An Alumni-Student Connection

The great thing about a liberal arts education is that you can do anything. That’s also the intimidating part. Knowing that, the Penn Arts & Sciences’ Ambassador Council and Professional Women’s Alliance created a new outreach program, the College Career Readiness Series. Designed especially for students in the College of Arts & Sciences, the series kicked of with a virtual event on October 24 that featured panel presentations and Q&A sessions.

Lisa Tretler, C’94 G’99 WG’99, PAR’24, is Chair of the College Career Readiness Series. “We started the series because hearing directly from our fantastic alumni can be a great benefit for students,” she explains. “For this event, I moderated a panel on leveraging the Penn network. It’s important for students to know that alums are thrilled to help them out.”

The 14 alumni who participated demonstrated the variety of paths students can take after graduating with a liberal arts degree. Hayley Boesky, C’88, PAR’20, for example, majored in astrophysics and minored in French before earning a doctorate in astrophysics at Columbia University. Now, she’s Vice Chair of Global Corporate and Investment Banking at Bank of America. Then there’s Khalilah Lawson, C’01, who studied sociology and is now Director of Executive Search at Comcast, and Patrick Steel, C’89, who studied European history and is now the CEO of Politico.

Two hundred College students registered for the event, which began with a Q&A session with Laura Alber, C’90, PAR’20, PAR’23, CEO of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Jean-Marie Kneeley, Vice Dean for Advancement at Penn Arts & Sciences, led the session, asking Alber about her path from an undergraduate psychology major to an executive. In particular, they discussed the value of what Alber calls the “anti-plan” and personal resilience.

In other sessions, panelists discussed the possibilities offered by a liberal arts degree and offered interview tips.

If you’re interested in learning how you can support and engage with students, please contact Kathe Archibald, Director of Global Alumni Engagement, at kathea@sas.upenn.edu.

Thanks to all the alumni participants: John Adractas, C’98; Laura Alber, C’90, PAR’20, PAR’23; Elise Betz, GED’03; Hayley Boesky, C’88, PAR’20; Janine Jjingo, C’02; Claire Klieger, GED’02, GRD’05; Khalilah Lawson, C’00; Angie Luo, C’11; Aurelio Salas, C’91; Patrick Steel, C’89; Michael Tedori, C’08; Lisa Tretler, C’94 G’99 WG’99, PAR’24; Jamie Zinn, C’00.