More than 20 Madison alumni welcomed students to Chicago during the college’s Career Exposure Program in May. The annual initiative, led by JMC’s Career Services and Field Experience offices, helps students explore potential career paths, build relationships with alumni and employers, tour workplaces and discover new cities.
View more photos from this year's trip on LinkedIn.
This year’s program brought a group of 24 students to Chicago for a week, where they visited JMC alumni working at Google, United Airlines, Uber, McDonald’s Corporate and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, among others. A law-focused panel discussion provided students with the opportunity to ask questions of alums working in legal fields.
“There’s something powerful about being in community with the next generation of changemakers,” wrote Mel Green (PTCD ’01), founder and managing attorney of MDG Law Virtual, of her participation during the law panel. “As an alum, it felt wonderful being in a space with students talking about my journey and my time at the school I love.”
Students also had the opportunity to network with alumni during a dinner event later in the week, allowing them to build connections with a broader network of Madisonians in and around Chicago.
Each year JMC’s Career Services and Field Experience offices look at data on where Madisonians head after graduation and where alumni are located to determine locations for the college’s Career Exposure Program. Staff identify alumni who represent an array of majors, graduation years, career paths, and identities and reach out to see if they might be willing to host a site visit. Many years alumni initiate outreach and volunteer to support current or future trips, allowing the program to grow in interesting directions over the years.
“So much of the college’s career programming is possible because of the generosity of the wider Madison community,” JMC’s Assistant Director of Career Services, Karissa Chabot-Purchase, noted. “It’s one of the things that sets us apart from other colleges on campus and makes the Madison experience so valuable.”
Chicago-Based Alumni Hosts
- Kat Allen (PTCD ’13), associate, Mayer Brown
- Ciera Borden (PTCD '23), law student, University of Chicago
- Amy Bratzel De Re (IR ’23), manager, Global Strategic Sourcing Center of Excellence, McDonald’s
- Claire Bratzel (SRP ’17), senior analyst, United Airlines
- Katie Fitzgerald (SRP ’94), global president and CEO, Ronald McDonald House Charities
- Mel Green (PTCD ’01), founder and managing attorney, MDG Law Virtual
- JC Kibbey (PTCD ’09), climate advisor, State of Illinois
- Monika Kothari (PTCD ’13), regulatory counsel, Uber
- Hunter Lund (IR ’15), global mobility manager, Deloitte
- Morgan Murphy (CCP, IR ’13), director of marketing & communications, Metropolitan Planning Council
- Savannah Reinink (CCP ’19), quality assurance program manager, Google
- Megan Ryan (SRP ’16), litigation associate, Tabey DiVito & Rothstein
- Eric Savoie (IR ’15), account executive, Google
- Brooklyn Scott (CCP, SRP ’23), law student, Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Erica Teklinski (CCP ’18), legal policy specialist, Google
- Dayne Walling (SRP ’96), director of public policy & government relations, Insight
- Sammi Williams (SRP ’22), senior program associate, University of Chicago Center for Effective Government