By giving students the keys to Lehigh’s strong alumni network, the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) helps them unlock the potential of their experience at Lehigh.
Recently, Jashanae Day Brinker, CCPD’s liaison to the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), offered students the opportunity to engage virtually during four panels with successful alumni from CAS who specialize in arts, humanities, math/natural sciences, and social sciences industries, providing opportunities to connect with mentors who might help them find their niche in fields of study with broad career possibilities.
Panelists included recent graduates and seasoned professionals with over 30 years of experience and invited students to gain perspective on opportunities and life after Lehigh. The speakers were recruited through Lehigh Connects, a networking platform available to alumni and students to facilitate conversations that allow both sides to leverage the value of Lehigh connections.
CCPD's Virtual Alumni Panel Fall Events
Nicole Louderback ’03, Robin MacEachern ’07, Travis Martinez ’21, and Travis LaBerge ’98 (pictured) participated in the October 30 alumni panel focused on the arts.
LaBerge has spun his successful piano instructor career into Colorado's largest arts outreach and education provider Parlando School of Musical Arts. LaBerge and wife Christine ’99 have earned heaps of recognition and numerous awards for their outstanding contributions to the arts community in Boulder and Broomfield.
Eager to share his non-traditional career journey with students, this was LaBerge’s second virtual session with Lehigh students, having also participated in one last spring. He has also spoken directly to music classes to share other non-academic and non-high-level performance careers in the music field.
His primary message for students is to grab all the opportunities Lehigh has to offer, including classes in other colleges/departments, public speaking courses, career services, guest speakers, study abroad, and trips to benefit from new cultural opportunities. His experience has taught him that these offerings contribute to a more well-rounded and interesting candidate in the job market.
LaBerge values the opportunity to help students because he recognizes how heavily networking influenced his own career path. “Ultimately I realized that networking and finding people smarter/better/more talented than me has allowed me to grow as a professional and person. It really comes down to who you know and how much you are willing to work.”
On October 31, the second alumni panel focused on the humanities and included Kyle Brett ’15G ’21G, Abigail Larson ’12, and Amy Gare ’97 (pictured).
Gare brought her experience as a seasoned employment attorney to the panel. Specializing in employment law, management strategy, coaching, and training to eliminate workplace discrimination and bias, she serves as the managing partner at Gare Law, LLC, where she guides C-suite executives as they navigate the ever-evolving culture and legal framework governing diversity and equity in the workplace.
Gare has participated in other alumni mentoring opportunities at Lehigh including for the Soaring Together program. She helped facilitate a panel for the cohort, attended program events, and even hosted a cocktail hour for alumni. By engaging with students in this way, Gare hopes to reinforce the value of mining the Lehigh network.
Gare identifies her career turning point as the day a Lehigh alum she never met gave her a chance as an associate attorney at her dream job. She promised him that she would always pay his kindness forward. “I feel like it is my duty to help any Lehigh student that I can to realize their dreams. I don’t think there is a more powerful gift than giving someone the confidence to believe in their dreams and helping them find the pathway to achieve those dreams.”
Valerie Estela-Pro ’11 (pictured) participated in the November 1 event, which focused on math and natural sciences. She became involved by signing up as a mentor on Lehigh Connects, a tool she urges students to utilize to its fullest potential.
“I would encourage students to consider an alum’s participation on that portal as an open invitation to reach out to them with questions. They joined it because they wanted to!”
Estela-Pro graduated from Lehigh with a B.S. in biology and worked on pre-clinical drug trials before earning a Ph.D. in neuroscience. She says she found her current position at National Disease Research Interchange, a scientific nonprofit that serves as a resource for researchers studying human diseases, by networking with everyone she could to learn about opportunities.
She shared her experience and lessons learned at the virtual panel, telling students that it is always worth it to reach out and try to make new connections. She firmly believes that the best way to figure out what you're interested in is to talk to people who are already in those positions.
“It's intimidating to cold-email someone,” she says. “But it's worth it!”
Also participating in the math and natural sciences panel were Sara Lynn Farwell ’18G, Becky Albert ’01, Katie Evenson ’99, and Giana Jarrah ’22.
Jarrah, founder of With Meraki Co., shared her experiences as an entrepreneur with the students, encouraging them to start their entrepreneurship journey early and driving home the message of persistence and reaching beyond their limits to discover what they are capable of.
“Your career can be intimidating,” she acknowledges. “But believing in yourself and/or your product will take you a very long way.”
Representing the social sciences at the final event on November 2, Martin Coleman ’94, Katie Johnston ’12, and Andrea Riguardi ’11 (pictured) were the featured panelists.
Riguardi manages digital research and analytics at ESPN and impressed upon the students that it’s okay to not know exactly what you want to do after graduation. Riguardi majored in psychology at Lehigh and now helps stakeholders by informing business decisions to grow ESPN’s streaming business through TV rating and digital research insights.
She hopes the students left the virtual panel understanding that they will keep growing and adapting post college, leveraging all of their personal and professional experiences. But she also pushed the value of networking events and platforms like Lehigh Connects, noting that networking played a crucial role in her career success.
“The job market is smaller than you realize once you find your career path, so it's important to make as many connections as you can. Mentorship has also helped me tremendously both as a mentor and a mentee, and I wouldn't be where I am today without the advice and guidance from experts in my industry.”
Riguardi, who has participated in past panels, finds value in not only engaging with the students, but also by hearing from the other alumni and seeing the excitement from the attendees.
“I expected the event to be about sharing my professional background, but I came away with a bigger appreciation for all I've done since Lehigh and a sense of pride in my experience. I felt a sense of community and gratitude from the students for my time, which made being on the panel 100% worth it.”