Student

Natalie Evenson

Concentration

Screenwriting

What do you like about your major?

The classes in the film program at Champlain are very hands-on. This hands-on approach has helped me learn film equipment. The professors in the program are so supportive, which makes the classes very enjoyable because they give me the confidence I need to feel successful not only in the classroom, but also when I am working on my projects outside of the classroom.

What projects have you worked on in classes that you’ve found particularly rewarding/useful?

The project I am currently working on, which is my senior film, has been very rewarding for me. My role for this film has been Executive Producer. I have taken producer-focused courses which have really helped me with this role. Working specifically in the position I love has been so rewarding as I am seeing the film come together.

Tell us about your internship!

I was a Production Assistant on the set of the Food Network over the summer. I would help set up and create the set pieces which were shown on TV. I also helped the art department paint the set pieces along with making sure everything was in the right place. I would help unload and pack up any film equipment needed for the show. I was very well prepared to go into my internship because of my classes and how much I learn in these courses. After taking my production courses where I learned about the different equipment I felt very confident in working on a real set. I am now able to put this work experience on my resume which will show employers that I have experience actually working in the industry. This will show them I have had workplace experience outside of just taking film classes.

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Pat Fagan

Advice to Students?

Honestly the SMART Space was always how I got the ball rolling on most assignments. Once I got a little help getting my foot in the door, usually that was all I needed to complete an assignment. Starting is always the hardest part!

Favorite: Book, Movie, Podcast?

Book: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (it’s way funnier than it has any right to be)
Movie: Into the Spiderverse (the animation, music, and dialogue are so addictively snappy!)

Inspirational Quote?

“If I had more time I would’ve written a shorter letter.” – Blaise Pascal
(This quote also applies to programming, since sometimes a simpler system might actually take more work to create, but is usually worth it in the long run.)

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Kohle Feeley

Specialization

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Internships

Mitre10 in Shanghai, China and Unify Ordering in Dublin, Ireland

Favorite Class

Financial & Economic Modeling

What projects have you worked on in classes that you’ve found particularly rewarding or useful?

Having the opportunity to start building my own business and using it as a project in my classes has been an amazing experience. As my Capstone, I decided to start a business called Dollars.fyi that focuses on personal finance education to help improve financial literacy in young adults.Through my different business classes, I’ve been able to use the material we are using in class and directly apply it to creating a business plan, defining my target market, and even start development. Events outside of the classroom like the Elevator Pitch Competition and Launch Champlain have even helped me receive funding to get things started. By the time I graduate, I’ll have experience pursuing an entrepreneurial venture and understand what goes into creating a new business.

How did your classroom work prepare you for your internship experience?

I felt really prepared going into my internships because the classes at Champlain are designed to give you practical experience in a classroom setting. Especially our focus on collaboration and group projects proved to be helpful when you’re on a team in the workplace.One experience that still resonates with me is from my first year Marketing and the Organizational Mindset course. We were able to work with Northern Stage, a non-profit professional theater company in White River Junction, to develop a marketing strategy. We analyzed their current situation, did market and demographic research, and presented a final plan and mockups to the company. Being able to apply your course content to a real client project in your first year of college was an amazing and impactful experience. My courses on entrepreneurship have also played a big role in my confidence entering my internships, especially my time working at Unify Ordering. In the classroom, I learned about startup business models and how to quickly analyze and adapt them, and then I was able to actually see that play out in a real business.

In what ways do you think your internship experience will give you a competitive advantage when it comes to getting a job in your field after graduation?

I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to work two internships abroad because business is becoming more global than ever before. Especially with work from home rising in popularity, international teams across different time zones will start to become the norm.Already having experience working with a diverse team and with coworkers from different cultures and even with language barriers will give me a huge advantage as workplaces become more globalized. These are the types of experiences that help to develop emotional intelligence and personal growth.

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Adam Ferrante

Specialization

Cybersecurity

Internship

Consulting Intern at Mandiant in New York, NY

Post-Grad Job

Associate Consultant at Mandiant in New York, NY

What do you like about your major?

I like that you need an investigative mindset to solve a crime or figure out what happened in a digital or technical realm. I can use my past experiences with tech and computing to build narratives on different crimes that may have occurred.

How has Champlain prepared you for the professional world?

I transferred to Champlain with a degree in Cybersecurity, but I was interested in the Digital Forensics field, and that’s not something that’s commonly offered. I kept Cybersecurity as my specialization. Those skills combined prepared me for my internship and helped me thrive.

Can you tell us about your internship?

I was an Information Security intern at Boehringer Ingelheim. It’s a pharmaceutical company based out of Germany, and I worked in Division of Information Technology & Sciences Connecticut office doing an awareness project and a web security framework. I also have an internship lined up for this summer at a company called Mandiant, which does incident response. I’m looking to get as much experience as I can, especially with hands-on incident response, using the content I’ve learned in the classroom.

