Alumni Stories

Kori Ade graduated from Loyola in 1997 with a BS in Anthropology and minors in Criminal Justice, Sociology, and Spanish. She has gone on to coach elite-level figure skating, including Olympic athlete Jason Brown. Kori points to the breadth of her college education as helping to inform her holistic approach to coaching.

I always say to myself how lucky I am to get paid to work in a museum. I love my work. I love learning on a daily basis, with the intent of turning that knowledge into a product. The kind that a visitor to my museum can walk away with and enrich their lives. There is always a path to the job you love. You just have to put the map away at times and see where the path takes you.

In college I majored in Anthropology and Classical Civilization…bones and stones. Fast forward twenty years and here I am cataloguing 20th Century militaria. Most all of the artifacts that cross my desk as Registrar at a military museum are mass produced. They are green, brown, made of cloth or metal. Occasionally they have been blown up. In some cases, the original owner died wearing/holding the object. In those cases, the job can be sobering.

One thing for sure, work it is never dull. But it is a far cry from what I thought I would be doing. In fact, after Loyola, I volunteered [and ultimately worked at, twice] the Field Museum. I worked on an excavation for a couple of summers in the Ancient Agora in Athens, Greece. I let myself wander a bit. I tried different jobs on the same career path. At the Field Museum I worked for the Registrar, using my Osteology skills from Dr. Grauer’s classes to inventory the human remains collection at the museum. Even though the collection had been there for decades, there were gaps in their records that they needed help filling in.

Working at the Field Museum, and being mentored by a top notch Registrar, pointed me in my current direction on my career path. I proceeded to get my Master’s degree at The George Washington University in Museum Studies. Studying how museums work in a city like Washington DC, was perfect. You study under the professionals that ultimately become your colleagues. Out of school I was hired onto an artifact move project at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, playing a part in moving roughly 20,000 artifacts a month from NYC to Washington DC. A few years later, I was on a similar artifact move project back at the Field Museum.

In 2006, I began working at the First Division Museum at Cantigny. Where I am today began in many ways in the classrooms at Loyola. That is where I picked up my career map. Along the way, I stopped off at many roadside attractions: Athens; The Field Museum; GWU; NMAI and FDM, learned a few things and moved on. Each of these experiences were quite different, yet on that same path.

Andrew Leith graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2005 with a B.S. in Anthropology, with Honors. His foci within anthropology were museology and historical archaeology, and his minors included art history and studio art. During his time in the Anthropology Department at Loyola Andrew studied under Dr. Adams, Dr. Amick, Dr. Breidenbach, Dr. Calcagno, Dr. Fry, and Dr. Miller. Dr. Amick was his academic advisor. Andrew was also involved at the D'Arcy (now LUMA) museum, serving as a gallery assistant. He pursued independent studies in historical archaeology under Dr. Amick's supervision and served as an intern a the Field Museum during his senior year, excavating and processing artifacts from Chicago's Chinatown. 

After graduating Andrew continued on at the Field Museum as a volunteer for several months and was hired as a Collections Management Assistant in the Field Museum's Anthropology Department in early 2006. There he worked on several large collections inventories and moves, assisted with research visits, NAGPRA related consultations, and archival collections housing. In 2011 he enrolled in the Masters of Arts Program in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago focusing in historical archaeology. Between 2014 and 2016 he pursued a second masters degree in historic preservation from the University of Texas at Austin. After working for ICOMOS documenting heritage sites in Jamaica, he returned to Chicago in the fall of 2016.

Andrew currently serves as the Conservation and Collections Program Manager at the Chicago Cultural Alliance, where he works with staff at 36 local museums, historical societies, and cultural centers to develop sustainable programs in collections management and implement scaled best practices in collections care.

