doing because it seemed like every science major knew that that was my plan. I had been a physics tutor at Holy Cross for a couple of years and I enjoyed helping people succeed in their classes and to understand a subject I loved. One Friday evening at a party, a friend, Meg Emmich, asked if I was still looking for a teaching job. I said that I was and she connected me with the folks at Holy Angels the next week. The rest, as they say, is history.

Second, I took Energy Economics taught by Professor Matheson. I knew about halfway through the course that this was what I had been looking for: something that took the math and problem solving skills I had been learning in my physics and economics courses and applied it to tangible problems and projects. Since it was so late in the year when I realized I wanted to pursue energy issues more, I decided to give teaching a shot for a couple of years and to keep my interest in energy in the back of my mind. In my second year of teaching, I started looking at graduate programs in clean energy and energy policy. In 2011/2012 there were surprisingly few programs with a technical focus (now there are well-established programs at Yale, Michigan, Duke, MIT, etc.), so I decided to go the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, which had a program in Sustainable Energy Systems out of their School of Engineering that also had energy economics and policy courses as part of it’s curriculum. Ultimately, I took an unpaid internship in D.C. after grad school with the American Council on Renewable Energy focused on federal energy policy. After that, the policy stuff stuck.

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

I was an extended Fall Orientation leader, I volunteered at an orphanage and tutored at a school in Worcester through SPUD, I participated in a weekly student religious and support group (I forget the name), I participated in two Spring Break service trips, I was part of the Physics National Honor society, I was an physics tutoring, and I participated in basketball and soccer intramural. There may have been more, but that’s all I can remember now. 

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I was a Physics and Economics double major. The analytical and problem solving skills I developed in these disciplines led me to clean energy and climate policy. As I said above, I wanted to do something that had a positive impact. Physics and Economics also helped me further develop my love for solving complex problems and honed the skills needed to solve all types of complex problems, not just the problems put before me in the specific courses that I took. Once energy and climate issues were presented as a set of problems to solve in Professor Matheson’s course, it was obvious that this was how I could use the skills I had learned in my majors to have an impact in the world. Certainly, I can’t think of a more urgent, complex, and timely problem than climate change.  

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

I’ve already mentioned problem solving in general, but I’d also add, and really can’t stress enough, that the liberal arts education Holy Cross provided has been instrumental in my success in the energy policy space. Energy policy requires a fundamental understanding of the physics, engineering, economics, finance, legal, and political aspects of various interrelated social, political, bureaucratic, and physical systems. Very rarely am I the expert on a given subject in the room; in fact, I am most frequently more like a student who is peppering others with questions to understand and dissect the key issues of a subject. Holy Cross is where I learned how to ask the right questions. 

Also, I simply wouldn’t be in my current role if I didn’t have to take courses outside of my majors like a traditional college experience. I came into Holy Cross a lazy, unorganized writer with little patience for or skill in the finer points of writing (or really any of the points). Holy Cross helped me understand the importance of both clear and persuasive writing. While I didn’t hone my craft until much later, I simply wouldn’t have been able to succeed in graduate school or after without the foundation Holy Cross gave me.

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

I have three general pieces of advice:

1) Listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI;

2) Work on understanding who you are, what you value, and being comfortable and confident in the answers to those questions. The rest tends to figure itself out when you’re honest and comfortable with yourself, but it’s not a perfect system and the process is never finished; and,

3) Be careful with advice. It’s just what worked (to varying degrees) for the person giving the advice. I appreciate the irony here.

In terms of advice for a career in energy policy, an ability and/or willingness to learn new things in different disciplines and a passion for addressing climate change will go a long way.

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Meet Alumna Olivia Shamleffer ’22, Associate, Emerging Leaders Program at Fidelity Investments

Name: Olivia Shamleffer

Class Year: 2022.5 (December 2022)

Title: Associate, Emerging Leaders Program

Organization Name: Fidelity Investments 

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I’m part of an 18-month rotational program aimed at cross-unit experience building and leadership training, along with twenty other first-year associates who all have liberal arts degrees. 

