Alumni and Careers

What have you been up to since graduating from Bowdoin?

When I graduated from Bowdoin, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. My sister, who was in law school at the time, advised me to work at a law firm for a year before applying to law school, to see if I actually enjoyed it. After arriving at a big law firm in New York City as a paralegal, I quickly learned that I was deeply uninterested in being a lawyer. I did, however, enjoy the small amount of work I got to do on the business side of the firm.

At the time, it was the start-up craze of the 2010s, when there was a start-up for just about anything you could be interested in. I ended up joining a start-up called LOLA in the women’s health space as one of their first employees. There, I started their community department, focusing on engaging customers through events, content, and other tactics. After four years, I moved to another small start-up, also in the women’s health space, before joining a creative and social media agency. In that role, I was able to apply what I had learned across industries and work with different types of businesses. About a year ago, I joined a large communications agency called Orchestra, where I am now the head of influencer marketing. In this role, I help organizations and businesses of all kinds find influential voices that resonate with their target audiences.

Why gender, sexuality, and women’s studies?

My gender, sexuality, and women’s studies classes taught me to always ask why, which is critical to the work I do today. Why is that a trend? Why do people hold that belief? Why are people interested in that idea? Trying to find the root of beliefs and actions is central to a gender, sexuality, and women’s studies major, and that eternal questioning and challenging of the status quo has always excited me.

Are there any classes, professors, or experiences that had a lasting impact on you?

Professor Kristen Ghodsee and Professor Tricia Welsch changed my life and how I see the world. I actively use what they taught me every day. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class with them, you must. Additionally, I interned for two years in Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s office while at Bowdoin, which allowed me to step outside the Bowdoin bubble and understand what was happening in the world around me.

What advice would you give to current students or recent graduates interested in your field?

Do not be a passive consumer. If you are scrolling on TikTok and see something that has gone viral, ask yourself why. If you notice everyone following a trend, ask yourself why. When I interview entry-level candidates, I always look for people who see beyond what is being served to them and who try to understand culture and consumption on a deeper level.

What is your current job (position) and what are you currently up to?

Greetings from Quito! 

I'm Sam Caras, a class of 2015 graduate! After Bowdoin, I moved to Hyderabad, India, for a fellowship with the Aga Khan Development Network at the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad. My decision to go to India was definitely influenced by my classes at Bowdoin (especially my Activist Voices in India class with Sara Dickey!). I then ended up staying with the organization and moving to Mombasa, Kenya, to work as a college counselor for four years at the Academy there. During this time, I completed an M.Ed. in international counseling psychology at Lehigh University. Now I'm in my third year working at a school in Quito, Ecuador (Academia Cotopaxi).

I can definitely see connections between my GSWS studies and what I do. In Kenya, I was very active in supporting LGBT+ students on campus and trying to educate staff on ways to support students, as well as starting discussions about what the laws in Kenya did and did not say about gender identity and sexuality. I was not always met with positive comments, but I like to think I helped some of my students who were struggling in such a conservative environment.

Now, in Ecuador, in addition to being the college counselor, I'm also the inclusion lead for the department and am in charge of the diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on our campus. We started a staff inclusion team as well as a student inclusion club. Last year, our student club (in support of and alongside a trans student in the club) petitioned to turn some of the single-stall staff bathrooms into all-gender bathrooms, and we now have two all-gender student bathrooms on campus. We also held the first-ever "Inclusion Week," where we brought speakers to campus for a weeklong celebration of diversity and inclusion. Last year we had theme days around identity, gender, visible and invisible disabilities, and mental health. This year, we plan to add language, culture, and religion to the mix. And we will of course continue with gender and dive even deeper!

Our Inclusion Week was so powerful that we have been selected to present at the Inclusion Schools conference in February in Guayaquil and will be submitting a proposal to present at the AMISA conference in Guatemala in April. I loved my GSWS Classes at Bowdoin, and love that I can still bring what I learned into the work that I do!  

What is your current job (position)? And what are you currently up to?

After graduation, I have been teaching high school history for the most part back home in Oak Park, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. I teach courses in world history and women’s history, both of which are deeply influenced by my time as a GSWS major. My students analyze the origins of gender inequality in world history. My Women in History students get an introduction to the discipline of gender studies, with a particular focus on understanding and developing an intersectional feminist lens. They also assess the traditional periodization of women’s activism in the United States. I love seeing students become excited and engaged in the content and the work of history while developing reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. My Bowdoin education has no doubt bolstered my work in education over the past decade.

A couple of years ago I earned my M.Ed. from the University of Illinois, Chicago. I live in Oak Park with my husband (also a 2012 grad) and our puppy. We welcomed our first child in August, and he is such a joy.

I’m so happy to see how the department has expanded and evolved since my time there. I wish I could take all the new courses!

What is your current job (position) and what do you do specifically?

I'm currently in my first year at McGill medical school—does that seem like a world away from GWS? Far from it. Last year I worked at HIPS in Washington, DC, through a Global Health Corps fellowship. HIPS is a nonprofit that works with people of all genders, including transgender individuals, involved in sex work, drug use, or who are at the margins of access to care. Our aim was to provide compassionate harm-reduction services, advocacy, and community engagement that was respectful, nonjudgmental, and affirms and honors individual power and agency. The ideas about power and privilege, equality, and access so often discussed in GWS classes played a direct role in my capacity as a service provider and helped me shape my current role as a medical student at McGill. I lead "Sexperts," a peer education sex education initiative in high schools, and I use many of the critical-thinking skills when tasked with the goal of ensuring medicine is as accessible and gender-inclusive as possible.

What have you been up to since graduating from Bowdoin?

I knew that I wanted to work on women’s health issues when I graduated. I spent about four years at an organization in DC focused on maternal and child health, working on communications, events, and membership. Through that work, I learned a lot about the federal appropriations process, public health, and programs like Medicaid and the Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant. Wanting to delve deeper into the legal and policy side of the work, I decided to go to law school. After those three years, I landed a legal fellowship at the National Women’s Law Center (back in DC) on the Reproductive Rights and Health team. I stayed on that team for over twelve years, using the law to protect and expand access to contraception. About a year ago, I made the leap to philanthropy, working on similar issues but from a different angle. At the same time as these exciting career developments, I met and married my spouse, and we had two kids. When I’m not working, I’m enjoying nature, cheering on my kids’ baseball teams, trying new recipes, exercising, or listening to celebrity memoir audiobooks.

Why gender, sexuality, and women’s studies? (What drew you to the major/minor and how has it shaped your path?)

Initially, I didn’t think I’d take a GSWS class. I went to an all-girls high school and felt like my history and English classes had already addressed the question of “what were women’s roles?” When I registered for classes in my first semester at Bowdoin, I needed to fill one last spot, and Women’s Studies 101 was what fit in my schedule. Once I took that class, I realized GSWS courses were so much more than I had assumed. GSWS was a true liberal arts degree. I explored all sorts of subjects across the College, including economics, dance, film, religion, Russian, and sociology, all connected by a common thread and examined through the academic lens of feminist theory. That lens has never gone away. It shapes how I think about the law, the community I live in, the world, and how I show up with my friends and family.