Michele Statz earned her BA in Anthropology at Loyola in 2005. She went on to graduate school at the University of Washington, earning her MA in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2011 and her PhD Sociocultural Anthropology and Comparative Law and Society in 2014. Her research and teaching in the Department of Family Medicine and BioBehavioral Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth is focused on rural access to justice and community health, building on previous work focused on young migrants in China and the U.S. Michele published her first book in 2018, Lawyering an Uncertain Cause: Immigration Advocacy and Chinese Youth in the US.

Michele is also co-creator, with Lauren Heidbrink, of YouthCirculations.com, a project focused on representing the experiences of young migrants and their families. Together, they have recently published a commentary in Anthropology News on the role of anthropologists in public policy debates around migration.

Alex's reflections on his career path and the value of Anthropology as an undergraduate major:

Majoring in Anthropology helped me navigate grad school, complete my PhD in political science, and ultimately become a university professor.

After graduating from Loyola as a double-major in anthropology and political science, I went on to grad school at the University of California, Irvine to study political science. Those who have experienced the shift from undergraduate to graduate student know that it can be very confusing. Finding your own unique place within the academic community is particularly challenging as a new grad student. 

Fortunately, the lessons I learned as an anthropology student were incredibly useful in helping me to adapt to life as a scholar and gave me an advantage compared to many of my peers did not have this training. I found the concepts and methods taught in the anthropology courses I took particularly relevant for understanding how to navigate a large bureaucracy (the University of California system), to learn the “language” of a new scientific discipline, and to negotiate the complex social hierarchy of a new profession.

As a new PhD student learning a new field, I likened my experience to an “observing-participant” learning a new culture, and I drew heavily upon the anthropological method to make sense of my surroundings.  Concepts such as a “reflexivity”, which I learned in Professor Adams’ class, were particularly helpful in gaining perspective about my own position relative to others within a broader institutional context. And my understanding of and appreciation for “cultural relativism” has provided an invaluable perspective as a job applicant interviewing in campuses across the country and engaging with colleagues who have backgrounds very different from my own.

I would recommend anthropology as a major for anyone — the value is not limited to those who want to go on to grad school, or those who plan to study humans. Anthropology offers real world lessons that make us better citizens, allow us to connect with and relate to others with whom we seemingly have little in common, and identify the institutional structures that profoundly impact human behavior and social interactions.

Following her undergraduate studies in Anthropology at Loyola, Katie Day Good ('07) completed her Ph.D. at Northwestern University. Dr. Good is currently an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication and Comparative Media Studies in the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film, and Affiliate Faculty in American Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is also a Research Associate of the Radio Preservation Task Force with the Library of Congress. Her research focuses on historical and contemporary practices of mediated civic, social, and global communication in American education and everyday life, and her first book, Bring the World to the Child: Technologies of Global Citizenship in American Education, 1900-1946, is slated to be published by MIT Press in the fall of 2019.

Kelly LaFramboise graduated from Loyola in 2011 with a BS in Anthropology and BA in History. She went on to earn a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma in 2017, after which she accepted a position with the multimillion dollar nonprofit Feed the Children as the Development Specialist on the International Operations team.

Describing her work with Feed the Children, Kelly says, "This position allows me to travel throughout Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean to enroll children in the organization's sponsorship program, to spend time in the villages getting to know the families and cultures, analyzing their hardships to develop sustainable solutions, and serve as a cultural ambassador where I get to relate cultural intelligence about the communities we serve to donor groups in the United States."

Reflecting on her career trajectory, Kelly notes, "I would not have this dream job if it were not for my foundational experiences at Loyola. The Jesuit education model, and the core curriculum that emphasizes social justice forged my vocation, and has led me to this amazing career path."

There is much more to Kelly's story, and she was profiled by Loyola Magazine in 2017. Learn more about Kelly's remarkable journey to Loyola and beyond.

In the year following graduation, Chris took a job as animal keeper at Shedd Aquarium. Prior to that, he worked at Lincoln Park Zoo's Farm-in-the-Zoo in a seasonal animal husbandry position while also maintaining an internship at the Ape House, which his Loyola Anthropology connections made possible.

