After Oberlin

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.

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. Read more in this After Oberlin Q&A.

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."

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.

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.

Biology major and Oberlin baseball team alum Lawrence Hamilton ’21 is finding success as a student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. His post-Oberlin endeavors are a testament to his hard work and passion for the medical field.

Yemko Pryor ’17, a PhD student at Emory University, has a long-term career goal that might one day help society scientifically understand the effects of racism and slavery on Black bodies.

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.

Fung earned a master’s in scientific illustration at Zuyd University in the Netherlands. She recently founded Biotic Artlab, a medical and scientific illustration studio.

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.

Nearly a year ago many businesses and schools concerned about the spread of COVID-19 relocated onsite offices and classrooms to the internet. The transition to a virtual platform took some getting used to, but for Bryan Rubin ’18 and Benjamin Steger ’18 the future was finally here.

A biology and musical studies double major at Oberlin, Learman is completing her PhD in the Cellular and Molecular Medicine program at Johns Hopkins University.