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?  

Handshake! I also networked with current associates and alums of the program who went to Holy Cross, as well as more senior HC alums at Fidelity. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do after college, so the rotational aspect of the program really stood out to me – I’ll have on-the-desk experience in four different departments by the end of it. Learning about the historically strong connection between Holy Cross and Fidelity also especially made me want to work there

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

 I was involved with Mock Trial all four years and was co-president for the last two. I also worked in the Religious Studies Department for three years! 

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

International Studies. I wanted to major in something that increased my critical thinking skills and taught me how to write well, not geared toward specific future career paths. I went into interviews feeling extremely confident in my soft skills, even if I didn’t have a business or numbers background. 

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

The ability to think creatively. You learn how to make unique connections quickly, which is a huge benefit in the workplace. Another skill is the emphasis on being curious and asking good questions – it’s the quickest way to seem like the most engaged person in the room in my opinion. 

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

Don’t be intimated that you don’t come from a traditional business school background! Lean into the unique strengths gained from having a liberal arts education instead of focusing on trying to overcome perceived deficits in technical skills. And, of course, take advantage of the HC alumni network!

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Meet Alum Dan McLaughlin ’93, Senior Writer, National Review

Name: Dan McLaughlin

Class Year: 1993

Title: Senior Writer

Organization Name: National Review

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I write arguments, analyses, and commentary on matters of politics, law, history, and culture for the nation’s flagship conservative publication.

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you? 

I went straight to law school after doing a semester in DC, meeting Clarence Thomas ’71, and seeing how many lawyers were in politics. I ended up staying in legal practice for 23 years, partly because of law school debts and starting a family, and partly because the work was interesting. I started writing on the internet in 2000, doing a weekly baseball column for a website run by Bill Simmons ’92, who had been the Crusader’s chief sports columnist. After my law office in the World Trade Center was destroyed on 9/11, I got back into political writing. Eventually, I wound up bringing my writing to National Review in 2016, and left the law to take a full-time position as a writer in 2020.

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

I was a weekly op-ed columnist for the Crusader (now the Spire), writing largely about politics. I also did work-study in Kimball, intramural softball, and competed against other schools in debate and quiz bowl.

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

History. It was good preparation for law school, and I’ve returned to a lot of historical writing in my work. I’ve written a good deal about Woodrow Wilson, whose intervention in the Russian Revolution was the subject of my senior thesis.

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

The discipline of a weekly column with a deadline, no assigned topic, and really nobody I answered to but myself if I didn’t write something on time was great preparation for what I do now. So was taking Constitutional Law and learning to read judicial opinions and think about how the Constitution works. 

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

One, get to know a lot of people on campus. You’ll discover at your reunions how many cool and interesting people you wish you’d gotten to know better. And you never know where people will go: it was mutual friends putting me in touch with Bill Simmons that launched my writing career. I also met my wife at HC. Two, don’t be afraid to stand for something even if it’s out of fashion. People didn’t always agree with my columns in the Crusader, and they don’t always agree with them now, but I’ve always had an audience that appreciated where I stood and how I defended my positions.

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Meet Alum Beau Lescott ’95, COO -Public Investing at Silver Point Capital

Name: Beau Lescott

Class Year: 1995

Title: COO,  Public Investing

Organization Name: Silver Point Capital 

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I help out with all facets of running a large investment organization active in global credit markets, including strategy, talent management, and operations.

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?

In 1995 the career services office was much less developed and pre-business did not exist. My process was self-directed and conducted primarily through the mail. My interest in banking and finance stemmed from independent reading about the field and my perception that the field would prepare me for a number of different paths. What is as true now as it was then is that HC alumni love to help. I did a number of informational interviews with alumni, and those really prepared me for the real thing. My first job was with an American outpost of a Japanese bank where the department head had also been a philosophy major. Ironically, philosophy is what got me my first job in finance. When you begin your career I believe that what matters most is whether you feel challenged and intellectually stimulated by the people around you. In that respect, I loved my work right away.    

