Cornelia “Connie” Butler ’84, Rena Patel ’19, and Shalina Omar ’15
By Kendra Pintor
Scripps College, known for its rigorous academics and supportive community, has long been a launchpad into successful and impactful careers. Following the journeys of three remarkable alums, it is clear how their undergraduate education at Scripps provided a solid foundation for their professional achievements and personal growth, proving to be a valuable investment in their futures.
Shalina Omar ’15: Bridging Linguistics and Data Science
Shalina Omar’s career trajectory showcases the profound impact of a Scripps education on her professional and academic pursuits. As a managing consultant and data scientist at Guidehouse, a consulting firm, Omar’s path began with her fascination for linguistics and cognitive science.
“At Scripps, I fell in love with linguistics through sociolinguistics—the intersection between the studies of language, society, and culture,” says Omar. This passion led her to pursue advanced degrees in sociolinguistics and analytics, fields that have complemented each other in her career.
Omar’s time at Scripps was marked by a wide variety of influential coursework and experiences across The Claremont Colleges, such as her introductory linguistics course at Pitzer College with Dr. Carmen Fought.
This class sparked her academic interest, leading her to complete an entire major in linguistics in just three semesters. Her education at Scripps fostered critical thinking focused on human experience, equity, and justice—values that continue to influence her professional choices. Her Fulbright Fellowship in Indonesia further contributed to her personal and professional development.
“It taught me a lot more about independence, self-advocacy, adventure, and rolling with the punches,” Omar explains. The skills she gained from this experience, along with her background in sociolinguistics, have given her unique perspectives in her current role, where she addresses data biases and advocates for equitable practices in analytics.
Omar’s story exemplifies how a Scripps education can prepare graduates for diverse and evolving career paths. Her advice to current students pursuing degrees in language and science? Figure out what you like.
“Sometimes the connection is not about the linguistic content itself,” she says, “but the techniques used in linguistic analysis that may be similar to techniques in data science.”
Rena Patel ’19: From Playwriting to Entertainment Law
Rena Patel’s multifaceted career highlights the diverse opportunities a liberal arts education at Scripps can offer. She graduated in 2019 with a degree in English and a concentration in creative writing, a background that has significantly influenced her career as a playwright and her studies in law.
“I actually started writing Pyar aur Coffee during my junior year at Scripps,” says Patel of her sold-out play which debuted this June at Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s New Works Festival. The Bollywood-inspired romantic comedy draws heavily from her experiences in Claremont and the vibrant community she observed at local coffee shops. “The camaraderie between the baristas and their patrons was something I loved to observe.”
Classes in playwriting at Pomona College and the Advanced Fiction Writing Workshop at Scripps also played crucial roles in developing her writing skills. “The way we learned how to give constructive commentary and notes on other people’s writing was instrumental to how I approach my own process,” she says.
Currently balancing her studies at Loyola Law School with her role as an executive assistant at Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe, Patel finds that her legal education complements her creative pursuits. “Studying law has directly influenced how I pursue my projects. I’m much more aware of the intricacies of what it takes to pull something as massive as a film, TV show, or even a play, together,” she notes.
Patel’s long-term goals include becoming a show-runner and producer, merging her passions for storytelling and law. “Being a producer involves knowing how to tell a good story and how to work through all the business and legal steps to make it happen. To me, it’s a perfect union between my creative side and my analytical side,” she says.
Connie Butler ’84: Leading with Art and Humanities
Cornelia “Connie” Butler, the newly appointed director of MoMA PS1 in New York, credits her Scripps education for laying the groundwork for her illustrious career in the art world. Majoring in art with minors in dance and literature, she found her eventual focus through a transformative discovery of art history during her junior year. This interdisciplinary approach provided her with a broad and rich perspective.
“The small class sizes and close faculty relationships at Scripps gave me confidence and a strong voice for my early professional experiences,” she notes. This confidence was invaluable in her roles at the Des Moines Art Center, Artists Space, and her humanities internship program at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles where she combined academic coursework with hands-on work.
“This experience provided me with significant responsibility and a deeper understanding of museum institutions and curatorial work, particularly in how contemporary art museums can directly support artists,” Butler reflects.
As she leads MoMA PS1, Butler sees her educational background and career experiences as integral to shaping her curatorial vision. Her commitment to producing knowledge and engaging with contemporary art and cultural sectors is deeply rooted in her education at Scripps.
“Continuing this work, especially now when cultural voices face challenges in a divided and conservative climate, is a profound honor and an exciting challenge,” says Butler. “At PS1, we create exhibitions, programs, and engage with the community, while also contributing to contemporary art discourse and scholarship—coming to MoMA PS1 and assuming a leadership role feels like a full circle moment for me, tracing back to my education at Scripps, my art history training, and my early experiences in dance, all of which inform my work at PS1.”