How Can You Get There?

In his Commencement address, class speaker Jay Mehta told his fellow 2013 Ephs, “I’m hopeful for life after graduation because I don’t think I’ll ever cease finding energy to create, learn, and make better when I see you, my family, doing what you do.”

The Williams family broadened my own undergraduate worldview—convincing me that even though I was 22 and lacked any formal job training, I could be anything I wanted. When it came time to leave the Purple Bubble, however, I began to wonder what my “anything” might be and whether my “anything” would be able to support rent payments.

Nick Fogel '12
Nick Fogel ’12

Most Williams students find themselves asking similar questions. We know that Ephs lead major companies, walk the halls of Congress, lead international nonprofits, are renowned professors, doctors, lawyers, artists, and nonprofit leaders. But how did they get there?

Having invested deeply in our undergraduate educations, Williams is deeply interested in helping each of us find paths to navigate the world in light of the best impact we might have on it. In 2010, the college sent Hallie Davis ’07 out on the road to ask alumni to share with students and fellow Ephs a wide range of available career trajectories that help us all better understand the power of a liberal arts education and Williams’ amazing alumni career network. Hallie’s profiles are compulsively readable, hugely helpful, and included in this site with 2011 post dates.

Starting in the summer of 2014, I picked up where Hallie left off, interviewing alumni around the country to highlight the various roads, many less traveled, they’ve taken since graduation. This new How’d You Get There? collection include highly visible Ephs as well as entrepreneurs, traveling musicians, actors, teachers, nonprofit founders, youth sports coaches, and community activists—in big cities, small towns, and everywhere in between.

I hope these stories of Williams alums “doing what they do” will inspire us all—particularly today’s undergrads—to match our passion with commitment and great work for years to come.

Nick Fogel ’12
May 2015