Undergraduate students in the College of Letters & Science major in everything from African languages and literature to zoology, with 63 other options in between.
They use those degrees to pursue careers from civil service to entertainment, from academia to the tech industry. On Saturday, May 16, L&S will celebrate the achievements of 2,657 undergraduates at spring commencement.
We caught up with six graduates-to-be —Ayah Almousa, Jessica Christian, Neil Damron, Kiana Murphy, Alex Sherman and Emily Skorin— to get a glimpse of the varying experiences and future plans of the 2015 L&S class.
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Ayah Almousa
Hometown: Milwaukee, Wis.
Majors: Mathematics and Physics
"I started out as a math major, and I took an introductory physics class to challenge myself. I ended up really enjoying it. Most of my friends were physics majors, and we hung out together as a community and did extra-curricular activities that were physics-related."
What I learned: "I spent a year working in physics Professor Mark Saffman's atomic physics lab, and I also helped with research for math Professor Melanie Wood, as part of the undergraduate research scholars program. I had research experience in both majors and it gave me a great sense of what I enjoy and want to do in life, which is mathematical research and teaching."
Best part of L&S experience: "Junior and senior year I was president of the Physics Majors Club. We put together game nights, laser tag, and a trip to Devil's Lake. But we also hosted professional development events. We took field trips to FermiLab and Argonne National Laboratory in the Chicagoland area. We had graduate student panels in the fall, so undergraduates could hear what grad school was like from their perspective. We had an industry panel, where alumni (some of them from the Physics Board of Visitors) came and talked about their experiences working with various companies. One of the best things about L&S is the emphasis on students going out and doing things related to what they are learning in class. It's not unique to physics; it is carried out in all departments, on every level."
Post-grad plans: "I will be heading to Cornell University to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics. I want to be a professor. I love pushing the boundaries of knowledge."
Jessica Christian
Hometown: Sheboygan, Wis.
Major: Chemistry
"From memorization of vast quantities of information, to effective time management – the learning process was intense. But I am so happy to be graduating with a chemistry major."
What I learned: "I wanted a challenge. I wanted to major in a field where I was discovering something new every day. And I found that environment in the chemistry lab. It's a place where it's extremely important to be accurate and good at what you do, no matter what your role is, because everything is connected. The whole outcome, in a lab, hinges on everyone doing their best job."
My most transformative classes: "The second semester capstone course in physical chemistry was the hardest and also the most rewarding. You have to write 20-page lab reports, do presentations, and you are working alongside teaching assistants and faculty. My teaching assistant, Kristine Smith, was great to work with. And Professor Silvia Cavagnero is so wonderful — she really cares about her students and gives them confidence to do great things."
My most rewarding experience: "My internship with the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District for the past two years gave me confidence, developed my lab skills, and showed me what I want to do! I work in the Solids and Biochemical Oxygen Demands department of their analytical lab, determining the level of oxygen depletion in samples. We have to have a certain level in order to release the effluent back into our rivers. The people I work with are really great. And the lab experience gave me a leg up in my analytical chemistry courses, which began shortly after I started the internship."
Post-grad plans: "I will be starting a full-time job as an intern chemist with the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District."
Neil Damron
Hometown: Syracuse, N.Y.
Majors: Economics and Political Science
"I grew up going to an inner city grade school, followed by a private high school, so I was keenly aware of issues of class and economic disparity. I'd always had an interest in policy, but it wasn't until after I'd taken some sociology courses my sophomore year that I realized economics was actually 'the language of policy.' Everyone sees policy in economic terms."
What I learned: "Economics taught me to consider all the options in a given situation, and decide on the best one. We make so many decisions based on perceived outcomes; I now look at almost everything from a numbers perspective, too. This was really useful when I served as president of the Wisconsin Union. I was much more organized and priority-oriented. Political science taught me how to look at problems in terms of the structure that's creating them, instead of the decision-makers involved in them. There is never just one person creating a problem, or issue."
Best part of L&S experience: "Junior year, I was part of an incredible professional development program through the political science department that sent me to Washington, D.C., for a summer internship with Amnesty International. At the time, AI was rolling out a campaign to address gun violence, and I got to be a part of that. I also met with UW-Madison alumni in the D.C. area once a week. That was a wonderful experience. This year I am working with the Institute for Research on Poverty on campus, distilling the results of studies so the information can be widely shared."