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

I was involved in various service activities like SPUD. I recall working for a displaced womens’ shelter that was particularly rewarding. I was also fascinated by computers and my roommate had a job in the computer lab. I have great memories of staying up all night and connecting to the very early internet through the college’s VAX computer system. I loved theater, but I came to it late. I wish I had gotten involved earlier.  

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I was a philosophy major and will go to the mat insisting that unless you are pursuing a specialized engineering path, major does not matter to career path. What matters is that you develop a love of learning, and you have the best chance of doing that by choosing a subject area that genuinely interests you. Success in any field is largely a function of continuous learning and keeping an open mind.

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

Two of my favorite classes were logic, taught by philosophy professor Karsten Stueber, and a philosophy of mind class that was offered jointly by the philosophy and psychology departments. These classes taught me the power of a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving. As an investor, there is nothing more important than to be able to evaluate a puzzle from multiple angles. This ability grows in relative importance the further you are in your career.

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

While in school, study what interests you. You will be a more interesting interviewee if you can teach your interviewer something new. After school, two things: first, work really, really hard and strive for excellence. Opportunity is the intersection of luck and preparedness, Second, invest in relationships at all stages. Lift people up when you can; there will come a time when you need people who can lift you up. 

 

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Meet Alum Jordan Forester ’08, Entrepreneur- Climate Tech Crusaders

Name: Jordan Forester

Class Year: 2008

Title: Entrepreneur (former Wall Street energy banker)

Organization Name: Climate Tech Crusaders

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I meet and support ambitious climate tech entrepreneurs battling every day on the frontlines of the climate crisis. 

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you? 

The path that led me from economics major to Wall Street banker to climate tech entrepreneur was one full of zigs and zags, a mix of planned and unplanned events, persistence, serendipity, pivots, and lucky breaks from the universe. I graduated from HC in 2008 without a job during the Great Financial Crisis. It wasn’t until March of 2010 that I received my first full time job offer to work for BofA as an analyst in the healthcare lending group. During my time on the Hill, I was interested in Wall Street finance, although I honestly didn’t know the difference between a stock or a bond. I had been turned down by every firm that gave me an interview, from Fidelity to Citigroup to Morgan Stanley to Brown Brothers and more. Although relatively painful at the time, those No’s were blessings in disguise that helped me build thicker skin and forced me to learn how to cold email, put myself out there, network, and build meaningful relationships from scratch during perhaps one of the toughest economic climates and brutal job markets in 100 years. What I viewed then as struggle (which in hindsight, after seeing real poverty in my recent journey to help entrepreneurs in Africa, LatAm, SE Asia and India last year) would eventually build my character, adaptability and ability to persist. It helped me during an eventual startup journey that involved navigating uncertainty and rejection.  

I remember feeling caught in a ridiculously frustrating Catch 22: One weakness preventing me from getting hired, I was told, was lack of experience. Come again? The only business experience on my resume is serving hors d’oeuvres at weddings for my father’s catering company! I had a binder chock full of Wall Street interview guides and possible questions that were carefully curated by HC career center staff. How did my classmate who chose to study Greek Mythology instead of economics secure that offer with Lehman Brothers? 

I imagined HC alumni and Boston Celtics basketball legend Bob Cousy himself throwing me an easy alley-oop pass and me continuously bricking it.

What was I missing? 

It didn’t help that I was attempting to break into finance during the Great Financial Recession in 2008: the worst job market in 100 years. But even if it had been a bull market, I neither knew how to tell my story nor translate the incredible privilege of a Holy Cross education into a job offer. I wanted to work in finance and was proud to have graduated, but felt I had missed the boat: stuck at the starting line and scared I’d never catch up. 

After graduation, I spent six months cold emailing companies from my childhood home in Wakefield. I applied for hundreds of jobs online without an inside connection. Crickets. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. In the fall of 2008, I caught a lucky break, and found a three-month internship at a Boston-based investment bank called America’s Growth Capital. About half-way through the internship, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, and I was not hired full time. I did some back-office temp work for JPMorgan for nine months and then, again, was not hired. I made a list of every HC alumni working in finance, entered each into an excel spreadsheet (which I still use) and started writing from the heart, asking for help and advice.

