After Kenyon

What do International Studies graduates do? Like most people who graduate with degrees from liberal arts colleges, Kenyon's International Studies majors have many different occupations, some of them having nothing to do with global affairs. But many are involved in jobs that require living abroad, traveling to other countries, or interacting with people from other parts of the world.

At least five IS alumni are employed by the Department of State, four of them serving as Foreign Service officers. Many IS majors eventually go to graduate school and take professional degrees. The most common degrees among our alumni are in law (JD), international affairs (various master's degrees in international affairs, studies, relations, diplomacy, etc.), public policy (MPP), business administration (MBA), and public health (MPH). Because they tend to have a hands-on, practical orientation, very few IS majors have studied for the Ph.D. Several IS alumni are language teachers in secondary schools. Our alumni include at least two medical doctors, a dentist, and a couple of veterinarians.

Here are some specific examples of career paths of recent graduates:

Sarah Carter '09: social work graduate student pursuing a certificate in global public health at the University of Washington in Seattle

Tory Grubbs '09: received a US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship in Izmir, Turkey

Schrochis Karki '09: pursuing a master's degree in development studies at Oxford University

Hannah Szlyk '09: working towards a master's degree in social work at Columbia University

Karen Thompson '09: Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa

Jian Lu '08: assistant to the vice president and the director of the governance studies program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

Mike W. Frick '08: graduate student, Harvard University

Jesse M. Lewin '07: press assistant at the White House

David B. Herrero '07: legislative aide for U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein

Ted Samuel '05: Fulbright Fellowship recipient, conducted research on a transgender community in Tamil Nadu, India; in 2007, joined the Advocacy Project in Nepal, working with journalists who cover communities that have suffered discrimination

Sam Polk '04:worked for the U.S. Treasury for three years, seeking to find routes through which international terrorist organizations launder money; won a Luce Scholarship and spent a year in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies

Kristin Petri Barnwell '98: children's legal services, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network; J.D., University of Colorado

Julie Gluck Cutter '91: foreign service officer; M.A. in international relations, University of Chicago

Rohini Pragasam '90: spokeswoman for the New York subsidiary of Swiss bank USB AG