Raving about Their Exes

Meg Schmitt ’15 backpacked with Joy Tamayose ’88, a wildlife biologist on Maui, to the crater at the center of Haleakala National Park during her spring break externship. 

“It far exceeded my expectations,” Schmitt told 52 fellow students at an extern debriefing session organized, like the three-to-five-day job-shadowings themselves, by the College’s Career Development Office (CDO). Superlatives flew as the mostly first- and second-year students described mediating corporate disputes in Philadelphia, teaching bilingual classes in New Mexico, and consulting in Shanghai, to name just a few experiences. 

“She was so willing to share her experiences! The conversations we had were a highlight,” Paulina Campbell ’16 said about her host, Ali Borger-Germann ’99, an English teacher in Iowa City, Iowa.

“I could not have asked for a more interesting and wonderful family to stay with!” said Andrea Semlow ’16, who joined evolutionary biologist Erin Marie Williams ’00 at George Washington University and hosts Kenneth “J-C” Labowitz ’71 and his wife Patti Rounsevell ’71. “I learned so much about life … and a different generation of Grinnellians.”

Students learned alumni are doing incredible work and are eager to mentor students. “Before I even left,” said Sarah Henderson ’16, “I’d already applied for a summer internship and my host had written me a recommendation!”

Alumni hosts were equally enthusiastic. “Hosting a student is a lot of fun!” said Carter Newton ’77, owner and publisher of The Galena Gazette in Illinois. “I believe this type of experience is very important for young people trying to decide upon both their career and path in life.”

These outcomes delighted Abby Trout, Grinnell’s assistant director of career development, who coordinates the program. Last year, externships received, “such an overwhelmingly positive response from students and alumni that we doubled participation this year,” she says.

Externships — along with alumni-enriched courses on campus and alumni-hosted industry tours in cities around the country — are part of the College’s plan to involve more alumni in teaching and mentoring roles.

The externships help students network, explore potential career paths, and think about what jobs might fulfill them and why. “Ultimately,” Trout says, “we hope externships help students discover ways to live and work with meaning and purpose.”