On Tuesday February 12, students and staff gathered in the Living Learning Commons to attend a discussion on the value of a Liberal Arts degree in today's competitive job market, hosted by Champlain College and featuring distinguished Trent Alumni. Fourth-year Trent student Andrea Meeks took a break from her studies in History to attend. Like many of her cohorts, she has heard the “do you want fries with that?” jokes in popular culture- the punch line implying that graduates of broad curriculums will be underemployed. Ms. Meeks, who is completing her final year of studies, discovered at the session that she can forget about the coffee barista quips and focus instead on the exciting career path ahead of her.
Speaker Sheldon Willerton graduated with a degree in History last June and is now employed as manufacturing support coordinator for PepsiCo. Though it may come as a surprise that he landed a job at a multinational corporation with a background in history, he attributes much of this accomplishment to his involvement in campus life at Trent and the soft skills he learned as an arts student. In his daily production meetings on the job, Mr. Willerton is surrounded by engineers, electricians and other tradespeople who have been trained in specific skill sets. “They are very intelligent in their fields”, he told the audience, “but what they have a challenge with is understanding each other.” He explains that through his seminars as Trent student, he became skilled at “tying those people together... being a bridge - a relationship-builder around that table.”
Brittany Cadence graduated in 1993 with a joint major in History and Native Studies. She recalled fearing that her skills would not be marketable in the harsh economic climate at the time. Ms. Cadence then went on to describe the colourful career she has enjoyed since graduation, including her present position as the director of communications for the Peterborough Public Health Unit. She highlighted that the “hard”, technical skills she acquired at Flemming College were useful at first, but her Trent education gave her the knowledge she required in order for her career to grow. To Ms. Cadence, her career has been so successful because her arts degree equipped her with critical thinking skills, a passion for meaning, and the necessary factual content and ideas. She feels that her background as a generalist has allowed her to find challenging, meaningful employment in a variety of sectors such as tourism, education and health care.
Robin Quantick '78, was a particularly lively and entertaining speaker. He asked the audience, “Why be unhappy doing one thing when you can be happy doing a variety of things?” He made reference to statistics showing that regardless of vocational training, most people make seven complete career changes throughout life. Mr. Quantick stressed that liberal arts degrees “were never intended as a specific lifetime destination” and are “best understood as the foundation for a building that's under construction”. With a background in Liberal Arts, Mr. Quantick was free to transition from his original plan to teach Grade five, instead founding Excalibur Learning Resource Centre Canada Corp. He is most celebrated for his work in the field of correctional and prison education. He is now a Doctoral Candidate in the department of Indigenous Studies at Trent.
Stu Butts '65, B.A. Economics and Politics and Champlain College's current alumnus-in-residence, concluded the talk by explaining how his arts degree fueled his career as an entrepreneur. Mr. Butts is a founding member and director of Xenos Group Inc. and was the driving force behind a multitude of innovations, ranging from reusable gift boxes to computer technologies now used by most of the world's financial institutions. He pointed out that his role in these breakthroughs did not involve the use of technical skills to design the products. “I've never made a paper box in my life,” he laughed, “and to this day, I do not write a bit of computer programming.” Mr. Butts shared that his Trent education endowed him with the mindset to challenge and engage people in the process of creating these inventions.
As she made her way out of the Living Learning Commons at the end of the discussion, Andrea Meeks expressed that she now has a “feeling of inspiration” as she prepares to head into the workforce. She was particularly inspired by the words of Sheldon Willerton, who shared his go-to response when asked as a student at family functions what he planned to do with his degree in History: “Anything. I can do anything I want.”
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2013.