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Arlo Fillmore

Post-Grad Job

Spotlight Media Productions

How has the Upside-Down Curriculum enhanced your education?

It allowed me to be able to try my major out right in the beginning, which only made me fall in love with it more. I think it provides a different type of learning. Instead of squeezing all majorclasses into the end of school, I learned over time and had much more time to mess up and improve. It allows for substantial growth that I don’t think would have happened without theUpside-Down Curriculum.

What is your favorite class you’ve taken at Champlain?

My favorite class I’ve taken at Champlain was Writing the City. I took this class during my timein Dublin, and it was the first time I was forced to really use my creativity. We went on outings during class in which we explored different parts of the city. This opened my eyes to many new places, and overall was just a joy to be in. My professor was also a spectacular creative teacher and writer, and she encouraged me to produce good work and feel good about my abilities.

What do you like about going to college in Burlington?

I love Burlington because it is so beautiful. We have the lake and mountains surrounding us. Ialso love the food here! I spend my free time down by the lake or skiing. Burlington has grown to be my home. Another thing is that people here are usually very kind, and that isn’t something that you can find everywhere.

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Sam Fox

Advice to Students?

Start your work as soon as possible, work first play second.

Favorite: Book, Movie, Podcast?

Movies: Deadpool and Baby Driver

Inspirational Quote?

“If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing” – Ernest Hemingway

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Sarah Frey

Specialization

Editing & Publishing

Internship

The Write Place, Right Time in Burlington, VT

Tell us about your internship!

I was a ghostwriter and helped with marketing, communications, and was lucky enough to work on a book launch with my colleagues for the owner of the company. I now have connections in numerous states and learned about more career opportunities that I’d be interested in.

What do you like about your professors at Champlain?

I love the professors and learning from them. They work in the field they teach and they bring so much experience to their teaching. I like their sense of community and their commitment to their students. They’re always eager to help you with coursework and professional development.

What do you recommend doing in Burlington?

Church Street is lovely, and I wholly recommend the Skinny Pancake, a crepe restaurant down by the waterfront.

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Ronan Furuta

Concentration

Design, Film & Education

Travel Course

Jordan

Favorite Class

Intermediate Film Photography

What drew you to your major?

My interest in filmmaking started by making short videos at home with friends. My interest slowly grew and grew and I loved making films throughout middle and high school. Film is such a powerful medium. It allows us to really experience another person’s point of view and learn from it. Narrative and docs both provide really amazing ways to creatively show things.Graphic design is important because we are all constantly surrounded by it. Using subtle cues you can shape opinions and show people things. Education I think is the most important of all of those though. Being able to teach people and help shape young kids is really rewarding.I think DDL is perfect for me. I love all three of those things and I want to pursue each thing to the fullest extent possible. Getting to work with the amazing DDL faculty has allowed me to choose classes and a path that will work the best for my needs.

What is something you’ve grown proud of during your time at Champlain?

I’m both proud of my filmmaking work, but also very aware that I have a ton left to learn. Being at Champlain as opposed to high school gives me access to a lot more people who are also invested in film.

What is your current goal post-grad?

I would like to be a Cinematographer. Champlain has given me a lot of opportunities and a community to develop and practice those skills.

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Angel Gallien

Concentration

Social Work

Internship

Hope Works, Burlington, VT

Describe the nature of your internship: What was your title? What did you do? What opportunities did you have?

At my internship at Hope Works in Burlington, I am a sexual assault advocate tending the hotline and connecting victims and survivors with the necessary recourses to get back on their feet and help them to be resilient to their traumatic experiences. A lot of the time, it’s just answering the phone and listening to the survivors share their story, being someone they can talk to and creating a safe space to do so.

What have you learned through the InSight program? How will it help you in the future?

I have learned many concepts through the InSight program. However, the most important thing that has stayed with me is financial budgeting and learning to keep yourself accountable on that budget. With this, we research and report the approximate salary we make a year after graduation in our field. We separate our budgets down by month and how much we should be spending each month per area of budget while making sure there is some money left for “a rainy day.” As a college student, this has helped me when it came time to needing a budget within school alone. Using what I learned, I took what I make while working to create a monthly budget of what I need in order to “survive” that month of school and having to make the sacrifices of taking things out or adding things in when an emergency arises.

Where is your favorite spot on campus?

My favorite spot on campus would have to be the different quads such as Finney Quad or Rozendaal Courtyard because my friends and I gather to play frisbee after long exhausting days or simply just chat or run around to relax. One of my other favorite spots on campus is the Fireside Lounge. I love this space because so many student activities have taken place there and I enjoy connecting with everyone. Some of my favorite people-Jared Cadrette and Kelsey O’Connor- work very closely in this area and they have helped me significantly with my time here at Champlain.

