With graduation approaching, Saint Mary’s seniors are getting ready for their lives after college. After four years of classes in preparation for their future careers, students are either about to continue on to either graduate school or begin the hunt for post-graduate jobs.
While some seniors may be done with school for good, senior Hannah Wozniak said she plans to continue her academic career.
“I am attending the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota to pursue my masters in counseling psychology with a concentration in marriage and family therapy,” Wozniak said in an email. “I am graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.”
Wozniak said she is both looking forward to graduation but also sad to leave the College after all her time there.
“I am excited to graduate,” she said. “I will miss [Saint Mary’s], but I am excited to be starting a new chapter and moving farther away with my puppy. I look forward to studying more and obtaining an adult job that pertains to what I have studied.”
The classes and connections made with professors while in college can be just as important to the experiences made with friends or in clubs, Wozniak said.
“My professors were my favorite part of my major,” he said. “They always related the material to real life experience and integrated it into each one of our future career goals. Not only that, they were wonderful to talk to outside of the classroom about anything I needed.”
Wozniak said she will miss professors and friends she made at Saint Mary’s. However, she knows she can lean on these relationships going forward, she said.
“Everyone made my college experience feel like a family,” Wozniak said.
Senior Sydney Woodman said over her four years as an undergraduate, Saint Mary’s has become a second home to her.
“I am going to miss seeing my friends every day, but also my professors,“ she said. “They have been incredibly supportive and helpful to me throughout my time at Saint Mary’s.”
Woodman will also be continuing with her education with graduate school.
“I also know that the next step in my life must come and that I will make the most of it,” Woodman said. “I am excited for what the future holds, at Grand Valley State University, and in my career. I am so excited to start working as a speech-language pathologist. That is why I went to college in the first place. I know that all good things must come to an end, I just wish it wasn’t so soon. I will miss Saint Mary’s, my friends, my professors and everyone else in between. But I am excited for what my future holds.”
Even though this is a time of change for many, Woodman said she feels the years she spent at the College will always be something she holds special in her heart. In her major, she found something she loved to do and was passionate about, she said.
“I majored in Communicative Sciences and Disorders with a minor in psychology at Saint Mary’s,” Woodman said. “I knew I wanted to do speech pathology since I was a freshman in high school, and I was lucky that I stuck with my major all the way through. I knew I was doing what I was meant to do when I would ‘nerd out’ about the things we were learning in my major classes. The professors in my major became my mentors and in the last few weeks, my friends. I’ve loved my time at Saint Mary’s, and it was mostly because of the people and the atmosphere of the school.”
Graduation may be coming up soon, but that doesn’t mean lessons learned or friendships made will be forgotten, Woodman said. She said she feels the College has given innumerable experiences to its students that allowed them to grow and develop into the people they are today.
“Saint Mary’s has prepared me for the world by making me more outspoken and confident in my beliefs,” said Woodman. “It has not only taught me everything I know about my field of study but has expanded my knowledge in many different areas as well. I could not ask more from Saint Mary’s than what it has already given me.”
