After Macalester

One major, many paths

Anika Brennan, class of 2024, at commencement with faculty members Erik Larson and Erika Busse-Cárdenas.

Sociology graduates pursue a variety of options in graduate school and employment.

In recent years, Macalester students have started pursuing doctorates in Sociology at higher education institutions including Northwestern University, the University of Indiana, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the intention of pursuing research in the field and eventually becoming college professors themselves.

Majoring in sociology also opens up pathways to other fields. For example:

• Claire Henkel graduated with a Masters in Landscape Architecture from North Carolina State University and is now working for the university as a Research Associate in the university’s Coastal Dynamics Design Lab, where she provides technical assistance to rural communities in their efforts to be more resilient in the face of climate change.
• In 2024, Aaron (Xunwen) Zou, ’22, earned the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Public Health in Disasters from the Universidad de Oviedo / University of Nicosia in Spain. His research focused on migration patterns  through the Dorian Gap in northern Colombia and southern Panama.
• Sena Takashima, ’22, began her masters in Education Policy and Analysis at Harvard University in 2024.

Sociology majors also find careers in a wide variety of fields, including social work, consulting, and education. Mac Sociology grads who work in the legal arena have attended law school at New York University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Iowa, University of Notre Dame Law School, and the University of Missouri.

• Since 2015, Evelyn Daugherty, ’11, has been a teacher in Dearborn Public Schools in Michigan, where she teaches fifth graders.
• Demoya Gordon, ’06, serves as vice-chair and commissioner for the State of Illinois’ Human Rights Commission, where she works to protect the civil rights of residents of Illinois.
• Since 2020, Susana Morales, ’20, has served as a program coordinator at Nexus Community Partners, where she works in curriculum development and facilitation, outreach and engagement, evaluation, communication, and capacity-building.
• In 2022, Joe Schweigert, ’08, joined Hennepin County Human Services as a project manager and works on finding shelter for houseless families.
• In 2024, Taylor Laemmli, ’11, accepted a tenure track position in Baylor University’s Sociology Department.

“Sociology taught me to have a knowledge of the ways in which broader social systems and norms impact the individual. As an advocate, I am tasked to dissect, understand, and often challenge those norms. I often think that my job is to be the bridge between people’s expectations of the justice system and their reality/lived experiences in the justice system. Sociology gave me the tools to build that bridge.”

Lane Centrella, ’22, Legal Advocate for Southern Valley Alliance