Linfield Political Science Alumni

Profile #1)

What are you doing now?

I'm a strategic planner at Wieden + Kennedy, an independent global ad agency, based in Portland, OR.  Currently I work exclusively on the Target account.

What have you accomplished since graduation from Linfield?

After graduation I began working at an ad agency in Portland (now called NORTH). Actually, I started working there on Fridays about two months before graduation. I spent three great years there, learning the industry, discovering where I could add value to the team and working on really fun clients, including Gerber Legendary Blades and Brooks running shoes.  I then moved to Wieden + Kennedy to work on the EA Games and EA Sports accounts as an account manager.  After a couple years on EA, I moved to the Target account and recently transitioned from account management to strategic planning.  I've been at W+K nearly four years.  I'm also a member of the Governing Board of the Portland Advertising Federation.

How does your career relate to current events?

I work in advertising and have since graduation, so I try to maintain a good sense for what's going on in culture - music, TV, politics, literature, etc.  The goal of advertising professionals is to always be creating cultural conversation with our work, which requires having a good sense for the dialog already taking place in the world.  I try to consume as much media and information as possible and have an opinion on it that can in some way inform the work we do for our clients.

What are your future career goals?

I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.  Advertising is constantly exciting and still challenges me.  And I really don't see that changing, so I'll probably stick with this for a while.  But who knows what the future holds?  I'd really like to drive race cars.

In what ways do you feel that Linfield and the Political Science department has helped you post-graduation?

Critical thinking and writing!  There are no right answers in advertising - only opinions, ideas, theories and hunches - and being able to express your sentiments clearly verbally or in writing is essential.  I'm only of value to my team if I can bring a unique point of view or insight to the conversation and four years of Political Science and Mass Communication classes really forced me to have an opinion, to develop my own thinking and to make a case for my ideas.  Besides that, the political history classes gave me great background and perspective for how and why modern culture functions as it does.  And Dawn's Political Psychology class gave me great perspective for the way people think, make judgments and ultimately rationalize their irrational decisions - great insight for a career in advertising.

Profile #2)

What are you doing now?

I am an employee of the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD). I work as acomputer technician at the Multnomah County Courthouse. I provide software, hardware, and network server support to the courthouse staff and judges.

What have you accomplished since graduation from Linfield?

With no formal technology background or training, I suppose it could be an achievement to have been promoted to a second tier computer technician within two years of joining the OJD. Also, I have given a presentation at the Oregon Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators annual conference. The topic was directly tied to state funding, and the use of technology to increase efficiency (both fiscally and with a new generation of tech savvy students). The offer to present at this conference came from my ties as a Ford Scholar- there were Linfield Financial Aid staff at the conference, and I am fairly certain that some of them came to my session. Either way, my presentation received one of the highest evaluation scores at the conference, and they invited me back to hold a similar workshop (in multiple sessions!) at the 2011 conference. I am pretty sure that the presentation was a hit because I surveyed a group of people about their preferred medium of receiving financial documents, and their preference of financial aid website design; I presented the results at the conference. Thanks to research methods and political psychology, I was able to quantify certain hypotheses that I had about how students receive [financial] information that they're bombarded with by their college.  I even referred back to my political psychology notebook, and used SPSS to present my results graphically. Thank you Linfield political science. 

How does your career relate to current events?

As a state employee, current events deeply affect me, and my career decisions. At a local level, county and state taxpayers make decisions that directly impact our operations budget. Our operations are controlled by the local Trial Court Administrator (TCA), but policy decisions are made by the Chief Justice. There is a constant push and pull between the statewide information services division (which imposes technology standards), and the local technicians (who are expected to implement these standards, adapt them to fit the circumstances of the local court (as required by the TCA), and follow statewide judicial policies (put forth by the Chief Justice). Around the workplace, I am grateful every day for my education in political science. Things I learned about the balance of power, and the churning of the bureaucratic machine in American Politics classes, and the principles of the distribution of political power, and economic theory from other classes help me to understand the incredible inefficiencies (and an almost unwillingness to innovate, which is counterintuitive in the field of technology where innovation is critical to success) of state government.

What are your future career goals?

I love the operations side of state government, and I love my role in technology. I said earlier that state government is intrinsically limiting to creativity, and in a field like technology, that can be a daunting realization. I sincerely hope to work one day as an operations manager in a state court. The position is called deputy trial court administrator, in a large court like the Multnomah County Court, or just trial court administrator in a smaller court. I realize that my technology and mathematics background is valuable in this field, but to me, my studies in political science have been the most important in helping me to determine the direction that I want to take. I have decided that the best course of action would be to escape the Pacific NW and go to graduate school, pursuing a master's degree in public administration.

In what ways do you feel that Linfield and the Political Science department has helped you post-graduation?

I am particularly thankful to know that I can get in touch with any of my past Linfield professors (particularly in the political science department), and tell them of my dreams and my deepest career fears, and they will be receptive and realistic in helping me to untangle this web of career confusion. In fact, it was at Pat's recommendation of the SIPA's schools that I went to a group interview by Fletcher (in Portland); and I came away with a much better understanding of the possible career paths in IR. The best part of this example is that I had not even met Pat- he was hired after I graduated. He responded to an email, and offered to meet me, and be of great assistance. One other quick example of how the political science department is the best ever... After limited contact in class, and even less after graduation, I got in touch with a peer of mine who had chosen to go into a similar field. I wanted to test the waters and get his opinion of his program. We talked for over an hour, and he invited me to his campus to meet his program director. This is the kind of community that the Linfield political science department fosters. I am so proud, and very thankful to be a member. I can only hope that my answers, or my responses to future inquiries of this nature can help other little future political science undergraduate alumni in the way that my professors and peers have supported me.

To report errors or problems with these pages, please e-mail dnowacki@linfield.edu

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