Director of global operations, InterSystems

My interest in public health developed at Wheaton. As a junior, I had the opportunity to work with elderly Vietnamese immigrants in Dorchester, Mass., who lost their health benefits due to newly enacted health care reform. Most of them were tax-paying, legal immigrants who no longer qualified for benefits because they were not citizens. This moved me so much that I spent a year volunteering as a teacher to help them pass their citizenship test, so that they could qualify for basic benefits. [Read more...]

Certified clinical hypnotherapist

My mother was a hospital bacteriologist, so I grew up with a scientific understanding of medicine. I also learned to respect other cultures and was always curious about how shamanism worked.

When I came to Wheaton, I hoped to be an anthropologist who studies Native Americans, but I planned to get there through writing. It was the era of Native American nationalism and the Second Battle of Wounded Knee. I thought I would major in English and minor in anthropology. [Read more...]

Associate director of corporate quality assurance training
Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company

I wish I could say that I had a structured path or plan to my career in pharmaceuticals, but it was really sheer luck—and the skills I gained at Wheaton.

Even my major was something I fell into. I took “Anthropology 101” with Donna Kerner during my freshman year and was hooked. Nothing had ever interested me that much, and I knew then I had to pursue anthropology as a major.

In the second semester of my senior year, I was looking for a part-time job. (I had a light schedule and wanted to make some money in preparation for life after graduation.) Through the Filene Center, I found a part-time research job with Boston Scientific in Mansfield, Mass. That part-time job turned into a full-time job after graduation and eventually into a career in pharmaceuticals. [Read more...]