My luck changed when I met HC alumni Ted Lynch, an MD in BofA’s Restaurant Group in Boston. One of our common bonds was that we were both HC alumni interested in finance. That first short first conversation changed my life’s trajectory. Eighteen months after graduation, thanks to Ted’s kindness and generosity, I was able to land my first real job as a credit analyst at BofA. I finally had realized the true power of the HC alumni network. 

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus? 

I participated in Big Brother Big Sister, played intramural basketball, and spent lots of time throwing the frisbee on Easy Street. I also spent lots of time in Dinand Library, Cool Beans, and Kimball. I suppose I could have done more networking, but am grateful for the incredible relationships I built and friendships I have to this day.

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions? 

I chose Economics because I thought it was the closest major to learn about business (other than accounting). I honestly wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do after HC, but was curious and drawn to business and Wall Street as a means of drinking from a knowledge firehose and learning from ambitious businesspeople. I had no idea how to read financial statements but had heard that the intensity of the work and hard skills I could learn (such as financial modeling or credit analysis) could provide a foundation and options that could lead to other opportunities down the road (eg MBA, working in private equity, working at another company, etc.). 

Majoring in economics gave me a shot to break into finance. Some of the fundamentals of economic theory have helped me better understand how choices are made with the backdrop of resource scarcity, and what drives prices (whether oil & gas prices, or the price of a stock, or debt security that a hedge fund is analyzing). It also helped with ice breakers with other HC alumni in finance. 

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

The most important skills I developed were 1) the ability to ask better questions to quickly learn something new / foreign and 2) connecting dots and finding the common denominators between seemingly unrelated disciplines.

I’ve worked for a decade in finance across various Wall Street firms, from JPMorgan to BofA to Webster Bank. In each situation I was forced to learn a new team and industry (eg Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Private Equity, Restaurants). When I moved into startup building with Courial to decarbonize mobility and help gig workers live better lives, I was lucky to receive support from the HC community of faculty and students who helped scale the company. I had to again learn new sectors and subjects from scratch (tech startups, entrepreneurship, venture capital, startups, and how to create a company from 0 to 1). I had to learn new languages all over again.  The Holy Cross liberal arts framework was at the heart of my ability to pivot and learn new languages quickly under pressure, and in some cases unlearn what I had learned (to quote our little green friend Yoda). 

I believe that the skill of looking for connections across different fields in a world that is changing faster than ever (thanks to advances in AI and machine learning, among other factors) is more valuable than ever. I was lucky at Holy Cross to learn a variety of subjects beyond economics, such as language (French), philosophy, fundamentals of music, computer science, global change biology, Russian Tales of Desire, and Bali Gamelan Music (my favorite) – which helped me broaden my perspective and over time bond with more people than I ever could have imagined. It was my ability to speak a little French that helped me navigate the Francophone speaking African countries, Ivory Coast and Senegal, last year. It was my course on Bali music which helped me engage in memorable conversations with entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia. They were impressed that I even had heard of the country, let alone played an instrument!

Building climate tech startups that are attempting to decarbonize every sector of the economy which means we’ll have to rethink what we previously thought was true and collaborate with people across different fields (chemistry, biology, AI, machine learning, policy, finance, energy, and academia, and more) to remix old recipes, build diverse teams. We’ll have to use a beginner’s mind and the Jesuit principles of giving for others to cook up solutions and technologies to save our planet.

