The more than 300 undergraduate members of the Class of 2017 and the graduating members of Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research will receive their degrees at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 13. Convocation is scheduled for Friday, May 12.
Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa will deliver the Commencement address.
For complete details and information about the weekend’s events, go to the Convocation and Commencement homepage.
Here’s a glimpse of what some of the members of the Class of 2017 will be doing after they graduate:
Many graduates plan to stay in the Philadelphia area. Psychology major Ashley Macina will be attending a post-baccalaureate pre-med program at Jefferson University. Growth and structure of cities major Juelun Wei will spend the summer as a research assistant for Term Professor in Growth and Structure of Cities Jeffrey Cohen, researching houses in Philadelphia. Allegra Armstrong, who is graduating with an independent major in creative writing, will work as a lifeguard in Center City while submitting her novel and short stories to agents and publishers. Computer science major Hanna Fields will work as a software engineer in King of Prussia at CardConnect. Biology major Emma Tunstall is in Bryn Mawr’s 4+1 Partnership in Bioethics with the University of Pennsylvania, so she will spend the next year completing her master’s of bioethics at Penn. Also attending graduate school at Penn is Yixuan Wang, a political science major and philosophy minor. English major Emma Wells will spend the month of June studying clown at Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training. In July and August, she will work at Educational Testing Service writing test material for the TOEFL exam. Political science major Maura Fitzpatrick will be the Assistant Alumni Engagement Director at LEADERSHIP Philadelphia. History of art major Yue Xiu will spend the summer interning at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the South Asian Art Department, and she plans to move to New York City in the fall. Fellow history of art major Margaret Hurley will be working as an analyst at J.P. Morgan in Philadelphia.
Just south of Philadelphia, psychology major Emma Levin will be attending graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park to pursue her M.S. in couple and family therapy. Also journeying south on the East Coast is Mimi E. Gordor, who majored in English with a minor in Africana studies. Mimi will be working as the conference and program coordinator for the Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Fine arts major Jennifer Mendez Alba will be returning to her hometown of Miami to work as an interior design associate for Asmayda Furniture Group, a hospitality design consulting company with clients in the U.S. and Latin America. She will also be an artist at the Bakehouse Art Complex in the Wynwood Arts District.
Moving to the nation’s capital is Maya Ulin-O'Keefe, who double majored in history and sociology. Beginning a yearlong fellowship with Friends Committee on National Legislation as part of their Peacebuilding program, Maya will work to lobby Congress on a variety of international human rights issues. Samantha Heyrich, who double majored in political science at Haverford and anthropology at Bryn Mawr, will also move to D.C. to work in the United States Senate. She will concurrently pursue her master’s in political management at The George Washington University. Joining Samantha at George Washington is biology major Erin Bonner, who will be pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical science with a concentration in neuroscience.
Ellen Cohn, who will graduate with a major in sociology and an independent major in theater and education policy, is headed to the Big Apple to study acting at the Stella Adler summer conservatory, with plans to afterwards move back to the Philadelphia area. Chemistry major Muhui Chen is looking forward to exploring the beauty industry by joining Estée Lauder Companies in its Research and Development Presidential Associate Program on Long Island. Jane Rossman will be in Brooklyn working for Rebuilding Together NYC, a a nonprofit that focuses on affordable housing.
Biology major Jane Liu will be working as a research technician at MIT, studying the toxin-antitoxin system in bacteria. Also moving to Boston is Lauren Shue, who majored in psychology at Haverford and minored in art history. This summer, Lauren will begin studying at Northeastern University to earn her M.S.A., M.B.A. International studies major Diana Kelley will also attend graduate school in Massachusetts, beginning at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the fall. Alexandra Nagelski will be pursing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Yale University.
Headed west is political science major Trung-Anh Nguyen, who will be attending the University of Chicago for an M.A. in International Relations. History of art major Sophie Mongoven will return home to the Twin Cities to do a year- long volunteer program called the Saint Joseph Worker Program, which placed her in the service and justice office of a local high school in Minneapolis. On the Pacific coast, economics major Jess Shill will be working in San Francisco at Wells Fargo in the principal investments group as a credit analyst. South of San Francisco, psychology major Evelyn Aviles will be working with Applied Behavior Analysis for children that have Autism Spectrum Disorders in Hermosa Beach, California.
