Scripps Career Planning & Resources reports that at least 15 students from the class of 2008 have already received job offers or been accepted into graduate schools as of March 1. Many of the students headed to the workplace were offered positions before the start of spring semester. For those applying to graduate school, acceptances continue to roll in.
As in years past, many Scripps seniors have chosen to join Teach For America, which aims to close the educational achievement gap by training recent college graduates to teach and then placing them into underachieving schools in traditionally low-income areas. Eight seniors have already committed to spending the next two years teaching across the country: Megan Downing in Denver; Sophia Herron in Houston; Laurel Horn in Washington, D.C.; Casie Hynes and Rachael Warecki in Los Angeles; Sarah Kavrell in the Bay Area; Stephanie Mota in Phoenix; and Megan Paulson in Miami.
“Teach For America will provide me with the opportunity to help students succeed,” said Paulson. “As a corps member, I will be able to positively impact students’ lives and strive to reach a more just, nationwide goal. In joining Teach For America, I will become part of an exciting and inspiring movement, one that is first and foremost dedicated to mending the inexcusable achievement gap in this country.”
Libby Coon’s post-Scripps plans build on her prior involvement with community service programs in Latin America. Coon will work for two and a half months this summer as a project supervisor for Amigos de las Americas, a program that sends volunteers to Latin America to work on health, education, and environmental projects. Coon will be responsible for groups of volunteers who will live with host families in rural communities in Paraguay. Each pair of volunteers will complete community-based initiatives and run day camps for children that will focus on health and the environment.
While in high school, Coon went to Nicaragua as a volunteer with Amigos de las Americas and she says the experience sparked her decision to be a Latin American studies major. “I am excited to have the opportunity to travel in Latin America and have it all paid for,” said Coon of her upcoming work. “I think it’s the perfect post-graduation opportunity.”
Several seniors have also received offers from finance-related companies. Emily Hu received an offer for an analyst position at the Prudential Capital Group, while Stacy Klein will work as a sales and trading analyst at JP Morgan and Valerie Whiteacre will be an associate analyst at the Monitor Group. Allison Fitch received an offer from Cambridge Associates. Fitch, Hu, and Klein are all economics majors; Whiteacre self-designed her major in philosophical studies in art history.
Still other seniors have begun to receive acceptances from graduate schools. Claire Knezevic, an organic chemistry major, has already been accepted into several prestigious PhD programs at Stanford, MIT, Caltech, University of Illinois, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ann Harvey, an economics and politics major, received acceptances from four law schools: University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, University of San Diego, and Loyola Law School. Harvey is particularly interested in intellectual property law and aspires to work for a technology company in the future.