New Fund Opens Doors to Career Success
Donor-funded initiative supports career exploration, builds job-ready skills
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Nearly 50 students benefited from Dickinson’s Career Development Fund during the spring 2026 semester, doubling the impact of this impactful initiative during its very first year. Rolled out in spring 2025, the fund helps cover travel expenses, registration fees and other costs associated with professional conferences, national competitions, certification courses, job shadows and other experiences that help them clarify career interests and build job-ready connections and skills.
In 2025, more than 50 students used this funding to take advantage of such opportunities. An additional 47 students received funding during spring 2026.
Baseball, conferences and certifications
Audrey Herman ’26 (political science, Spanish and Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean studies) envisions using her language skills to bridge cultural gaps after graduation. With help from the new fund, she enrolled in the 40-hour, online Community Interpreter® International training course. Now she’s a certified interpreter, eligible for entry-level positions in that field.
After completing a language-interpretation internship with the NC Dinos, a professional baseball team in his home country of South Korea, Daniel Kim ’26 used the funding to attend the team's spring training in Tucson, Ariz., building on the connections he’d forged there. Subsequently, the team offered Kim a job.
“I’m grateful that the fund helped make this opportunity possible,” the international business & management (IB&M) major says.
Students also used the Career Development Fund to unlock these opportunities:
- Eight geosciences students learned about leading-edge developments in near-surface applications of geophysics when they attended the internationally recognized 2026 Application of Geophysics to Engineering & Environmental Problems conference with Associate Professor of Geosciences Jorden Hayes.
- Grant Donta-Venman ’28 (American studies) and Nam Anh Nguyen ’28 (quantitative economics, IB&M) attended the 2026 Creating Change Conference, a national leadership, networking and skills-building event.
- Jenna Festa ’26 (IB&M, Italian studies) got an insider’s view of the beauty chemistry industry through a job-shadow opportunity at Turnkey Beauty in California. Festa worked directly with cosmetic chemist with Vince Spinnato ’97.
- Jason Hollinger ’26 (psychology) became a National Strength and Conditioning Association certified strength and conditioning specialist. Armed with that credential, he will intern at Morgan State University this summer as a strength and conditioning assistant.
- Ishrak Zaman ’26 (quantitative economics), a future investment banking analyst at Union Square advisors, attended the Muslims in Business Conference at Harvard Business School.
- Kiersten Kahn ’26 (Africana studies, English), an experienced Trout Gallery intern, prepared for a career in that area by becoming a member of the Association of African American Museums’ Emerging Museum Professionals initiative and the Museum Education Roundtable. She also became a student-member of the American Alliance of Museums.
- Through the Vogue Fashion Branding & Communication eight-week online course, student-athlete Melina Gregory ’29 (IB&M) explored careers in marketing by learning how brands build value for consumers amid rapid industry change.
- Aaron Shin ’27 (computer science, mathematics) was awarded Career Development Funds twice during the past academic year—first, to complete advanced coding training this past fall, and then to compete nationally in the LAHacks 2026 and NexHacks competitions.
- Luke Heller ’27 (quantitative economics, environmental studies) will learn more about careers in sustainability and environmental policy later this month at the National Adaptation Forum.
- Eight students of Professor of Mathematics Dick Forrester attended the Data Analytics Summit at Harrisburg University and learned how organizations maintain trust and transparency while generating value through data.
Complementary experiences
The Career Development Fund is part of a robust suite of donor-supported career initiatives at Dickinson. Together with in-class learning, internships and other campus programs and initiatives, these experiences substantially enrich students’ overall educational experiences.
Shin’s latest hackathons meaningfully deepen his ongoing effort to apply programming skills to real-world problem-solving. He’s co-developed and co-created a variety of apps that include a game controlled by eye-gaze and American Sign Language (ASL) gestures and a disaster response platform that aggregates and visualizes official data.
The lessons Donta-Venman learned at the Creating Change conference build on skills and connections he gained through an internship with the National Coalition for the Homeless and his work as a Community Engagement Fellow.
For Heller, the special sessions and networking opportunities at the National Adaptation Forum will add to a fruitful year that includes a presentation of a summer research project at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, two service trips, a campus networking workshop and work as an Eco-Rep.
“Every day, I remind myself how grateful I am for the opportunity to attend Dickinson,” Heller says. “I look forward to seeing what I can achieve during the rest of my college experience.”
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published May 7, 2026