Like generations of Elon graduates before them, members of the Class of 2019 are already making their mark in exciting careers.
By Keren Rivas ’04 and Roselee Papandrea Taylor
Just weeks, or in some cases even days, following their May graduation, members of the Class of 2019 were launching impressive careers or preparing for graduate school. It’s not unusual for Elon graduates to secure positions with companies like Credit Suisse, PepsiCo, NBC Sports and Vanguard before they even graduate. Or for them to spend their first year out of school teaching English or conducting research abroad through the Fulbright program, or continuing their educational journey by pursuing graduate degrees at institutions such as Columbia, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Yale.
It’s not surprising that for the second straight year Zippia, a leading career services website, named Elon University the No. 1 school in North Carolina and among the top-15 in the nation for job placement. The site based its 2019 rankings on data from the federal government’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which estimates 94.5 percent of Elon graduates were employed 10 years after they first enrolled. So where are members of the Class of 2019 going? We highlight some examples below.
Maya Eaglin
NBC News New York City
* Journalism major; leadership and African & African-American Studies minors
* Served as news director of Elon News Network her senior year
* Interned at Widmeyer Communications, WRC-NBC4 (Washington, D.C.), NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and NPR
* Part of Imagining the Internet journalism teams covering U.N. Internet Governance Forums in Mexico and Switzerland
* Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow
* Studied abroad through Semester at Sea
“The journalism program, with state-of-the-art facilities, prepared me for the professional world. I began working with ENN my first week on campus, and the alumni network has been so helpful. As a news director, I know my experiences at Elon have helped in my employment.”
Nick Ciolkowski
Pursuing a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley
* Biochemistry major
* Lumen Scholar
* Member of Elon’s men’s cross-country team and four-time All-CAA runner
“I had multiple internships, including at microbiology and polymer chemistry labs, which helped me find my interests and choose my career path. I also conducted research as part of my Lumen Prize. This was one of the first times I was challenged to think creatively and critically as a scientist and was fundamental to my career choice. My dream is to one day work in higher education.”
Asher Thompson
Cloud sales academy resident at Google in Austin, Texas
* Marketing and business management major, human resources concentration
* Business Fellow
* Studied abroad in Chile and Argentina
* Interned at Imerys S.A. for two summers, Walt Disney World and SAS
“Going into my senior year, I used Elon’s alumni network on LinkedIn to land a role in a division led by a phenomenal alumna at SAS, a large tech company in North Carolina. That experience showed me that sales was the right path for me and that the tech industry, after several summers in education and mining, was the one that made me most excited to come to work each day.”
Courtney Kobos
Teaching English in the Czech Republic as part of a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship Fellowship
* English with teacher licensure major
* Elon Teaching Fellow and Leadership Prize recipient, conducting research under the guidance of Assistant Professor of English Jennifer Zinchuk
* Interned at an International Leadership Academy in Texas, completed her Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification in Ecuador through World-Teach and completed a year-long teaching practicum at the Alamance-Burlington Early Middle College
* Studied abroad in England
“All four years of college, professors and staff at Elon started the conversation about potential postgraduate pathways and made it a normalized topic of conversation. Elon graduates truly have the world open to them. I have built a professional learning community that is like family to me. Thanks to Elon, I will influence the lives of hundreds as an educator.”
David Duncan
Pursuing a law degree at Duke University School of Law
* Psychology major; Spanish and leadership studies minor
* Isabella Cannon Leadership
* Fellow and Leadership
* Prize recipient, conducting research under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Human Service Studies Carmen Monico
* Participated in Study USA in Alabama and Georgia
* Interned in the Union County public defender’s office
* Selected to participate in Duke Law School’s inaugural Pre-Law Fellowship
“I had an internship at my local public defender’s office the summer after my first year at Elon. That experience was important because it helped me shift my focus and guided my career path as a result. My dream is to practice immigration law in the state of North Carolina with the goal of eventually becoming an immigration judge.”
Dora Muratovic
Auditor at Goldman Sachs in New York City
* Accounting major; economics and information science minor
* Business Fellow
* Interned at Elon Center for Organizational Analytics and Goldman Sachs
* Studied abroad in Chile, Argentina and England
“At Elon, I’ve had people who supported me in my own goals, encouraged me to try new things and taught me the importance of staying true to my values. Thanks to the support through the Student Professional Development Center, I was able to connect with career counselors at the Porter Family Professional Development Center who helped me prepare for my interviews.”
Josh Cadorette
Business technology analyst at Deloitte in Virginia
* Economic consulting major; political science and leadership studies minor
* Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow and Stanford University’s Hasso Plattnew Institute of Design’s Innovation Fellow
* Interned at Quantum Strategies in Pennsylvania and studied and completed an internship at PwC in Shanghai his junior year
* Worked as challenge course facilitator at Mountain Sky Guest Ranch in Montana
“The Love School of Business Porter Family Professional Development Center staff helped me practice both my case and one-on-one behavioral interview skills. Their feedback and guidance during these sessions made me a more confident and prepared candidate. I will remember the relationships that I developed with faculty, staff and peers who have continually encouraged me to be intellectually curious.”
Joyce Choi
Assistant at William Morris Endeavor in Beverly Hills, California
* Cinema and television arts major
* Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow
* Interned at Inkling Entertainment and Boston Children’s Hospital twice, as well as at FilmNation Entertainment, Epiphany Story Lab, the Limits of My World Documentary and William Morris Endeavor
* Participated in Elon in LA and the Sundance Film Festival Experience programs
* Founded Women of the Elon Entertainment Empire
“I had eight internships before I graduated at various production companies and at Boston Children’s Hospital’s marketing department. These experiences with different roles within media certainly opened doors. I did Elon in LA sophomore year and Sundance my senior year. I loved both experiences so much and was able to grow in my career through them.”