After 11 Years, Sophomore Career Connections Still Offers a Wealth of Insight on Meaningful Work

ore than 250 Vassar students and 100 alum mentors spent the weekend of January 17—19 exploring career opportunities at the College’s 11th annual Sophomore Careers Connections (SCC). Conceived by Vassar alum Carol Ostrow ’77, P’09, ’15, and her husband, Michael Graff, this year’s program offered sophomores the chance to connect with mentors in 20 different industries ranging from the arts and entertainment to data science, technology, entrepreneurship, and more. A record number of students attended this year’s program, guided by 108 mentors and members of the Career Education staff.

The event is cohosted every January by the Center for Career Education and the Office of Advancement. Since its inception in 2015, more than 2,500 sophomores and 700 alums and parent mentors have taken part.

The event kicked off on January 17 with a keynote address by Minerva Tantoco ’86, whose serpentine career path speaks volumes about the value of a Vassar liberal arts education. A philosophy major at Vassar, Tantoco has been a founder of the digital bank Grasshopper (a nod to Vassar alum and tech pioneer Grace Hopper, Class of 1928), and an AI patent holder whose journey has taken her to Silicon Valley, to Wall Street, to New York City government, and elsewhere.

Tantoco told those assembled at her address in Skinner Hall that her grounding in philosophy had taught her ethical reasoning. “This skill is critical in the age of artificial intelligence as questions of fairness and privacy are posed,” she said. “We will need that broad-based learning you are getting at Vassar so that AI serves humanity. Today’s technology needs your liberal arts mindset, so let it be your superpower.”

Tantoco reiterated some of these themes when she joined five other panelists from various technology fields at information sessions on January 18. “One piece of advice I have for students is to show employers a significant task you have tackled and completed, and you have done that many times at Vassar,” she said. “You have an advantage over many others [entering the job market] because you are doing that work here right now.”

Members of the panel on scientific research described the disparate paths their careers had taken. Some, like Max Fagin ’10, had a plan mapped out by sophomore year at Vassar—he wanted to be an aerospace engineer.

“I took an unorthodox path studying science at a liberal arts school,” Fagin said, “so I wanted to return to Vassar for Sophomore Career Connections to show them there were ways, such as the Vassar-Dartmouth Thayer Dual Degree Program in Engineering, to achieve their goal. Vassar gave me the general knowledge of science I needed—a background in astronomy and physics—to do my job, but I also needed specialized engineering training.” He is currently a member of a Blue Origin team that is designing a lunar landing craft for a 2030 flight to the moon by four NASA astronauts.

Sam Schwamm ’16, a research manager at the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, said Vassar had prepared him well for all the non-technical aspects of his job. “The public-speaking and writing skills I got here have helped me immensely,” Schwamm said.

The students prepared themselves for the industry panels by attending a workshop designed to teach them resiliency and the importance of teamwork and reacting quickly to failure. Teams of five to six students were challenged to build towers composed solely of strands of spaghetti, tape, and a single marshmallow. They were given 18 minutes to complete the task. Most teams built towers successfully, and the team members who built the highest tower—measuring more than 30 inches in height—were awarded tiny trophies.

Throughout the weekend, students and mentors talked about the value of the program. Vassar Trustee Anne Green ’93, CEO of G&S Integrated Marketing Communications Group, returned to Sophomore Career Connections for the eighth time and said Vassar is preparing students well. “A lot of it is how you think, how curious you are, and how ready you are to learn and how quickly you assimilate information,” she said, “and I think that a Vassar education and a liberal arts education is amazing that way.”

Gene Waddy ’27, a media studies and political science double major from Manalapan, NJ, said he felt reassured after attending the industry panel on entrepreneurship. “I’ve known for a long time that I want to work in media in some capacity, and maybe own my own business,” Waddy said. “After listening to these people who have succeeded as entrepreneurs, people who know how to function outside their comfort zones and have a vision, I know it’s now possible for me.”

Grace Fure ’27 said she felt a lot more confident about planning for her future than she had been just a couple of days earlier. “I obtained a lot of information this weekend on how to pursue [my] career path and how Vassar’s alum network can help,” she said.

As SCC drew to a close, Bingham told students that “a liberal arts education is foundational to asking and answering the increasingly complex questions of our planet. The work of finding our place in the world, of figuring out who we are and who we are meant to be is cyclical—and lifelong. It’s messy and it’s exhilarating. Sometimes our spaghetti towers fall, but we fail fast, iterate, prototype, and we move on to the next plan.”

She reminded the students that this was just the beginning of their relationship with both the Vassar network and the Center for Career Education. “You have a huge network of champions and supporters in this room and beyond,” she told them. “Seek us out in the days, weeks, and years to come.” —Larry Hertz