Merrimack College’s next generation of female business leaders dined, networked and received sage professional advice from alumnae during the inaugural Warrior Women at Work event on Tuesday, March 4.
Katie Walker ’05, private bank market leader and managing director at Bank of America, served as moderator for the event’s panel discussion in the Collegiate Church of Christ the Teacher. She was joined by panelists Melissa Barberio ’05, Alison Gilroy ’05, Lauren Mercurio ’05, Kristen Melle ’05 and Kasey Nupp ’05 to discuss their experiences transitioning from Merrimack into the workforce.
The event was organized by the O’Brien Center for Career Development and sponsored by Northwestern Mutual, St. Anne’s Home, Inc. and Enterprise Mobility.
All six women on the panel became friends at Merrimack – at one point they even shared the same housing unit on campus. During their senior year, Barberio invited Nupp to study abroad with her in Spain.
“I was not fluent in Spanish at all,” Nupp said. “I said sure. The biggest thing was that I was so out of my comfort zone. The more you can travel for work, the more you’ll see yourself blossom.”
Barberio said despite the fun she had – she still has dreams to this day that she’s back in Barcelona – her study abroad experience wasn’t always a walk in the park. Looking back, the challenges ended up being some of the highlights of her semester.
“It definitely helped me where I am today,” she explained. “There were some challenges we faced that year that I thought I couldn’t do it and I needed to go home, but we got through the trials and tribulations. I strongly recommend taking advantage of the study abroad program.”
Nupp currently works as deputy superintendent of schools at Arlington Public Schools, while Barberio serves as senior manager of marketing operational planning at Athenahealth. Gilroy, meanwhile, is a school counselor at Natick High School. After staying at what she described as a cushy yet unfulfilling job for seven years, she is now working her dream job.
“Don’t be afraid to be at the bottom of the totem pole,” Gilroy advised. “I think, for me, it was important to have a job that I didn’t appreciate because…it taught me about what I wanted and pushed me to take those next steps.”
Mercurio seemed to have the inverse problem that Gilroy had. She took a job at a residential treatment facility after earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology, something she found fulfilling but very stressful and not paying her well enough. She went back for her master’s and now works as an occupational therapist.
“I do wish I had looked a little more into what options I could pursue with my psychology degree, what internships I could follow,” Mercurio explained. “When you decide on a major, see who you can talk to and network with to see what path it leads down.”
Melle, a communications major, entered the workforce as a public relations and special events coordinator for WLVI (Channel 56). Now, she works as the activities director for 1000 Southern Artery Senior Center in Quincy, MA.
“When I came on, (the center) didn’t have a website,” she said. “I called my first boss who had since started his own ad agency and he helped create a logo, branding and central membership database. Talk to people because you don’t know years later how that connection is going to come back.”
Near the end of the event, Walker offered her final piece of advice.
“Don’t be afraid to fail,” she told the crowd. “You’re going to take what you failed at and learn from it. All of the times you fail, (the lessons) will stick. You’ll always do better next time.”
