Wednesday, September 18, 2019 // The Statement
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Wednesday, September 18, 2019 // The Statement

T

he subway screeched to a stop at Sixth 
Avenue and I stepped onto the muggy 
platform. Walking up the stairs, the 
skyscraper sentinels of New York City loomed over 
me. The sidewalk of the “Avenue of the Americas” 
was crowded with urbanites — talented, successful 
individuals who were “making it” in the Big Apple. 
Surrounded by these veteran New Yorkers in their 
suits and pencil skirts, I could almost pretend I was 
one of them.
Even after memorizing the subway map and 
avoiding tourist traps, I felt out of place. I was the 
Midwestern girl in the big city, but instead of falling 
in love with it, my insecurities simmered. It wasn’t 
that I was lost or on my own, but that everyone 
seemed so professional and self-assured, incapable 
of making a wrong decision. 
L

ike 17,149 other University of Michigan 
students, I’m in the College of Literature, 
Science and the Arts. While the college 
offers 90 majors and sub majors, a mix of sciences 
and liberal arts, I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts 
as an English major with two minors in history 
and political science. I had never questioned my 
academic choices until I scrolled through the 
countless job postings on Handshake and saw the 
missing check mark indicating that my major did 
not match the “employer’s preferences.” 
When will I stop having to defend my major? When 
will I stop second guessing what I’m passionate 
about? What, exactly, can I do with a liberal arts 
degree from LSA after I graduate? 
The University of Michigan started with LSA in 
1817, and the original college has since remained 
the largest of the 19 colleges on campus. The 
LSA website boasts an “employed or continuing 
education” rate of 96 percent, accompanied by an 
interactive graphic titled “What Will You Do with 

an LSA Degree.” Like colorful spokes of a bicycle 
wheel, the English Literature career path spans a 
wide breadth of disciplines — including Medicine/
Health, Technology and Engineering. 
However, the University Career Center depicts a 
slightly different post-graduation narrative. Every 
year the Career Center publishes a First Destination 
Profile, outlining the employment statistics of the 
most recent graduating class. According to them, 
only 89.8 percent of LSA graduates are employed or 
continuing their education. 
Another survey question asks students whether 
they think their new job has “clear career potential.” 
This felt very open-ended to me and difficult to 
answer, especially if a student hasn’t even started 
working yet. When I asked UCC Senior Associate 
Director Terri LaMarco to explain what qualifies as 
“clear potential” she responded, “We do not define 
that … so, that could be defined differently by the 
person completing the survey. Which is fine with us 
because what we’re after is, ‘Are you satisfied with 
the position that you have?’” The survey indicated 
only 60.5 percent of LSA respondent’s jobs have 
clear potential. 
In an email after our interview, LaMarco showed 
that the survey for the First Destination Survey has 
an average response rate of 32 percent and is issued 
three times a year in December, May and August to 
account for the varying student graduation and job 
recruitment timelines.
“The response rate is low, and that’s also pretty 
common for surveys like this. But we’re at a percent 
that does make it generalizable... A lot of data 
suggests that liberal arts students are more likely to 
be employed three to six months after graduation” 
LaMarco said. 
Perhaps sensing my panic as I began the all-
important job search, LSA published this on 

their website, “LSA has offered generations of 
students broad and deep programs of study and … 
has provided a foundation for successful lives and 
meaningful careers. Today, this transformative 
approach … attract(s) growing numbers of students 
who recognize the value of a liberal arts education.” 
Is it the intrinsic nature of liberal arts degree 
that enables English majors to become engineers 
or environmental science majors to be CEOs? Or 
is it a sheer force of will to prove our place in the 
increasingly professional world of work? 
U

niversity alum Erika Shevchek graduated 
in December 2018 with an English degree. 
After not being admitted to graduate 
school, she decided to stay in Ann Arbor for the 
summer and work three jobs while applying for 
writing jobs. 
“I’ve always wanted to be a writer, I know that 
sounds really cliché,” Shevchek said. 
Despite graduating a semester early, Shevchek 
was the last of her friends to “figure it out.”
“I was never upset that I chose English,” she said. 
“I don’t think me being an English major lowered my 
chances of getting a job, which everyone believes, 
but I don’t think that’s true.” 
Shevchek still plans on going to graduate school 
eventually, but for now she’s excited to start an 
editorial assistant internship in Philadelphia while 
also working in a restaurant to “pay the bills.” When 
we talked, her first day of work was the following 
Tuesday. 
“I’m excited not to work a 9-6 job and have a 
salary and go to bed at 9:30,” she said. “It’s this idea 
that you think you have to do the right thing at 22, 
and you have this pressure from your family, and 
you have to make the salary. Dude, you don’t at all. 
This is your one time in your life you are so free. You 
can literally work wherever, you can move wherever, 

