Alumni and Careers

How has your Bowdoin education and experience helped you and informed the work that you do?

The ability to think critically and write quickly is essential for good script coverage. I honed those skills at Bowdoin, thanks to all of those essay assignments! The spirit of the Common Good will definitely guide my career in entertainment. I want to create series that are both entertaining and socially responsible.

Has studying Sociology impacted your perspective?

Sociology gave me permission to be both curious and critical about all aspects of life. I love how it encourages big picture thinking and analysis of everything we usually take for granted. Sociology is how I found my way back into creative writing and validated that even entertainment can deeply impact how society works. Sociology is a special lens that forces me to consider all sides of every issue and go beyond knee-jerk judgments. The sociological imagination is a great gateway to storytelling – it’s all about getting to the root of who we are and why.

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

Researching, writing, and producing a performance of my first full-length play with help from Bowdoin students and faculty. And sleeping in the President’s office as a first-year to protest for divestment!

Do you have any advice for current student at Bowdoin?

Don’t be afraid to try things and don’t be afraid to quit things. Say yes to as many opportunities as possible, but be patient with yourself. You might want to do something that the College does not offer, which can be frustrating. But there are always resources available for you to use to do that thing yourself, and plenty of people willing to support / guide you. Follow your passions fully while you are in a small, nurturing space. Go abroad! Join a new club! Perform! Protest! Whatever! Define your own comfort zone and constantly push the boundaries.

 

What is your occupation? What is your current job (roles and responsibilities)?

I am a PhD student in the Sociology program at Duke University. Prior to starting graduate school I was a paralegal for a law firm in Massachusetts that specialized in family- and business-based immigration law. My role was to assist the family-based side of the practice and work directly with foreign nationals tying to achieve lawful status and make a life for themselves in the United States. I hope to use this experience to inform my own research and future work.

How has your Bowdoin education and experience helped you and informed the work that you do?

At Bowdoin, I never felt like I was learning just for the sake of learning, and my classes and my work always felt purposeful and related to real-world issues. I feel that this really laid the groundwork for my path to graduate school, and I hope to take this same approach to the work that I am doing and hope to do in the future, especially around issues of race, identity, and belonging.

Has studying Sociology and Anthropology impacted your perspective (personally, professionally, or other)? If so, how?

Studying Sociology has made me more aware of the things going on around me, and opened my eyes to a lot of issues that are sometimes taken for granted. My research has also taught me that there's always more than one way to look at a problem, and to keep an open mind when thinking about a particular issue or research question because sometimes what we think is going on or what we perceive from the outside doesn't reflect what is actually happening. Personally, what I like most about the field is that it gives me the tools to address questions that I had already been asking my whole life, but it allows me to do so while drawing from a variety of perspectives and approaches to get a fuller picture.

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

Two things that stand out to me from my time at Bowdoin are my advisors, who went above and beyond for four years to work with me, challenge me, and push me to be a better student and sociologist, and my theory class with Dr. Theo Greene, which was the academic catalyst that pushed me toward doing independent research and considering graduate school more seriously.

Do you have any advice for current student at Bowdoin?

Make the most of your time at Bowdoin and don't be afraid to do things that challenge you!

How has your Bowdoin education and experience helped you and informed the work that you do?

Studying sociology at Bowdoin gave me a unique set of skills that has noticeably set me apart from most who work in finance and advertising. Most notably, majoring in sociology equipped me with the skills necessary to comfortably situate particular complex problems within a larger structural framework of understanding and feel comfortable handling large sets of data. Both frequently come in handy in marketing. It also goes without saying that learning how to effectively write about people's actions and behaviors with accuracy and nuance is a valuable asset in analyzing markets and purchasing behaviors.

Has studying Sociology and Anthropology impacted your perspective (personally, professionally, or other)? If so, how?

Sociology has immeasurably impacted how I view and experience the world by elucidating overarching social structures that are active everywhere, constantly influencing the lives of myself and others. Moreover, sociology has also given me an especially valuable, macroscopic perspective that has proven useful in finding my place in the world post-Bowdoin.

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

I have many fond memories of Professor Greene's course on the classics of social theory. What I appreciate the most about this class is that I was exposed to a wide breadth of influential social theory that has irreversibly changed my worldview and incessantly informs how I interpret current events. The course was also especially challenging at times, which made me a more skilled social thinker.

Do you have any advice for current student at Bowdoin?

The most significant general advice that I can give to a student of sociology at Bowdoin is to embrace your sociological imagination and continue to cultivate it inside and outside of the classroom. Possessing an attuned sociological imagination will prove useful in many unexpected places and provide you with an incredibly valuable and rewarding way of seeing and experiencing the world. Also, start learning how to network successfully as early as possible.

How has your Bowdoin education and experience helped you and informed the work that you do?

Bowdoin helped me improve the way I write, analyze social issues and think critically about research and the way society works.

Has studying Sociology and Anthropology impacted your perspective (personally, professionally, or other)? If so, how?

Yes! Studying sociology impacted my personal life because it helped me put into word the issues that I had seen and experienced in my life, but didn´t know how to explain. Professionally I feel I learned how to be much more critical about the way society is organized, which has been helpful in every project I have worked in and job I’ve had.

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

Do you have any advice for current student at Bowdoin?

Bowdoin has a huge amount of resources, use them to make change and take time to relax when you start feeling overwhelmed by life in the bubble.