Kristen McGuire '08
BA: Political Science/History; International Studies minor.
Program Officer, Institute for International Education After graduating, I was unemployed for about 4 months (and had sent about 30-40 resumes) before I took a part time job at a doctor's office. After 5 months there, a friend of mine was hired as an admissions counselor at a university close to home, and he suggested that I apply for another opening based on my experience in student leadership and involvement as well as in the admissions office at QU. I did not get an interview where he was hired, but the suggestion prompted me to search for similar opportunities at other universities. In January of 2009, I was hired as Assistant Dean of Admission at Hofstra University. While I was working at the doctor's office, I also had applied to graduate programs in International Relations and Communications. I had begun to receive admission decisions not long after I began my position at Hofstra. I was planning to defer or apply again after a few years, but I received an excellent assistantship offer, and after a few months in my position, I already knew the position was not for me. I began grad school in Fall of 2009 at Boston University, and I received my MA in International Relations & International Communication in May 2011. While at BU, I had the opportunity to study in London for a summer, and as part of this program I interned at a global public affairs firm. My post-graduation objective was to land a job in global communications or international public affairs. Throughout my program, I held a graduate research assistantship and worked part time at a center on campus that housed the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations, the BU Center for the Study of Asia and the American Institute for Afghanistan Studies. In my final semester, when I was only writing my master's paper, I worked at the centers, continued my Graduate Assistant position, had an internship at a small, local public relations firm and worked as writing tutor in the School of Communication's writing center. Again, after graduation, I was unemployed for about 3 months. I accepted a temporary position at a public relations firm in late August. While there, I realized that a career in communications was not for me. I began looking for new positions - predominantly focused on international exchange and international education. Earlier, I was almost certain I would never go back into higher education. I realized that the position that I held at Hofstra, which I had thought was completely irrelevant to my career path, actually made me quite qualified for positions that I was very interested in. I was offered a position as a program officer in the university placement services division at the Institute of International Education in October 2011, and I have been there since. The position is a perfect combination of all of the experiences that I have had. My primary role is to place international graduate students from across the globe in graduate programs, or visiting researcher affiliations, at universities across the US. After a year in my position, I was able to switch from my original caseload of Economics & Psychology to International Relations and Political Science. I see myself growing with IIE and continuing to take on new opportunities. It is an exciting time in international education, and there is a huge push for study abroad (from the US and also coming in). At Quinnipiac, I became a confident researcher and public speaker. Both of my majors required that I write and orally defend my theses, and having had the experience doing so during my undergraduate career prepared me well for two years of graduate-level research work. During my graduate program, I also had to write and defend a master's thesis, and was confident in my ability to do so having had the practice of researching and writing significant research papers at Quinnipiac. My BA thesis defenses were not my first major public speaking experiences, though they were the first situations in which my comments were challenged or questioned. Through the oral defenses, I built a level of confidence in my ability to speak about something that I am passionate about and I shed a great deal of the fear that I had for standing in front of a room. I link these experiences with my ultimate public speaking event the same year – I was the undergraduate commencement speaker at my graduation! In my professional career, I continue to seek opportunities to speak and present during team week events and at regional & national professional conferences. My advice is to take advantage of every opportunity! It's OK to take courses just because they are interesting, and that is one of the major benefits of majoring in Political Science, since there are so many diverse offerings. Get involved in extracurricular activities, and do not forget that everything can shape your future. Not everyone who majors in Political Science wants to become a teacher or go to law school - there are so many paths to choose from, and sometimes the experiences that seem to be irrelevant can play a major role in your career path. I selected my degree programs because it was important to me to study something that I truly enjoyed. I have the same belief about every experience that I had during college, graduate school and in my professional life. |