The Muhlenberg Network Comes Home

On Friday, March 21, more than 220 students checked in at Seegers Union to hear from and meet with professionals who walked in their shoes years before. The Connections Conference began at 10 a.m. with a packed audience for a panel moderated by Dana Iannuzzi ’03, a New York theatre director and active Muhlenberg alum.

 “The arts and entertainment panel was the fullest room, with students standing in the back,” says Jordan Lavalle ’25, a media & communication major who attended the conference. “The panelists were super nice.” 

 The second year of the Connections Conference, organized by the Career Center with support from the Office of Alumni Affairs and the Department of Media & Communication, brought together 33 alumni for 10 industry-related panels: sustainability, marketing and communication, health care, arts and entertainment, law and government, accounting
and finance, humanities and social sciences, athletics, writing and publishing, and diversity in the workplace. After the panels, a networking reception drew crowds of students interested in meeting the panelists one on one.

 “There were panels throughout the day, and you could hop from one to another and speak with the alumni afterward,” says Rosemary Vinod ’25, a media & communication major. “I definitely felt more confident about reaching out to alumni and knowing that they are so willing to help. It’s a tight-knit group.”

Jennifer Sarnitsky ’93, director of employer and alumni engagement and a conference organizer, worked closely with Pooley and the media & communication team to identify and recruit alumni for the panels: “I wanted to make sure students were making connections that were meaningful and valuable and making enduring relationships that would help them develop career paths. I also wanted alumni to feel connected to the College in a meaningful way,” she says.

Participating alumni who traveled to campus included employees of Peacock, NBCUniversal Media, Ketchum PR, BSI Corporate Benefits, Salesforce, Tighe & Bond, Narberth Animal Hospital, the IRS and the University of New Haven. More local alumni who participated included employees of KidsPeace, Lehigh Valley Health Network, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Lucille Barchitta ’94, vice president for One Platform media sales at NBCUniversal Media LLC, and classmate and close friend Mike Doyle ’94, CEO of Ketchum PR, joined entrepreneur Alexander Mazepa ’12 on the marketing & communication panel: “So, you have someone who is at a big PR agency, then someone who is [in] marketing at a network and then you have somebody who is doing influencer and social media marketing — three very distinctly different parts of the marketing business,” Barchitta says. “The students I met at the conference were really switched on.”

 Katherine Lubenesky ’93, president at sustainable housewares company W&P, shared with students how her liberal arts focus on writing, grammar and the ability to communicate a thought or an argument clearly prepared her for a business career that led to her current role in the C-suite. “It’s never too early to start talking about where you want to
go post-college, even if it’s just to explore in your own mind what the opportunities are,” she says. “Alumni are eager to share what they have learned and help guide and maybe provide that spark of information that helps [students] land their first dream job.”

 “I wanted to create an environment where [students] could begin to get some familiarity with networking in person and to assure the students this was a safe group,” says Sarnitsky, who hopes to provide space for one-on-one meetings next year. “Everybody understands you are new to networking. They care about you and where you are headed, and they are here to support you.”