On Monday, the Career Center hosted a Humanities Career Panel to introduce students to a panel of alumni from numerous graduation years and all over the country to show what a humanities degree can do. Nick Hamilton ’06 from Cisco, Chase Hatchett ’11 from Fitch Ratings, Jennifer Nordmark ’11 from Blue Sky Studios, Margaret Dearden Petersen, Esq. ’80 from Petersen Law PLLC, and Meredith Reiss ’05 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art were all panelists.
Jim Dickinson ’01 of Career Services led the discussion, asking the guests to offer their own stories. The panel covered an array of topics from how they even chose their major to what their career is doing for them today.
The guests described their own journeys in finding their path at Loyola, ranging from influence from family, friends, and course load. Hamilton offered an anecdote on how he came upon his eventual history major. “Is Jane Edwards still here?” He asked, with the audience all responding yes. He continued, “I took Jane Edwards’ class, and that’s why I was a history major. I actually changed from business, to education to history. I took her class second semester freshman year, and I never looked back.”
Each panelist offered their own piece of wisdom they discovered during journeys as professionals. Hatchett emphasized the importance of getting your foot in the door, floating your resume, and having a lot of talks over coffee. Nordmark made sure to point out that you need to take a step back from your career and path and see how it connects with your personal vision and the impact that you want to make. Petersen took note of a less often noticed benefit of a Humanities education, saying, “You can have us at a dinner party and we won’t do anything embarrassing. Seriously! That can actually get you places!”
Ryan Baldino ’22 offered some thoughts on what he took from the panel. “I think a lot of times when you’re growing up you kind of think like, ‘I have to do, you know, A to complete B’, and it’s kind of a linear progression of what you’re going to do, but as a lot of our panelists said tonight it’s not necessarily always a linear progression, sometimes there are opportunities and there’s different things that come up that allow you to sort of grow and take a chance.”
After the question and answer session, students had the opportunity to chat one-on-one with the guests. More alumni and other faculty from the Humanities were also present to help students find out more information about their potential career paths. As part of Loyola’s mission of discernment, this career panel gave students great insight for their futures. For more information about potential career paths and what you may need to do, contact or go to the Career Center, right next to McManus theatre.
Featured Image: Courtesy of Loyola University Maryland
