September 04, 2012

Onward and Upward

Young alumni use their liberal arts education to launch impressive careers.

Lewis & Clark students do more than survive in the “real world”—they thrive.

Our Center for Career and Community Engagement periodically highlights young alumni who have found a fulfilling job or are enrolled in an engaging graduate study program. Here, our recent graduates share how their liberal arts education prepared them for life beyond college.


Leah Scott-Zechlin ’11
German merchant risk investigation specialist, Amazon

My education is very much the base for my strength in both quantitative and qualitative areas, which has allowed me to be very versatile in the jobs I chose to apply for…. The chance to be involved in whatever one chooses at a small liberal arts school was so valuable to me. For instance, even though I was an economics major, I received so much support from professors in different departments who initially didn’t even know me but respected my interest. In foreign languages, Juan Carlos Toledano let me audit Spanish classes and Therese Augst provided opportunities for me to serve as a language assistant to maintain my German skills. 


Chris Scheffler ’10
Circuit edit technology development engineer, Intel Corporation

I believe my liberal arts education put the focus on me as a person, not just me as a scientist. A well-rounded education at school and off-campus taught me to be successful in work and my personal life. I might have my job because of my science background, but other skills such as writing, communicating with others, and public speaking are just as important.

 

Carolyn Worthge ’11
Faiths Act fellow, Tony Blair Faith Foundation/ONE Campaign

I’m finding the breadth of my education to be extremely valuable out here in “life beyond college.” It is very interesting to see how I can apply what I’ve learned from the variety of classes I took.  On the same day that I draw from something I learned in my sociology/anthropology global inequalities class, I am also thinking about what I learned about malaria in my nutrition class, or something from an introductory economics class. 


Eli Fabens ’11
Director of research, Oreninc

The liberal arts education at Lewis & Clark required me to think beyond just the most obvious answer and to try and dig deeper when finding solutions.  This has been critical in my current position because sometimes the first answer is not the best or most useful answer for our clients. 


Career and Community Engagement