The Sociology Career Panel

The Sociology Career panel was made up of 4 former Wheaton students who had each majored in Sociology and had gone on to respectable careers. Each one took their turn explaining what they did after graduating from Wheaton and how they got the job they have.

The first speaker was Michelle Meiser. When she left Wheaton, she had no idea what she was going to do. She eventually got a tenant organization job in Boston. Later, she decided to interview for agencies, eventually landing a job at the Pine Street Inn for three years answering phones for holidays. She now directs a home ownership program, which includes opening up a houser consuming education center, helping black people find areas they could move to without worrying about prejudice, and helping with purchase of assets.

The next speaker was Jeff Burke, whose specialty is online marketing. He pursued journalism for a while, including working at a community newspaper company and working at Boston.com, but after finding out how time demanding it was, he refocused on marketing. He did some email marketing, and then one of his friends who worked at NPR recommended him for a job there. He ended up getting a project management role at NPR, where he works now, and considers it the best place he ever worked.

Next up was James Lloyd. After leaving Wheaton, he spent some time working at a residential treatment center. He then moved to Hawaii, hoping to join the peace corps. However, when that didn't work out for him, he moved back to Massachusetts and applied to Boston College hoping to open up more opportunities. He is now a social worker, working with human rights issues.

The last speaker of the night was Oneda Horne. After she left Wheaton, she did internships in Boston to pursue a legal path because going to law school required work experience. She soon started working at Bottom Line in Boston with low income students to help them get through college. After studying for both the GREs and LSATs, she decided that she was more passionate about serving low income youth than she was about being a lawyer. She now works as a college success initiative coordinator at Steps for Success.