香蕉秀

Molly Cahill (far left) with two other O'Hare fellows (also her roommates) in the offices of America 尘补驳补锄颈苍别.听

Getting a job, like so many things, doesn鈥檛 always happen the way we think it will.听

Last March, as COVID-19 spread fear and panic across the U.S., members of the Class of 2020 were forced to leave campus. Some went home to their families, while others secured off-campus apartments in Boston, unsure of how long the lockdown would last.听

鈥淭here was so much uncertainty,鈥� recalled Avni Amin 鈥�20. 鈥淲e really wanted to hold on to what we were losing.鈥�

In addition to forgoing Commencement and Senior Week traditions, students began to worry about losing internships and early job offers.听In response, the Career Center stepped up its virtual services, helping seniors navigate the increasingly difficult job market from home.听

鈥淚t was a difficult time for everyone, but especially our seniors,鈥� said Joseph Du Pont, associate vice president for Career Services. 鈥淥ur message to them was, 鈥榊es, it鈥檚 harder now, but you shouldn't give up, and we鈥檙e here to help at every stage of the process.鈥欌��

A year later, the resilience of the Class of 2020 is on full display, along with the value of a liberal arts education in preparing students to succeed in a wide spectrum of careers. Whether they鈥檙e uplifting youth in Colorado, processing COVID tests, or coding the next Instagram feature, Boston College鈥檚 most recent graduates are making their mark in classrooms, laboratories, and home offices across the country.

"Preliminary survey results from our 2020 graduates show that 93 percent of them are employed, in graduate school, or are engaged in other meaningful activities,鈥� reported Du Pont. "Others are still looking, and our staff is here to support them every step of the way, in addition to working with our current seniors.听Given all the challenges of the past year, this strong showing is another testament to the power of a Boston College education.鈥�

Pre-pandemic, Boston College students have consistently found solid professional footing whatever their field of study, according to the annual survey of graduates administered by the Career Center. In addition, in January, a GradReport named 香蕉秀 the 11th best college nationwide for a bachelor鈥檚 degree based on postgraduate salary data.

But in a year when so much was upended, positive stories of "where Eagles have landed" are especially heartening. Below, members of the Class of 2020 describe transitioning from student to working professional during lockdown, and how their Boston College degrees prepared them for the challenge.听听

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To land her job at Mountain Youth, Anabel Johnson had to impress a uniquely discerning interview committee: six high school students from Eagle River Valley in Colorado.听

鈥淚t was definitely nerve-wracking,鈥� she recalled with a laugh. 鈥淭eenagers can come across as judgmental even when they鈥檙e not, but my role is working directly with them, so it made sense that they were the ones interviewing me.鈥�

Empowering and supporting young people under 25 is at the core of Mountain Youth鈥檚 mission, and now it鈥檚 Johnson鈥檚 full-time job. As the nonprofit鈥檚 youth engagement coordinator, she works side-by-side with middle and high school-age youth to develop programs, events, and projects that tackle the specific challenges they and their peers face鈥攆rom substance abuse and depression to staying motivated at school during a pandemic.听

On his LinkedIn profile, John Abreu is a software engineer at Instagram, but ever since he joined the social media company last July, he鈥檚 also become the unofficial 鈥淚nstagram hotline鈥� for friends and family.

鈥淚 get questions like 鈥榃hy did they change this?鈥� or 鈥楬ow do I send a message to someone who鈥檚 private?鈥欌�� he laughed. 鈥淚鈥檝e become the go-to guy for pretty much everyone I know.鈥�

Abreu鈥檚 team works exclusively on Reels鈥攁 recently-released feature that allows Instagram users to record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos鈥攎aking improvements and bug fixes based on user feedback and company goals. Most of Abreu鈥檚 code winds up on Instagram鈥檚 iPhone app, a fixture on the home screens of millions of people around the world.

This time last year, Avni Amin wasn鈥檛 sure what her first job would be, but she knew what she wanted to do: use her neuroscience degree to make a difference in healthcare, and continue the activism work she had begun at Boston College as a member of the FACES council and PULSE Program.听听

鈥淚 loved learning about the brain and I was always very drawn to working to uplift the voices of underserved populations,鈥� she explained. 鈥淏oth of those sides of my 香蕉秀 experience really influenced where I ended up.鈥澨�

Her destination turned out to be Stupid Cancer, a nonprofit that, in its own words, 鈥渕akes young adult cancer suck less.鈥� As the program and community coordinator, Amin helps organize conferences, webinars, and digital meetups meant to support, empower, and sometimes just entertain the roughly 89,000 young people living with cancer in the U.S.

Watching insurgents storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6 hit close to home for Madeleine McCullough, not just because of her physical proximity to the attack, but also her work promoting and uplifting federal government employees.听

鈥淚鈥檓 part of an organization whose goal is to inspire people to believe in public service and the idea that your representatives can and are speaking for you,鈥� explained McCullough, a program associate at the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. 鈥淭his clearly showed that a lot of people don鈥檛 believe that.鈥澨�

McCullough moved to Washington, D.C. last fall, just a few months before the presidential election, and immediately began immersing herself in the complex network of federal agencies that regulate everything from agriculture to military operations. As part of the partnership鈥檚 workforce team, her biggest priority is helping those agencies improve employee engagement, which lags significantly behind the private sector, by providing them with research and training.听

As a biology major at Boston College, Mir Ali didn鈥檛 expect his skill set would make him a frontline worker during a global pandemic. But within a week of graduating, Ali was donning head-to-toe protective gear helping to process thousands of COVID-19 tests for anxious Connecticut residents.听

A clinical genomic technologist, Ali takes the nasal swabs submitted by clinics across the state and prepares them for RNA extraction鈥攁 process that detects the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In May, Ali and his colleagues were doing much of the work by hand, while simultaneously developing robotic systems to speed things up. By summer, they had increased the lab鈥檚 output tenfold, processing nearly 10,000 samples a day, with a turnaround time of 24 hours or less.听

Since joining America magazine last fall, Molly Cahill has written about everything from the origins of Halloween to NASA鈥檚 discovery of water on the moon, all through a Jesuit, Catholic lens. Her byline appears regularly in the weekly magazine鈥檚 print and digital publications, attached to news articles, film and book reviews, and personal essays read by 35,000 subscribers across the country.听听

Cahill was awarded the prestigious O鈥橦are Fellowship shortly before lockdown, guaranteeing her 11 months of employment at the magazine鈥檚 office in Manhattan. (This March, two members of the Boston College Class of 2021听were named O鈥橦are Fellows for this coming fall.) When America鈥檚 normally bustling newsroom closed due to COVID, Cahill and two other fellows formed their own unofficial headquarters in a nearby New York apartment, learning the ins and outs of professional journalism from a distance.听

鈥淎t the beginning we did a rotational program where we worked on all the different content teams that America has,鈥� explained Cahill. 鈥淚 got to learn about audio and video, our social media and digital communications, things I didn鈥檛 really know about when I came into this.鈥澨