Reflecting on his post-grad work experiences, Chris says: "I have obviously veered from the path that I originally intended to go down, but I am extremely happy with the career I have chosen to pursue. I don't know if I would have ever truly discovered my passion for animal husbandry had it not been for the internship. I think that my journey is a testament to the holistic nature of anthropology and the possibility of applying the field to a wide array of careers. I am excited to be a part of the ever-changing field of animal husbandry and to provide new insights that might better the lives of captive animals."

When I decided to major in Anthropology as an undergraduate, in addition to History, I had no idea that my choice of majors would be so foundational to my career path. Mentors and museum professionals always told me that the best way to pursue a career in museums is to have experience—lots of experience—and because of my early experiences in museum collections through Loyola’s Anthropology classes, I’ve had a solid start to my museum career. My first hands-on experience in museum work was through interning in the May Weber Ethnographic Collection. I was one of the first students to take Dr. Nichols’ Collecting and Caring for Cultural Materials internship class and so I helped unpack and organize the new collection, while also learning how to take care of the artifacts. This year of learning gave me the experience I needed to be qualified for internships at other museums.

After graduating from Loyola in 2015, I went on to Marquette University for my Master’s degree in History. Although I studied United States History, I brought my Anthropology background into my research by incorporating material culture. Taking Dr. Adams’ Anthropology of Art class while at Loyola helped me be able to read historic objects in a way that offered insight into how past Americans saw their world. Outside of classes and my responsibilities as a Teaching Assistant, I continued to gain museum experience at Marquette. I enrolled in every Public History class offered to graduate students, and during the summers I interned at museums in Milwaukee. One summer I worked with historic clothing and textiles (my favorite kind of objects to work with!) at the Milwaukee County Historical Society, and this past summer I was at the Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear.

This combination of academic and experiential training, along with plenty of guidance from mentors, led me to one of the best rewards a recent graduate could ask for: a job. I am now a part-time Collections Assistant, specifically for the historic clothing and textile collection, at the McHenry County Historical Society and Museum. I also work as a Museum Educator at Naper Settlement in Naperville, IL. I'm excited to be in both places!

Unlike most graduates, I’ve ended up roughly where I had hoped I’d be, working in a museum with a collection I’m passionate about. What I didn’t expect was that I’d be living out even a little piece of my dreams so early in my career. I’m grateful for the unexpectedly pleasant way my career has begun, and I’m excited to see where my experiences take me in the future.

After graduating in 2017, Liz Bajjalieh spent one year living in Miami, Florida, where she spent the first seven months taking part in the AmeriCorps City Year program to support at-risk youth and spent the next 5 months working as the Registrar at the local American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora. She currently resides in Washington, DC, where she was accepted into the Young Fellows Program. As a Young Fellow, Liz works as a Program Assistant for the organization’s Middle East program, where she facilitates lobbying visits with members of Congress, updates social media, assists constituents, and supports FCNL’s mission of promoting greater US diplomacy in the Middle East through non-violent advocacy.

I am a science teacher at Shortridge High School, an International Baccalaureate high school in the Indianapolis Public School district. Desiring to be a social-justice oriented teacher, I earned my Bachelor of Science in Anthropology with a minor in Biology from Loyola University Chicago in 2017 to have a well-rounded background about humans, cultures and societies. I have done archaeological digs, caught 6’ sharks, learned to identify bone fragments with one of the country’s leading forensic anthropologists, and been on environmental restoration trips to Peru and Belize. I also completed my Master of Education in 2018 at Loyola, and spent my time teaching at Senn High School in the Chicago Public School district. 

Science is deeply interwoven into every aspect of life, and my highest goal is to help students use scientific knowledge to create a more equitable, safe, and socially just world. I firmly believe that to be a science teacher is to be a facilitator connecting real-world phenomena to the science behind it.