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

Don’t be afraid to jump into new situations. Stay open minded, meet and learn from as many different people as you can, try to enjoy dancing with uncertainty, and follow your curiosities (not what your peers are doing or what’s popular), no matter how weird you think your interests might be. That is the path to unlocking your own unique superpowers. By learning and doing the things that make you feel most alive, you’ll be able to go deeper, engage in more lively conversations, and have more energy to find your own truth. It took me some time to learn that the HC alumni network is like an extended, life-long family that’s always there for you. Even though it’s so hard with so much on your plate, taking the time to network and go beyond your comfort zone is worth the investment. You don’t need to dive deep into the ocean to find buried treasure. You can find hidden gems in a conversation with anyone you meet. I’m constantly amazed by what I’m learning from both alumni and students (and sometimes random people on the street) who always have a story to tell and or a gem to share (if you know how to ask the right questions to unlock the door). 

One of my favorite quotes is from Joseph Campbell: As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think. My advice is to just jump!

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Meet Alumna Sarah Noonan ’09, Founder of SarNDipity Solutions

Name: Sarah Noonan

Class Year: 2009

Title: Founder

Organization Name: SarNDipity Solutions

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I help business managers and owners prioritize and delegate administrative and operational tasks so they have more energy to focus on extending influence, building relationships and capturing new business.

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?

Seeking a career in media, I interned for a maritime publisher and conference organizer during my summers as a Holy Cross student. After graduating, I was hired full-time. Working within a small team serving a global audience taught me to become self-reliant and learn where and whom to turn to for information and support. I’ve carried these lessons with me into subsequent roles and in now starting my own company.

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

I wrote for the campus newspaper, worked stage crew for Alternative College Theatre, and volunteered through Holy Cross Cares Day and Student Programs for Urban Development.

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I completed a dual major in economics and sociology, framing my thinking about my individual role within the job market and community at the macrolevel. This combination also sparked my curiosity for the social sciences, inspiring me to pursue a graduate degree in Applied Quantitative Research and directly build upon my foundational learning at Holy Cross.

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

The research and writing abilities I fostered as a Holy Cross have helped me navigate career transitions, market upheaval and thinking through what I want from my career and life beyond work.

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

Take advantage of all the information you have available. From career sites like Glassdoor and Indeed, to online learning sites like EdX and Coursera, there are so many platforms to enrich the Holy Cross curriculum that didn’t exist at their scale today when I was a student. Use these as roapmaps to bridge gaps between your experience now and where you see yourself headed post-HC. Also, get to know Maura Sweeney in the Alumni Career Development Office – She’s a great resource you’ll have to guide you when you graduate!

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Meet Alumna Elizabeth DeLuca ’21, Senior Associate Consultant at Hayden Consulting Group

Name: Elizabeth DeLuca

Class Year: 2021

Title: Senior Associate Consultant

Organization Name: Hayden Consulting Group

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

My role as an SAC is to support project teams with addressing our clients’ market access questions, typically by conducting research and translating it into digestible strategic findings.

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross?

I completed pre-med courses at Holy Cross with the end goal of attending medical school. After graduation, I worked in a hospital and realized that medical school was not what I wanted. I began exploring other career paths and was drawn to life sciences consulting as a way to leverage my healthcare interest and problem-solving skills in a new context. Through a Holy Cross alumni, I was introduced to Hayden Consulting Group and have been there for about 2 years now.

 

3. How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?  

Hayden is a good fit for me because I feel excited about the work I do and going to work. I typically work on 2 projects at a time which last ~3 months each, so the work I am doing and the project teams I am working on are always changing. I feel like I am constantly learning because Hayden is so focused on professional development; they have taught me how to code, conduct primary market research, create XLS models, etc. I think what makes Hayden stand out is the company culture that they have created. It is a place where I am welcome to speak in company meetings and I have a relationship with the founders.

 

4. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

I was a member of Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) and Counseling Outreach Peer Educator (COPE). I was also a Chemistry lab TA and STEM+E tutor.

 

5. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I was a Chemistry major at Holy Cross and on the pre-med track. Looking back, I think in college I did not have a clear idea of alternative career paths for someone who was interested in the sciences/healthcare outside of becoming a physician. In my current role at Hayden, I leverage the knowledge I gained at Holy Cross when conducting background research on pharmaceutical products, understanding a treatment landscape, crafting discussion guides for physicians, etc.