2017 graduates are venturing all across the globe. Spanish major Sara Helin-Long will be attending graduate school at the University of Amsterdam in order to earn a master’s in heritage and memory studies. Abigail Hoyt, a political science major with a minor in film and media studies, will move to China to pursue a master’s in China studies from Zhejiang University. Ariane Marchis-Mouren, who majored in economics, international studies, and political science, will be interning at the U.S. Commercial Service France at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. French major Meredith Scheiring will also move to France to complete her M.A. this summer at Bryn Mawr's Institut d'Avignon. Fellow francophone Caroline Cosby, who double majored in French and international studies, will spend next year in Dakar, Senegal on a Boren Scholarship. Biology major Eram Haider will attend the University of Edinburgh for a master’s in public health, with future plans for either an M.D. or Ph.D.
Three students will spend the upcoming academic year in Kazakhstan as Boren Scholars. Lindsey Ann Marinello, who double majored in physics and Russian, will first spend the summer interning in deep space optical communication at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In the fall, she will move to Almaty, Kazakhstan to study in the Russian Overseas Flagship Program. Zahabya Mama, who majored in Russian studies and political science, will also move to Kazakhstan to study Russian after spending the summer in Lithuania as an intern at Transparency International. They'll be joined by Russian major Sydney Stotter, whose thesis focuses on cinematic representations of Word War II.
A handful of Mawrters will serve in Americorps next year, including Amber Maser, a psychology major with a minor in health studies who will first spend the summer as the assistant director of administration for Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America. Amber will then serve in Americorps for the 2017-2018 school year as a literacy tutor for Literacyfirst in Austin, TX. Gissell Montoya, who majored in international studies and minored in health studies, plans to build her nonprofit research and evaluation skills through a year of service with the AmeriCorps VISTA program within the Shelter Based Nursing Program in Philadelphia.
Geology major Alison Spain will work for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest this summer as a trails technician. She is enrolled in Fire School and Wildfire Chain Saw classes this June. Once complete, Alison will have 'red card' eligibility to be dispatched to wildfires throughout the region.
Several psychology majors plan to pursue a career in medicine. Among them, Caroline Bach, who majored in psychology at Haverford, will begin the Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program at the University of Virginia. Psychology major Tessa Sophie Warinner will be an emergency room intern at Bellevue Hospital in New York City for the summer as part of a program called Project Healthcare. Fellow psychology major Blair Broad plans to take the next year to continue working at the urgent care where she has worked for the past year. She plans to apply for physician assistant studies master’s programs in the spring.
The 2017-2018 school year will find a number of Mawrters in teaching positions. Paola Bernal, who majored in sociology and minored in education, will return to her hometown of Houston, TX to work as a 6th grade history teacher at KIPP Connect. English major Maggie Alvarez will spend the summer teaching College Access to high school students as a teaching fellow with Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia. Several graduates will teach English abroad, including international studies major and French minor Zubin Hill, who will be an English teaching assistant in France. Sarah O'Connell, an East Asian languages and cultures major, will be teaching English in Japan through the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Ariana Hall, an English major and a Latin American, Iberian and Latino Peoples Studies minor, was awarded a Fulbright and will be traveling to Colombia this coming July to work as an English teaching assistant for a year. She will also be working on an independent research project regarding Afro-Colombian history and culture.
Several members of the Class of 2017 plan to begin careers in law, including Ellen Gao, who majored in political science at Haverford and minored in economics and philosophy. Ellen will be working as a corporate legal assistant at Davis Polk LLP in New York City. History major and education minor Gwendolyn L. Vary will be attending the University at Buffalo School of Law in the fall to earn her J.D. Also attending law school in the fall is Mariam Khoudari, an international studies major and French minor who will enroll in Temple Beasley School of Law.
A number of 2017 grads are starting advanced degrees at Columbia University. Hannah Penner, a linguistics major and Spanish minor, will be going to the Teachers College in the fall to pursue her M.S. in communication sciences and disorders. History major Katherine Nickols will be working at a small fund over the summer in New York City as an analyst before starting a two-year history master's program at Columbia University and the London School of Economics and Political Science in September. Katherine will spend the first year at Columbia and the second year at the London School of Economics, earning her M.A. and M.S.C. East Asian languages and cultures major Siyuan Luo will join Katherine and Hannah at Columbia, where she will earn an M.A. in East Asian languages and cultures. Also attending Columbia University is international studies major Sherry Mao, who will be pursuing a master’s in global thought. Sherry will simultaneously work on her startup company, Aceuno, which is developing an app called EasyA to help college students with class registration.
Among the graduates pursuing Ph.D. graduate study is physics major Alena Klindziuk, who is beginning a program in applied physics at Rice University. Maira Karan, who is a psychology major and political science minor, will be returning to her hometown of Los Angeles to earn her Ph.D. in developmental psychology at UCLA. Chemistry major Audrey Burnim will be pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Princeton University. Leqi Liu, who majored in mathematics at Haverford and computer science at Bryn Mawr, will start a Ph.D. in machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University.
Anassa kata to all the members of the Class of 2017!