Environmental geology and biology double major Emmalynn May’23 worked with the Montana Conservation Corps, mentoring students, maintaining hiking trails, and paving her own way for a career of protecting state and national parks.

The experience has transformed Emmalynn’s hopes for her own career post-Beloit. The Maryland native is hoping to end up back in Montana, or at least out west, with the hopes of working with Montana Conservation Corps again, and later for an agency like the National Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management.

“Knowing that I have this [career] on the other side has made me pretty excited,” she says. “I feel ready.”

A permanent exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum breaks new ground in how Native American stories are told and who tells them. Three Beloiters played key roles in creating it: Tom Skwerski’87, Jamie Kelly’96, and Emily Starck’14.

“Early in the 19th and 20th centuries, museums thought of themselves as the experts in cultural knowledge, but we know now that we are acting as stewards and we’re not the experts,” Starck says. “It’s been a real privilege to work with community knowledge keepers, elders, scholars, and artists who are the experts.”

Aaron Joiner’12 is doing important research on the protein structures implicated in two neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS. His commitment to that work and to helping younger scientists of color feel at home in his field attracted a major honor from Beloit: the Young Alumni Award.

Since his time at Beloit, he’s gone on to build a successful career as a research scientist, earning his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2020 and now working as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California-Berkeley.

Madeleine Roux’08, bestselling author of the young adult horror series Asylum, credits Beloit English professors Steve Wright and Francesca Abbate with being the support that she needed to pursue a budding interest in creative writing.

“[Steve Wright] was such a huge part of my Beloit experience, and still to this day such a huge influence on who I ended up becoming,” she says. “And I don’t know if I would have gotten into publishing as quickly as I did if I didn’t have Fran there.”

Five alumni share their stories of navigating careers, facing personal and professional adversity, and applying their Beloit experiences toward a fulfilling life.

“I think everyone has a different experience, but making tough decisions and not always succeeding and learning from the failure is something I learned at Beloit,” explains Farooq Pasha’03, whose first job out of college as a marketing analyst for ABC Supply Company in Beloit. “You need to have the ability to adapt and to change quickly. And you need a realization of the skills that you have.”

Situated at the heart of the Ironworks campus on the college’s doorstep, Irontek offers a variety of office and meeting spaces for startups, freelancers, and professionals who are working remotely.

Alex Iseri’11 is managing director of Venture Studio. which helps to build startups in the local area. “The essence of my job is to do whatever’s necessary to help founders be successful,” he says. “Almost by definition, a lot of what they are trying to do is brand new. It doesn’t exist in the market, or if it does, it’s not well-defined. You feel like you’re breaking new ground with them.”

Jalen Ponder’24 participated in gBETA and gALPHA to help develop his own businesses, including Evendtor, a web-based business that helps market food trucks to potential clients. “I don’t want to die with anything inside me,” he says with conviction. “I want to be always there, doing the best I can. I’m going for the number one spot.”