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Donovan Garcia-Buckler

Favorite Class

Advanced Seminar

Tell us a bit about your experience in the Game Studio!

I love that my major allows me to collaborate with other game developers as soon as possible to make games with the guidance of amazing professors. I also have benefited from taking some advanced seminars and connecting with amazing industry professionals.

What do you like about going to college in Burlington?

Everyone here is super friendly and Burlington is such a walkable city. The best thing about it is that you can just explore and find a cool shop or cafe tucked away in a spot that you hadn’t seen before.

What projects have you worked on in classes that you’ve found particularly rewarding or useful?

The game projects that I have had in my Production classes have been the most rewarding for me. Not because we made games in that class, although that was still pretty great, but because of the experience I got from working with other people and building some amazing connections. Those soft skills of collaboration are much more important to me than just making games.

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Alexa Gardner

Advice to Students?

Keep a personal homework schedule too, don’t trust Canvas for all the due dates.

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Evan Gartner

Internship

Project Management for Champlain’s Marketing Department

Favorite Class

Introduction to Game Production Management

What have you gained from Core? Has it changed your perspective?

Core has helped me to improve my reading and writing skills. It’s really changed my perspective of the world. Many of my Core classes have covered world issues and cultures, helping me to better understand that subject matter. My favorite Core class has to be the Reading, Writing, and Pop Culture class from the fall of my first year. The class was fun and very engaging because of Division of Information Technology & Sciences focus on protest songs written throughout history, which had a great impact on pop culture, and that really interested me.

What do you think about InSight? Why is it valuable, practical, or relevant?

The InSight program is a very useful program for helping students find jobs or internships. It’s very valuable because in addition to being used by current students, alumni can use it as a resource as well if they need assistance finding a job after graduating. The milestone that’s been the most rewarding to me is my LinkedIn submission. Getting a perfect score and receiving positive feedback from a peer career coach significantly boosted my confidence in succeeding with my job hunt.

Looking back, what advice would you give a new or incoming Champlain student? What might the high school version of you think about the current you today?

An important piece of advice I would give to a new or incoming student would be to always ask for help when you need it. I had a particularly stressful Spring 2022 semester. However, because I asked for help from my professors, counselors, and doctors, I was able to get through it and get on a great path. I feel like my high school self would be proud of all that I have accomplished in my first year and a half of college. He would probably tell me to keep it up, just like my teachers, professors, co-workers, family, and friends have all told me to do.

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Michelle Garvey

Focus

Early Childhood/Elementary

Internship

Spanish Immersion Intern at Jericho Elementary School in Jericho, VT

Post-Grad Job

Fourth Grade Teacher at Swanton School in Swanton, VT

What is the best thing about being an Education major at Champlain?

At Champlain, I was able to dive into coursework and the elementary education field experience from the first semester of my first year. The Upside-Down Curriculum allowed me to develop my professional skills in a meaningful and beneficial manner. I’ve been placed in a number of classroom environments and have developed the tools to meet the needs of diverse students in multiple ways.

How has the Core Curriculum impacted your education?

Core shone a light on the true interdisciplinary nature of the world. I was able to work on skills necessary for an educator such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and synthesis. I was also able to supplement my learning of pedagogy with psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy while understanding the connections to other majors in various divisions.

How does your internship tie in with your Foreign Languages minor?

I am currently interning in a Spanish immersion kindergarten classroom at Jericho Elementary School. My duties in the classroom include implementing behavioral support and aiding in class preparation. This opportunity to meld my two areas of study is a goal I did not know would be so seamlessly achievable. Thanks to my advisor, I was able to explore a career path I’ve wanted to pursue as long as I can remember.

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Leah Gimbutas

Favorite Class

Corporate Social Responsibility.

How has the Upside-Down Curriculum enhanced your education?

With the upside-down curriculum, I’ve had a huge jump start in marketing myself as a young professional. I’m able to tell potential employers about my interactive experiences with project management and facilitating team work ahead of many other underclassmen.

What Extracurricular activities are you involved in? What do you do/why do you enjoy them?

I love participating in the Global Game Jam. It’s an incredibly manic weekend where you make a game with your favorite people, and figure out very quickly if your discipline is the right match for you. For me, it was the perfect sign that I really did love game production.

What advice do you have for students thinking about coming to Champlain for college?

If you have a genuine passion for something, and you want a school to support those goals. Champlain is the perfect school for you. It really is incredible how much focus there is on what major you decide on. Ambition is such an important characteristic for a student here!

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Amanda Girard

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