you can do whatever. It doesn’t matter what I do at 
22, because as long as I have some form of income 
and a story to tell, that can make me a writer.”
Shevchek was the only other English alum I talked 
with. Immediately, I felt a sense of camaraderie — 
that we were “in this together.” She unapologetically 
embraced her major and her choices, never wavering 
in her decision to choose liberal arts and work as a 
waitress. I listened to her story with admiration and 
clung to her parting words of advice. 
“Do what you want, live your life,” she said. 
“You’re going to be 21 when you graduate? Oh my 
god, dude, you got the whole world in your hands. If 
it’s meant to work, it’ll work.” 
U

niversity alum Pat Ray received a Bachelor 
of Science in Computer Science through 
LSA in 2018. He now works for Domino’s 
Pizza Corporate Team in their I.T. department.
“Yeah, it’s kinda funny, a lot of people, when I say 
I work at Domino’s, they’re like ‘Aw stick with it, 
man,’” Ray said.
Logically, I know it’s the company and not 
the major, but I couldn’t help but compare this 
comment to the ones I receive when I tell people I’m 
an English major. “What are you going to do with 
that, live in your parents’ basement?” I guess even 
computer science majors can’t escape the stigma of 
a liberal arts school. 
At his side gig, however, Ray leads a very different 
life than the one at work. When he’s not at the 
office, he can be found splitting his time playing in 
five different bands and running a concert booking 
company out of his bedroom. 
Because he received a degree through LSA, 
Ray had to fulfill the 30-credit distribution 
requirement, including courses in humanities, math 
and quantitative reasoning. Ray largely credits 
these classes for giving him the skills he needed to 

navigate life after college. 
“I was able to use some of the stuff I learned in 
creative writing to help with writing songs. It’s 
been nice having math and statistics to help with 
finances, too,” Ray said. 
Ray seems to have embraced his diverging career 
paths. In explained how he guilts his boss and 
co-workers into going to shows. When I asked him 
about cutting back on his I.T. career and focusing 
more on music, it felt like I struck a chord. 
“That’s something I’d like to do; I’ve thought 
about it a lot. I want to, at some point, maybe in a 
year or two, save up some money from work, take 
a year off and focus on the booking group and my 
band,” he said. 
While talking with Ray, I couldn’t help but 
feel envious. A directly applicable job right after 
graduation and a money-making hobby on the 
side? It sounded ideal to me. I asked Ray if he ever 
imagined himself doing what he is doing now. 
“It’s definitely what I wanted to do. I think I’m 
kinda surprised with myself, that I’ve been able to 
pull it off,” he replied. 
Can that be attributed to personal skills like 
organization, time management or even luck? Or 
can liberal arts take the credit — preparing Ray with 
a broad range of classes and topics from EECS 281 
to “Video Game Music.” Ray’s path after college is 
reflected in his final bits of advice to me. 
“I’d say work hard and don’t be afraid to take 
chances. … Prove that you’re a hard worker, and 
trust in what you’re doing, and don’t be afraid to 
take a risk,” Ray said.
B

oth Shevchek and Ray used the University 
Career Center while they were at Michigan, 
with varying degrees of success. At career 
fairs, Shevchek confessed she felt out of place 
as a liberal arts major, while Ray learned about 

his current I.T. role by meeting with a Domino’s 
recruiter at one. 
UCC Director Kerin Borland, sat down with me 
for an interview and offered a different perspective 
on undergraduate majors. 
“The major is a field of study; the person is the 
one who’s going to be doing the job,” Borland said. 
There is no unmarketable major; there might be 
some unmarketable people, but most times that’s 
correctable.”
Before I talked with Borland, I had a chip on my 
shoulder. I badly wanted her to confirm my notion 
that liberal arts majors have a more diverse skill sets 
than other pre-professional majors like engineering 
or nursing. Instead, she corrected my prejudices.
“See, we don’t think like that. There are skills 
that are going to be transferable to a professional 
setting that are gotten through every academic 
experience,” Borland said. “The type of skill may be 
different, but each academic discipline is going to 
provide transferable skills.”
When I told her my goal of securing a job before 
Christmas break, she cautioned me against setting 
a deadline. 
“Don’t put that pressure on yourself,” Borland 
said. “We’re not looking for the perfect job, 
we’re looking for a really great opportunity that 
capitalizes on existing interests and skills and 
allows for growth to be a stepping stone to the next 
great opportunity. That’s how careers are built — 
one great opportunity after another.” 
The LSA Opportunity Hub is another source for 
internship and career advice. Created specifically 
for LSA students, the Hub aims to work with 
students throughout their time in undergrad. Kierra 
Trotter, director of student engagement at the Hub, 
talked me through her perspective on liberal arts. 

BY FRANCES SMITH, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR

See MICHIGAN, Page 6B

The 
Michigan 
difference ... 
in 
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PHOTOS BY DANYEL THARAKAN