 

6. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

The most valuable skill I learned from Holy Cross is analytical problem-solving. I think that this way of thinking is something I gained from my chemistry major and supports my everyday work. Our goal at Hayden is to answer our clients’ complex questions, so being able to take a problem and break it down into parts that can be answered is critical.

 

7. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

Graduating is such a special time in your life when you will truly become independent. Take some time and really think about what it is that you want to do and try to find a piece of that in your first job. You can build from there! And utilize the Holy Cross network – people are very willing to help in my experience.

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Meet Alumna Dr. Sarah Boehm ’11, Associate Director for Education and Outreach

Name: Sarah Boehm

Class Year: 2011

Title: Associate Director for Education and Outreach

Organization Name: Center for Nanoscale Science, Pennsylvania State University

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

I manage the educational and professional development portfolio for a large materials research grant that consists of roughly 20 faculty and 35 graduate students and postdocs.

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?  

With both the encouragement of Holy Cross faculty and the knowledge of career opportunities that a higher degree would afford me, I decided to pursue a doctorate degree in Chemistry. In graduate school, I attended the American Chemical Association’s Leadership Development Institute where I met a future colleague at BASF who introduced me to the company and their Leadership Development Program for new PhD scientists. This connection helped me to gain acceptance to the rigorous program that consisted of three 8-month rotations across the US in various roles. One of my rotations involved technology scouting and university collaboration development in Boston, where I learned about roles in academia for scientists outside of the lab. This experience ultimately reinforced the fact that I enjoy working in the academic setting and led me to seek out opportunities to utilize my skills beyond industry. Networking and relationship building led me from one position to the next, directing me to my current role where I find fulfillment mentoring students and inspiring the next generation of scientists.

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

Cheerleading, Chemistry research, Chemistry lab teaching assistant, Physics Workshop tutor, Physics grader

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I was a chemistry major with a physics minor. As an undergraduate I was fairly certain that I wanted to work as a scientist and learned that obtaining a PhD would provide me with the career growth opportunities that I was interested in. I truly started to explore my options in graduate school where I learned about the varied roles PhD chemists play in industry, academia, policy, government, and beyond. Having a degree in chemistry expanded my options and allowed me to shift careers from industry to academia because I have the critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills necessary to be successful.

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

Holy Cross was a safe space for me to learn to ask for help. It’s not always comfortable and it takes confidence. In all my roles since graduating I have needed to gather resources and identify collaborators to build effective teams. I recognize that I need help in areas outside of my expertise and bring in people with varied and complementary skill sets to round out the team. Building confidence in my own abilities is also key to feeling comfortable acknowledging my limits and knowing when to ask for help.  

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

There are three main components in any job, internship, or graduate research lab – your boss, your work/project, and your coworkers. Before committing to any new endeavor, assess how you feel about each component. Will you be supported by your boss? Will you get along well with your coworkers? Will you enjoy the work? I suggest that you should feel positively about at least two of the three to be happy and successful in that role.

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Meet Alum Jonathan White ’96, Managing Attorney at Jordan & White, LLC

Name: Jonathan White 

Class Year: 1996 

Title: Managing Attorney 

Organization: Jordan & White, LLC 

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?

My job entails transforming the lives of our clients who come to us seeking something better through the legal services we offer and fostering the best firm culture for my team to grow and enhance themselves. 

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?     

I accidently found myself going to law school after Holy Cross. I really wish I could say it was by design or that I always knew that I wanted to be an attorney, but that just would not be true. But I learned it was a good fit for me about halfway through my first year as I watched many of the students around me struggle. I found that my experience as a student-athlete at Holy Cross set me up for success by providing the exact skill set I needed to make my way through law school. With that confidence, I was able to focus on what I was studying and absolutely fell in love with it. 

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

On campus, my focus was on the hockey team, which then led me to community service opportunities with my teammates. 

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I double majored in Classics and History. Studying law just seemed like the next logical step from there. 

