2019 Undergraduate Alumni Career Roundtable

The third annual Undergraduate Alumni Career Roundtable took place on October 30th. The roundtable was inspired by the question that History majors hear at some point or another from family members and friends: “What are you going to do with a degree in History?” Because there isn’t necessarily a clear path out of the History major like there is for more vocational majors, that question can be a little scary. The History Department has responded to these concerns by spending more time communicating to our majors that History matters. The Career Roundtable is part of that initiative. Every fall, the department invites alumni representing a range of career pathways to tell students how their History degrees prepared them for post-graduation. 

Fr. Tom Regan, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (and a History major), kicked off this year's event with a warm welcome to our speakers. Jon Rosenfield, Associate Director for Advising and Career Education at the Career Center, also attended and fielded questions from students. The speakers this fall were: Matthew Novaria (c/o 2011) attorney at Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick, & Dym — a full-service law firm in Chicago that focuses on civil rights and social justice advocacy. Elizabeth Nolan (2013) researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). Brian Collier, Ph.D. (1995) Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Neil Boyer (1996) Senior Sales Engineer for Verizon Connect. Nikki Jarvis (2015) Strategy Consultant at EduFluent, a company she founded in 2015.

All the alumni reiterated the importance of their History degrees in teaching them how to learn, synthesize large amounts of information, use evidence to support conclusions as well as strong and clear writing skills! As Nikki Jarvis relayed to the students, "History majors are ALL self-starters! History majors are curious, they ask questions, they understand that things aren’t “always” a certain way and therefore don’t have to be."

We appreciate all the alumni and students who made this year's Career Roundtable a success! We are looking forward to next fall and continuing to learn that there is nothing you can't do with a History degree!