Trinity Days Career Exploration Trek: Washington D.C.

CAROLINE FEENEY ’17

STAFF WRITER

The Career Development Center organized a trip to Washington, DC over Trinity Days that gave students the opportunity to meet with alumni working in public policy and government. The Career Development Center co-sponsored this Trek with the Washingotn, DC chapter of the Trinity Women’s Leadership Council. A similar trek also happened over Trinity Days to New York City focusing on the real estate industry.

The group left Hartford by train on Sunday afternoon in order to be well rested for the big Monday we had in front of us. On Monday morning we made our way using the metro to The Voice of America office to meet Amy Katz ‘79 who is the Senior Executive Producer for VOA. Amy and some of her colleagues showed us around the newsroom and spoke to us about her job, her time at Trinity, and how she made it to where she is.

Next, we met with Eleanor Kerr ’81 P’13 who is the Director of Government Affairs – Healthcare at Siemens and Youlan Xiu ’15 who was a Government Affairs Associate at Siemens. The two explained to the group more about what they do as lobbyists, what they love about their job, and described the values that Trinity gave them and how they transfer to their jobs now.

We then went to Georgetown Law School for a panel including Meghan Boone ’06, Mara Giorgio ‘06, Andrew Baird ‘06, and Danielle Rowan ‘08. These alum told us how Trinity prepared them for law school, gave us some advice on how to approach going to law school, and the variety of things that you can do with a law degree.

From there, we ended our day at Ogilvy PR with alum Danae Goldberg ’09. Danae put together a presentation to paint a picture of the different types of clients a public relations agency can have. Danae also gathered a panel of co-workers who described how the things learned in undergrad could transfer into working at Ogilvy. We finished off the night with a networking reception with DC-area alumni hosted by Danae Goldberg and Jennifer Blum ‘88.

On Tuesday, we began our day at the Capitol with Molly McDonnell ’11 who represents Congressman Leonard Lance and with Gabe Maletta ’14. They both gave us some recent graduate advice on working on the Hill and navigating some of the intricacies of Washington. We were then able to tour the capitol building, a first for many members of the group.

We ended the trip with Sarah Amick ’01 at The Rubber Manufacturers Association where we learned more about lobbying from a different perspective. After a whirlwind of a trip, the group boarded our train back to Hartford on Tuesday afternoon to make it back for classes on Wednesday.

While the purpose of the trip was to meet and learn form alumni, we also had the chance to explore the city that many of us see ourselves living in the future, be it over a summer or after graduation. I had a great time getting to know some of my classmates interested in some of the same things as me on a more professional level. I found that the students on the trip were all very motivated and knowledgeable. The students were described by Jett McAlister, Associate Director at the CDC and advisor for the Tripod, as some of the “most engaged students he has ever seen on a career exploration trek.” Overall, this was a great opportunity for both the underclassmen and upperclassmen on the trip to see some of the ins and outs of working in law or for the government, and to network with a few of our very involved alumni.