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

Without hesitation, I know that the smaller class sizes I had in the Classics and History departments developed my ability to speak in public with confidence. Similarly, the Socratic method that my professors had so often used developed my ability to communicate my thoughts and ideas clearly. These are the main skills I employ daily with my team, my clients, and my colleagues, as well as the chief skills in my marketing efforts. 

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

My advice for students on campus today is to never let fear decide your fate. Everything you want lives on the other side of fear and 90% of the things we worry about never transpire.

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Meet Alumna Diane (McDonnell) Pickles ’89, Program Director at Additional Ventures

Name: Diane (McDonnell) Pickles

Class Year: 1989

Title: Program Director, Project Singular

Organization Name: Additional Ventures

 

1. In one sentence, what does your job entail? 

I lead a direct to participant genetic sequencing study of patients with single ventricle heart disease and their immediate family members to fuel research to find curative solutions for this rare, complex disease.

 

2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?  

My first job after college was in substance abuse prevention education which led me to tobacco control policy work.  I worked on local policy change efforts for several years and then served as Executive Director of a statewide coalition that spearheaded the successful 2004 campaign to make all workplaces in Massachusetts smoke-free.  From there, I moved to a policy advocacy consulting firm where I spent more than a decade working for non-profit organizations helping them advance their mission through policy change.  My passion for advocacy was largely fueled by the unexpected and life-changing experience of having a child born with a rare, complex, life-threatening condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for which there are no curative treatments, only palliative interventions.  I found it unacceptable that I could bring my sick child into a family restaurant and have someone light up a cigarette at the next table.  Moreover, I had to learn how to be an advocate in so many ways, in so many places, and on so many issues – with the healthcare system, insurance companies, the school system, and employers.  Having a sick child who required three open heart surgeries before the age of 2 and ongoing medical interventions also dramatically impacted my career choices in terms of when, where, and how I was able to work.  I needed to take several years off from my career and then could only return part time.  Even after I was able to return full-time, work was a challenging juggling act and required understanding and accommodating employers combined with a great deal of hard work and commitment.  Throughout these years, I volunteered on several congenital heart disease initiatives because it felt essential to try to turn my family’s experience into something good for others.  Approximately 4 years ago, I decided to make a radical career shift and move away from policy advocacy and into the field of cardiovascular research.  For the past 2 years, I have been able to combine my personal passions with my professional skills and work for a nonprofit research foundation dedicated to finding treatments that will enable normal longevity and quality of life for patients with single ventricle heart disease like my son.

 

3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?

I was a Student Alcohol Advisor (I believe now called SWEET Peer Educators) for two years.  I also worked off-campus at a Worcester law firm as a legal secretary.

 

4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?

I was a Psychology major because I found it really interesting, but it honestly didn’t impact my career decisions (please don’t quote me to my parents or professors!).  I really thought I would go to graduate school or law school, become a lawyer or a teacher or a child psychologist – but life had other plans.  However, I do know that it provided me with a solid educational foundation for understanding human behavior and motivations, learning to problem solve effectively, and enjoying research and inquiry.

 

5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?

  • Writing:  I arrived at Holy Cross thinking I was a pretty good writer, but I had a lot to learn.  It’s a skill I continue to hone, but I know it was strengthened tremendously at Holy Cross.
  • Hard work and persistence:  While this may not fit into the “skills” bucket, I believe this is one of the things I learned a great deal about while at Holy Cross.  More than anything else, my drive to work hard and be persistent have enabled my successes in both my personal life and my professional life, giving me what I needed to overcome the most difficult challenges.

 

6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?

My father liked to say, “If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans.”  My life has not at all gone in the direction or along the path I envisioned, but I cannot imagine my career having progressed any differently.  Each step of my career prepared me for the next, and I learned so much along the way.  My advice is to dream big but don’t let your dreams prevent you from taking and learning all you can from where you are.  You can’t necessarily plan what’s around the next corner, but if you dedicate yourself to what you’re doing right now, you will be prepared for the next opportunity.  Work hard, be kind, and trust in yourself and your abilities.

 

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