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Students Explore Careers by Shadowing Alumni

Biology-CS major Amy Rose Lazarte ’19 shadowed NASA systems engineer Arwen Davé ’89 to learn more about careers in science and engineering.

Reed students are finding new opportunities to explore careers before they graduate, thanks to an initiative at the Center for Life Beyond Reed.

More than 100 Reedies participated in the college’s Winter Shadows program, which pairs students with alumni, parents, and friends of the college who work in their field of interest. The students spent anywhere from two to 10 days at the jobsite getting their hands dirty and learning more about everything from particle physics to photojournalism.

Biology/CS major Amy Rose Lazarte ’19 spent three days shadowing Arwen Davé ’89, a mechanical/systems engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain Park, California. Amy Rose explored a botany lab where biologists see how plants will react to zero gravity and low light and a robotics lab where Arwen is working on the next Mars rover.

Class of ’14 and ’15: Where Are They Now?

What do you do with a degree from Reed?

Scattered to the wind, the Reed classes of ’14 and ’15 are beginning to take root in their careers, according to a “first destination” survey conducted by the Center for Life Beyond Reed.

Six months after commencement, 90% of the grads of both 2014 and 2015 reported having found successful first destinations: 65% held full-time jobs; 9% held part-time jobs; and 11% were in grad school. The remaining 10% were looking for work.

Making a Career out of Creativity

This year’s Working Weekend featured an in-depth workshop on Arts and Beauty in the World for students interested in pursuing careers in the creative field.

The two-dozen students in attendance got a chance to spend time with a dynamic group of Reed alumni:

conservator Jim Coddington ’74;

Students Chart Careers at Working Weekend

Cartoonist and illustrator Lucy Bellwood ’12 shares insights and advice at Reed's Working Weekend. Mandy Heaton

Some 150 energetic students seized the chance to map out potential careers at Reed's annual Working Weekend, presented by the Center for Life Beyond Reed on February 5-6. Events included six workshops, each dedicated to a Community of Purpose, and a Career Fayre at which 65 students met with potential employers.

The communities of purpose were devised to help students whose interests might not dovetail exactly with traditional occupational categories such as engineering, law, or medicine. Instead, the communities focus on larger themes, such as Global Healthcare and the Cure of Illness and Human Potential, Education, and Success, which spans careers from teaching to psychology research to coaching.

Employers represented at the Career Fayre included the City of Portland, Multnomah County Health Department, Peace Corps, Planned Parenthood, RVK Investment Consulting Services, and Scribe-X Northwest.

Class of 2014 Begins Quest for World Domination

Snapshot of the class of 2014 six months after graduation, based on a study by the Center for Life Beyond Reed. The knowledge rate for the survey is 85%; in other words, the destinations of 15% of the class remain unknown.

Like wildflower seeds on the wind, the class of 2014 has dispersed to the far reaches of the globe in search of work and opportunity.

According to a survey conducted by the Center for Life Beyond Reed (CLBR) six months after graduation, of those who responded that finding a job was their primary destination, 76% had found full-time or part-time employment, 10% were in grad school, and 4% were doing service work such as AmeriCorps.

Their activities span everything from monitoring human rights in Mexico, to working in the district attorney’s office in Portland, to promoting sustainable textiles in Tibet. More than 30 are doing research of one kind or another and about two dozen are teaching or tutoring.

Working Weekend Connects Seekers with Knowers

Data scientists Ross Donaldson '06, Allison Morgan '14, and Melissa Lewis '13 share career advice with Reed students at Working Weekend.

Building a career is dependent on both what you know and whom you know, as Reed’s fourth annual Working Weekend proved. The event, organized by the Center for Life Beyond Reed, attracted a record 336 students and young alumni who came to network with more experienced alumni and gain job-seeking skills.

Reed alumni created Working Weekend three years ago to help students transition from college to career. The two-day event brings alumni panelists from around the country to mentor students, answer questions and provide a window on the world of careers such as banking, law, medicine, technology, music, writing, and food.

The campus buzzed with notable alumni, including:

Combating Sexism in STEM

Reed students. Reed College students. STEM. Working Weekend.

Reed students attended a panel on "Women in STEM" at Working Weekend ’14.

As snow fell outside, Reedies braved the cold to take part in “Women in STEM,” a panel discussion for students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, on Saturday.

The session was part of Reed’s 2014 Working Weekend, an event hosted by the Center for Life Beyond Reed to help students learn about career paths and strategies from Reed alumni.

Attendees might have anticipated that a major theme in the discussion would be the difficulties of being female in the male-dominated STEM world, but Janet Gunzner-Toste ’93 set the tone by saying, “I didn’t know there were gender issues in science. I just plowed ahead and enjoyed it.”