The Diplomat

April 30, 2009

Franklin & Marshall’s weekly online newsletter

Success with Life After College

When Haytham Zohny ’09 stepped into an interview with the CFO at Travelers Insurance in September, he had the confidence he needed to get the job.

“I felt comfortable sitting down and having a one-on-one conversation with Travelers management,” Zohny said.

Zohny had interned with Travelers in the summer of 2008 and said he used the experience to network inside the company. When a job became available he applied, interviewed and was hired. After graduation he will join the company’s financial management leadership development program.

Zohny credits the Life After College Success Program at Franklin & Marshall College for giving him the confidence and the skills he needed to get the job.

“When you sit across the table from CEOs and speak to them about their successes and failures, over time you come to realize that they also had to start somewhere, just like me,” Zohny said.

The Life After College Success Program prepares promising juniors and seniors to make the transition to life after college more smoothly by giving them the tools they need to survive and thrive in the job market. Life After College gives students the chance to hear firsthand about the successes and missteps of those who have gone before.

Ideally one would make that move effortlessly, but more often than not, the road to success is bumpy and filled with false starts, said Ed Satell P’09, who funded the program at F&M. Satell is founder and CEO of Progressive Business Publications. His son Matt graduates in May.

“There is no magic formula to success,” Satell said. “Making mistakes and learning from those stumbles is part of building a successful career.”

Satell got the idea after sharing a dinner four years ago with Matt and some of his college friends who were staying at Satell’s home in Haverford, Pa., after playing in an ultimate Frisbee tournament.

Satell asked some of the students about their plans after graduation, “but many of them couldn’t tell me. I realized the College does such a fabulous job educating these kids, but so many have misconceptions and a real disconnect with what comes next.”

Satell’s idea to match successful people with students about to graduate reached a receptive audience. Dean of the College Kent Trachte worked closely with Satell for a year to develop the program.

“The core concept is that students can learn a lot about what will help them be successful by interacting with highly successful people about how they made the transition themselves,” Trachte said.

To join the program, a student must write an essay, submit a resume and be interviewed. Once accepted into the program, attendance to events and workshops is mandatory and students must commit to participating in the program for two years. Those accepted attend workshops and dinner with alumni and others who have succeeded in business, the nonprofit sector and government.

This year the students met with Tom Beeman, president and CEO of Lancaster General Hospital; Cindy Brown ’90, president of Boston Duck Tours; Richard J. Fox, chairman of the Fox Companies; F&M President John Fry; Patricia E. Harris ’77, the first deputy mayor of the City of New York; Bob Wilburn, CEO of the Gettysburg Foundation; and Dennis Wint, CEO of the Franklin Institute.

Wanda Austin ’75 had dinner with the students on April 14 and spoke to them about her career path on the way to becoming the president and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation. She joined the company in 1979 after trying out teaching and after switching her career to engineering.

“I didn’t think, ‘I want to be CEO of this company,’ but I did want to succeed. We never know how far good preparation and hard work will take us, but I learned at an early age that a lot was possible if you worked and studied and took advantage of opportunities,” Austin said.

She advised the students to do what inspired and excited them, to listen twice as much as they speak and to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

“To succeed in life you need to study and work hard, set goals for yourself and don’t stop until you reach them. Get a mentor who can help to illuminate a path for you to follow, and stay on course,” Austin said.

Austin said she was impressed with the students, who had prepared for her visit by researching her career. After she spoke, the students provided a rapid-fire summation of what they had learned.

For Rebecca Rehr ’09, it was Austin’s message, “do what inspires you,” that resonated.

While at F&M, Rehr has been active in raising awareness on environmental issues. She has turned her passion into her profession. After graduation, she will take a job with U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, as a campus organizer focusing on environmental issues.

“I took what I learned about networking and I applied it,” Rehr said.

She said the students in the program pay close attention to what the others are doing and are always sharing information and contacts. “We’re networking with each other all the time, comparing notes and discussing what went well in interviews and what didn’t work,” Rehr said.

Next year the program will expand to include 45 students, said Tammy Halstead, the director of career development and the administrator of Life After College Success Program. In the first year, the program had 25 student participants.

Interacting with alumni is a key element of the program, Halstead explained. “Alumni have so much to offer these students. They send a message that, just like those who came before them, they will find success in life after college,” she said.

Satell said he looks forward to following the careers of these students as they enter the marketplace.

“It will be fun 15 to 20 years from now,” he said, “to see some of these students reach a great pinnacle in their fields and come back to share their experiences with the next generation.”

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