Always There for You
Career counseling isn’t just for current students. Alumnae/i looking for guidance or to make a career change can always reach out for free resources.
Among the qualities that make Bryn Mawr College unique is its commitment to the lifelong engagement of Mawrters from their first-year student experience to graduation and beyond.
Career counseling has been a major facet of the College's alumnae/i engagement for decades. In 2016, this vital service transitioned to the Career & Civic Engagement Center, which serves to prepare and support students and alumnae/i to be effective, self-aware leaders in their chosen life pursuits.
Dean Katie Krimmel has led the Center since its inception, with a vision to redefine how students and alums connect their interests and volunteer experiences to their lives after Bryn Mawr.
“The Career and Civic Engagement Center serves as a guiding force for students and alumnae/i, empowering them to explore opportunities, forge meaningful connections, and chart their unique paths,” Krimmel says.
As the vision for the Center took shape, Krimmel relied on Director of Career & Professional Development Dayna Levy to establish a structure and lead staff in supporting students and alumnae/i at different stages of their development.
"It was exciting to design and deliver a high-touch approach to career services, which included access to our highly skilled team of master’s-prepared career counselors and an energetic well-trained team of undergraduate Career Peers, all ready to meet people at any point in their career development journey,” Levy says. “It was a wonderful opportunity to explore the continuity of career care across the lifespan from student through alumnae.”
In addition to maintaining a repository of digital career resources and preparing students for work life through a multitude of experiential learning opportunities, the Center offers one-on-one career counseling to students and alumnae/i. Center staff facilitate an average of 375 appointments with alumnae/i per year on topics such as graduate school admissions, to career transitions, negotiating salaries and promotions, relationship management, and planning for retirement or entrepreneurial pursuits. The service has been transformative for alums.
Changing Tracks
Hemma Murali ’19 was pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. She had spent two years in a structural biology lab, published papers, and started her dissertation. But “that whole time, I just had this nagging feeling that I should have actually pursued medicine,” she says.
As an undergraduate, she worked with the Center as a Career Peer, helping others on their career paths without realizing what she wanted from her own. She reached out to Beale; “I also cried in the meeting with her, because it was such an emotional thing,” she says.
She met weekly with Jennifer Beale, assistant director of the Center, who also referred her to a pilot of the Design Your Life workshop. She also turned to Christina Burton for help in telling her story in admissions essays.
Murali has since been accepted to medical school and says she is "ecstatic" to begin her new career this fall.
“Even though I didn’t picture myself having to make a big career change, it felt really great knowing at least I could fall back on this resource if needed,” she says. “And I did need it, and it was free and accessible and easy to sign up for.”
Fulfilling a Longtime Dream
Nina Schwartz Rosenthal ’84 always had a lot of different interests and, following her time at Bryn Mawr, held a lot of different jobs, from real estate to food product development to teaching. Along with being an active community and political volunteer, she raised a family and cared for aging parents and grandparents.
While working as a tutor, assisting students with their college and graduate school applications, “I realized everyone was fulfilling their dreams,” she says, “and I had unfulfilled dreams.”
In middle school, Rosenthal had imagined becoming a lawyer and running for Senate. Her husband and many of her friends were and are lawyers. One day in 2019, she realized it was now or never.
“I literally felt like I would not be able to move on with my life if I didn’t do this,” she says, “that there were all these false starts in my life, and I hadn’t been able to move on and fulfill my personal destiny.”
What she didn’t know was exactly what steps she needed to take to apply to law school. She knew that aside from taking the LSAT, she would need transcripts, and help navigating the process. She also knew that Bryn Mawr had a pre-law advisor. She connected with Beale, who is also the Center's pre-law advisor, and “she told me what to do and I did everything she said.”
Rosenthal continues to be grateful for Beale’s advice and the support she received. “Regardless of how you feel about your time at Bryn Mawr,” she says, “it’s always going to be there for you.”
Rosenthal describes her graduation from Temple University Law School in 2023 as one of the happiest days of her life. After a fellowship year at Temple, she started as an attorney with Portnoff Law Associates last fall. “If there’s something missing in your life or something you want to do, you find a way to do it,” she says.
What Comes Next?
Mahima Silwal ’22 also worked as a Career Peer, moderating Zoom panels and hosting alumnae/i on campus. It was actually an alum who encouraged the economics major to explore marketing.
“The network and connections from Bryn Mawr are second to none,” says Silwal, a strategist at an advertising agency in Sydney, Australia.
Going from a full-time student to a full-time employee, however, was daunting.
“There’s all this support out there for how you get your first job, and how you smash the interview,” she says. “No one really talks about the first month or the first year at a job, and when it’s your first one out of school, you have nothing to compare it to.”
Silwal turned to the Center for counseling on how to fight imposter syndrome and capitalize on her existing experience, bringing skills learned in the classroom into the workplace.
On the surface, her job is largely writing briefs and selling strategies, but that requires emotional intelligence, and the ability to navigate the rooms she is in and work with other people. “The job doesn’t stop once you get the job,” she says. “You’re constantly having to advocate for yourself.”
Published on: 02/27/2025