Post-grad plans: "I have one offer for a research assistant position with the Urban Institute, a D.C. think tank that studies economic disparities and how policy affects vulnerable populations. Another offer in the works is a political appointment with the Office of Health and Human Services. Wherever I end up, I hope to address the issue of persistent, widespread poverty in the U.S."
Kiana Murphy
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Majors: English and Sociology
"I've always loved to read and write since I was a little girl. Honestly, I was very nervous to major in English at first because I knew I didn't have the chance to read some of the literature that some of my classmates had already read in high school. With the help of the supportive staff and faculty in the English department, I became more confident in my ability to do literary work. I also selected sociology because I took Sociology 134 in a FIG my first semester and it really expanded my ideas on social justice issues in this country."
What I learned: "Although disciplines may seem distinct at the outset, they all intersect in amazing and profound ways. As I focused on my creative and literary work, it was amazing to see how much the discipline of sociology greatly informed my thinking and writing processes."
My most transformative classes: "Creative Writing 307 African American Poetics, Sociology 360 Statistics for Sociologists, and African American Studies 222 Black Women Writers. All of them challenged me in ways I didn't expect: pushing me to ask new questions, demanding that I reflect on my own experiences to succeed in the class, and encouraging me to be open to failure but always reminding me that there is a way up."
My most rewarding experience: "Taking British and Anglophone Literature with Professor Caroline Levine. Her class taught me so much about the importance of subjectivity in literature, and informed my research project on how black women writers engage with the Bildungsroman genre ('coming of age' stories). I would have never had the opportunity to find my passion for poetry, literature, and research if I didn't decide to be an L&S student my freshman year."
Post-grad plans: "In the fall, I will be attending the University of Pennsylvania to start my Ph.D. in English."
Alex Sherman
Hometown: New Providence, N.J.
Majors: English and Mathematics
"I don't think they're so far apart. My senior honors thesis was on Virginia Woolf's The Waves, and I argue that the way she builds characters is the same way Fourier analysis in math approximates graphs. Virginia Woolf and this branch of mathematics are sort of working in parallel."
What I learned: "Everything good that's happened to me here, either academically or professionally or personally, has come through approaching people. That's the big lesson, the value of human relationships. Also, learning how to write well and, along with that, how to read critically. Another lesson was seeing how research works. It gave me a lot more patience, because you think scientists or professors just crank out stuff every day, and that's not how it works. It's very uneven and it takes a lot of persistence."
My most transformative classes: "The Honors calculus sequence (Mathematics 275-276 and 375-376) does a great job of bridging people that are engineers or people that are really into science or people that are very interested in mathematics. I also took a seminar about literary cultural theory — that was really good, because you never read stuff like that elsewhere. And English 316 (now English 403) for the Writing Fellows Program."
Best part about L&S: "L&S gives you a lot of freedom to decide what you want to do. Because it encompasses so many different fields, it's really easy to get that broad liberal education. It teaches you things that have been important, are important and will be important across a broad base. L&S teaches you how to think."
Post-grad plans: "I'm planning to move to Christchurch, New Zealand in August. There's a labor shortage there, and still a lot of work to help the city rebuild after the major earthquake in 2011."
Emily Skorin
Hometown: Arlington Heights, Ill.
Major: Journalism
"What I like about advertising and media within advertising, in particular, is that you get to be both logical and creative. You get to make creative decisions, but every decision you make is 100 percent backed up by numbers and insights. Another thing I like about advertising is you get to figure out what makes people tick and what makes people react a certain way and then make them react that way."
What I learned: "My experience in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication definitely made me confident. It helped me find what I'm passionate about, and it fed that passion and gave me unique opportunities to explore it in a safe space."
My most transformative classes: "The two capstone classes I've taken this year — in magazines (J417) and strategic communications (J475) — definitely solidified my skills and took what I had learned and put it to the test. In the strategic communications capstone course, I got to basically do what I want to be doing after graduation for a real client. That's an invaluable experience. And my media planning class (J447) was the one that kind of pushed me in the direction that I ended up wanting to go."
My most influential instructors: "Deb Pierce, Katy Culver, Karyn Riddle, Molly Steenson, Shawnika Hull, Stacy Forster… the list really goes on."
Best part about L&S: "I've been given the opportunity and pushed to take the opportunity to explore so many different classes and topics. You're encouraged to explore every opportunity and every different discipline, and even if you don't major in it, you learn something that you carry forward."
Post-grad plans: "I just accepted a position as a media associate at Spark SMG, a media agency in Chicago."
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