They stand out as colorful dreamers among the prosaic masses of student degree-seekers. They argue with their families and ignore society’s skeptical looks. They are the idealists — the artists, the philosophers, the writers, the activists.
That is, until they graduate.
While some graduates continue on a path that guarantees living out a dream and making a difference in the world, others find themselves turning their skills into jobs that guarantee something a little more concrete.
On the philosophy department’s alumni page, for example, you’ll find lawyers, pastors, professors and software analysts.
Nathan McCourtney, who left the university in 1997, with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, professes himself on the alumni page to be a “professional computer nerd now, as I’m sure many of my fellow BAs are.” He also reveals in his profile, “Philosophy is much harder than computer science. Don’t believe the hype.”
Elana Greenstein, a 2000 graduate, found a way to combine her family studies degree with her interest in business. She and her fiancée are co-founders of Metro Recruiting Inc., a business that recruits qualified potential employees for large companies in the Washington area.
“I love working with people and helping people make the best career choices,” she said. “But in the recruiting … I get to see the business end of things as well. I get to be involved in the marketing, sales, accounting, finances, management, etc. as well as working with people and helping people, which is the part I like the best.”
Greenstein first thought she would become a social worker or a therapist. But she opened up her prospects to the business world when she was studying, taking internships in human resource departments, recruiting and work-life programs — all areas in which a grasp on business is important. “I think that I am much more successful financially with the recruiting and business career than I would have been with a position that was directly related to family studies,” Greenstein said. “In order to move up in [the family studies] field, you pretty much have to get your master’s degree, and even then it is pretty hard to make good money.”
Some alumni hold out for the careers that really make a difference. Pamela Allen, a program director for the Career Center, tells a story almost the opposite of Greenstein’s.
Listening to the clear way she emphasizes each step in her strategy to find a career, students would never think she once had second guesses about her own aspirations. But it took about 10 years of exploring and research, looking for the perfect career, for Allen to realize she was looking in the wrong places.
“I realized that, while I was helping out the people in the business world, my values just did not match with corporate values,” she said.
After obtaining her master’s degree, Allen met an employee of the Career Center at a conference she attended. The worker suggested she look into an open position at the center, and for the past seven years, Allen has made a living while remaining in touch with her goal to help others.
