W&M '09 grads featured on BBC America
Across the pond Both the BBC and W&M graduates crossed a pond May 17 to participate in the college's 316th Commencement. The BBC was on hand to interview graduates about entering the job marketing during an economic downturn. Photo by Stephen Salpukas
Recent graduates from the College of William & Mary were the focus of a piece on BBC World News America looking at college graduates entering the job market during an unstable economy. The first installment of the series aired May 25 during the 7 p.m. news broadcast on BBC America. The four 2009 William & Mary graduates were interviewed during Commencement weekend.
“It’s excellent exposure for the College, the Career Center and all the hard work that everyone puts into preparing our students to hit the job market,” said Mary Schilling, director of the William & Mary Career Center, who was also interviewed for the story. “All the students they selected to interview are wonderful ambassadors for William & Mary. It will be exciting to follow the early days of their careers.”
Two of the recent William & Mary 2009 graduates interviewed for the piece already have jobs -- Lauren Jones, a biology major and business management minor, and Amber Roberts, a double major of history and public policy. Jones, who credits her successful job search to both the William & Mary Career Center and the Executive Partners Program at the Mason School of Business, will be running clinical trials on new products as a quality assurance/regulatory analyst at PBM Products, a leading infant-formula company in Gordonsville, Va. Roberts has accepted a fellowship at the Congressional Hunger Center.
Two 2009 graduates, who are also close friends -- Rob Cottrell, a business finance and economics double major, and Mike Goudey, an international relations major, will be featured as they continue their job search. Cottrell, whose major also has an international concentration, is waiting word about a possible job with an international research firm in Chile. All interviews took place Sunday morning in the Great Hall of the Wren Building -- just before the students took part in the College’s Commencement Exercises.
Suchet Sachdev, a BBC intern who coordinated the campus visit and the series, said producers were looking for recent graduates from a small university where they could access a broad range of students.
“Not that the (William & Mary) brand hurt either – a well-known school with a good reputation,” Sachdev said. “William & Mary was a good fit.”
BBC World News America is broadcast every weekday at 7 p.m. (EST) and again 10 p.m. on BBC America, a digital cable and satellite TV channel available in more than 60 million homes in the United States, according to the network's Web site. BBC America is not in the local cable channel lineups for Hampton Roads but video highlights from of the broadcast are posted on the BBC World News America Web site. It is also carried via satellite by DIRECTV (Channel 264) and EchoStar's DISH Network (Channel 135).
Sachdev said BBC plans to follow the graduates over the next four months.
“There’s definitely going to be a check in (to see how the graduates are doing),” she said.
