News Collection

After Oberlin

What lies ahead for Oberlin graduates? They’ve risen to the challenge of rigorous academics, they’ve pursued their passions and taken advantage of real-world experience, and now they’re ready to forge their own paths.

Follow recent grads as they land in highly coveted positions and career-making internships and graduate programs.

Jane Sedlak ’19 Studies the Chemistry of Wildfire Smoke

April 20, 2022

Jane Sedlak graduated from Oberlin College in 2019 with a degree in chemistry and was named the winner of Oberlin’s Nexial Prize. Given to a student who demonstrates academic excellence and an interest in cultural study, the Nexial Prize comes with a $50,000 award, which afforded Sedlak the opportunity following graduation to study art conservation at the Louvre in Paris. She is currently a graduate student at University of California San Diego.
Head shot of Jane Sedlak

The Pursuit of Research and Understanding How the Brain Works

March 15, 2022

David Shostak’20, a native of San Francisco, played four years on the varsity soccer team and graduated with a major in biology, a concentration in cognitive science, and a minor in environmental science. For the past two years, he has worked at a neurobiology lab at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In fall 2022, Shostak will begin working toward a PhD in neuroscience at the University of California San Francisco. Read more about Shostak in this After Oberlin Q&A.
Head shot of David Shostak

Director Ry Russo-Young ’03 on Filmmaking, Storytelling, and Nuclear Family

January 6, 2022

On September 26, director Ry Russo-Young ’03 released her three-part documentary film Nuclear Family on HBO Max, which follows her landmark custody case that unfolded in the late 1980s. The film is an intimate look into Russo-Young’s childhood growing up as the younger daughter of two lesbian mothers and a paternity suit that threatened to upend their "nuclear family."
Ry Russo-Young takes a self-portrait in the a mirror

Criminal Justice Reporter to Foreign Correspondent: Leila Miller ’16

November 22, 2021

Hispanic studies and politics major Leila Miller ’16 recently transitioned from criminal justice reporter to foreign correspondent at the Los Angeles Times. She recently moved to Mexico City to begin her new position covering the news in Mexico and Latin America.
Head and shoulders portrait of Leila Miller

A Well-Rounded Med Student: Mia Bates ’18

October 22, 2021

Neuroscience major and cross-country team alum Mia Bates ’18 is studying at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in Bronx, New York. She reflects on her time at Oberlin, and how the liberal arts model allowed her to become a well-rounded student and explore her passions.
Portrait of John McCarthy and Mia Bates in white lab coats

A Career in the Creative Side of Journalism

March 4, 2021

Justine Goode ’16 has always wanted to work at a print magazine in either a design or an editorial capacity. Today, the former editor of the Grape, Oberlin's alternative student newspaper, is fulfilling both career goals at Vanity Fair.
A woman stands next to a body of water across from downtown New York.

Persistence, Practice, and Determination

February 2, 2021

Instead of an alarm clock, the sounds of Sergei Prokofiev and Chaka Khan would waft through Caylen Bryant’s childhood home every Saturday morning. Those early days served as inspiration for the jazz bass performance and Africana Studies major. After graduating from Oberlin in 2017, Bryant went on to perfect her own sound, and head a music program handed down to her by author and musician James McBride ’79.
A girl holds a bass guitar in a portrait.

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