Philosophy & Religion Alumni

Master’s Student in Mental Health Counseling at University of Dayton

During my time as a student at OWU, I forged relationships with professors and peers, improved my ability to evaluate ideas critically, and honed my writing skills tremendously. I got to spend time doing something I love: exploring the many ways of thinking about the world. Now, I am a more versatile and multifaceted candidate for employment, who appreciates how different systemic philosophies can guide our lives. Since I graduated OWU in June 2014, I have begun to pursue a career in the field of mental health, which complements my strong desire to explore divergent viewpoints as well as have a deep impact on the well-being of others. In 2016, I began a Master’s program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of Dayton, and I am excited to begin working directly with clients. Because of my philosophy degree, I am equipped with skills I can use to better understand others’ unique perspectives, so that I better able to serve them in the future.

Associate Project Officer at UNESCO
"Upon graduation from OWU, I was selected for the Young India Fellowship Programme (YIFP) in New Delhi, India. The YIFP is a one-year multidisciplinary postgraduate diploma programme in Liberal Studies, administered in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania. I am currently working as a Programme Analyst with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Yangon, Myanmar, a country undergoing rapid economic and political transition, on diverse issues related to freedom of expression, environmental conservation, human-rights and sustainable livelihoods development in close coordination with multiple stakeholders, including the Government of Myanmar, NGOs, civil-society organizations, academic institutions and the private sector. The Philosophy department’s rigor in writing, and reading diverse texts from various time periods and geographies, has not only enabled me to swiftly comprehend and work within the complex UN mechanisms and machinery to serve communities, but also allowed me to make myself adaptable to working and living with people from all walks of life in a transition economy such as Myanmar. Studying philosophy at OWU trained me to take a stand on complex issues, and defend it in a logical and convincing manner, by engaging in debate and discussion fruitfully. Moreover I gained the ability to express my thoughts clearly, particularly under pressure.

Ph.D. Candidate at Yale University

I was first introduced to philosophy as a freshman at Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU). It was a transformative experience. Never before had I been challenged to ask questions about the mind, ethics, logic, empiricism, and zombies. Courses like Bioethics (taught by Dr. Calef) and Philosophy and Science (taught by Dr. Flynn) introduced me to novel paradigms to bridge my interests in neuroscience with philosophic questions and theories. The Senior Seminar  (led by Dr. Stone-Mediatore) was the ideal opportunity to develop previous essays and ideas in philosophy into high quality, publishable papers.

OWU philosophy professors are engaging, knowledgeable, and encouraging of in-class discussions. My collaborations with Drs. Calef, Flynn, and Stone-Mediatore inspired me to develop a neuroscience and philosophy collaborative dissertation project as a Masters student in the Cognitive Neuroscience department at University College London, UK (2012-2013). Moreover, I aim to forward my philosophy background as a PhD candidate in neuroscience through theoretical developments in neuroethics, the study of the ethical, legal, and social implications of neuroscience.

Although I consider myself primarily concerned with scientific questions, philosophy at OWU taught me the power of critical thinking and challenging intuitions, skills that have benefited me well beyond the classroom.

Teaching Assistant at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In the deserts of trendiness and superficiality, Ohio Wesleyan was my “oasis of timeless wisdom.”

An Ohio Wesleyan education is a transformative experience. In addition to a rigorous, stimulating, liberal arts and sciences education, Ohio Wesleyan offers its students acclimation to a challenging, collaborative “culture of high expectations.” You soon recognize that at OWU, everybody is smart, everybody is motivated, and everybody has something substantive to contribute to your education.

As a freshman, I came to OWU with vague enthusiasm for history, philosophy, and literature, and thanks to Ohio Wesleyan’s commitment to broad and thorough study of the liberal arts, social sciences, and natural sciences, I was able to shape those interests into a coherent course of study. Double-majoring in philosophy and classics, I was able to pursue a considerable amount of complementary coursework in ancient philosophy and classical literature and language, establishing connections across disciplinary methodologies and enriching my understanding of both majors. The argumentative rigor of philosophical training, combined with the cultural erudition and linguistic precision demanded by classical studies, forced me to grow as a person and as a scholar-in-training. Year after year, Drs. Calef and Flynn in philosophy and Dr. Fratantuono in classics held me to high standards of scholarship and never gave me a chance to rest on my laurels, for which I will always be grateful. Thanks to the thorough preparation of my OWU education, I was able to complete a fully-funded M.A. in humanities and intellectual history at The University of Texas at Dallas, and pursue a PhD in philosophy at Michigan State University. Ohio Wesleyan’s philosophy and classics programs gave me the confidence, knowledge, and skills necessary to pursue my passions at the highest levels.

Attorney at Schwarzwald McNair & Fusco LLP

After OWU, I attended the University Of Cincinnati College Of Law, hoping that studying law would allow me to merge my interest in political and social philosophy with my interest in public policy. I was able to explore these interests at OWU thanks to the flexibility of the course requirements for the Philosophy major, as well as the supportive and accommodating Department faculty who allowed me to focus on topics about which I was passionate. With a Philosophy and Politics & Government double major, I was able to study economic inequality from ethical and social justice viewpoints through courses such as Philosophy of Law. At the same time, I was examining policies and politics associated with those views in my Politics & Government courses and while interning for a U.S. Senator through OWU’s Wesleyan in Washington program.

In law school and in the practice of law, you have to find the right questions to answer – not just memorize the right answers to questions. Studying philosophy at OWU helped me develop these “issue-spotting skills” and gave me a huge leg-up in handling the “Socratic method” used by some law professors.

The Department’s Logic course was integral to my high LSAT score and resulting law school scholarship. The discipline to repeatedly revise and reframe my writing that I developed in the Philosophy Senior Seminar helped me earn a spot on the College’s Law Review and be selected for publication.

I now practice as an attorney at a union-side labor law firm in Cleveland, advocating for and advising unions who are on the forefront of the fight for economic justice. The analytical skills I developed as a philosophy student at OWU are a critical tool in my practice.

On a more personal level, from passionate debates at Socrates Café to considering the value of spirituality in Philosophy of Religion, I would not be the same without the richness of experience I had while majoring in Philosophy at OWU.

Content Strategist at Google

My time in OWU’s philosophy department had a major impact on the subject matter I choose to explore in my work. The vast majority of design writing is vapid boosterism paired with catalogue images. But my philosophy studies gave me a unique perspective into the ethical implications of objects. Having my arguments prodded and challenged for four years by the likes of Dr. Flynn, Dr. Calef, and Dr. Stone-Mediatore gave me the confidence I needed to publicly tackle design issues from gun control to the use of living materials in product design to the moral value systems embedded within museum practice.

Senior Production Coordinator at Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

I never had the opportunity to engage with philosophy before OWU and it showed me a whole new way to approach my life going forward. Philosophy isn’t just in the classroom; it affects every decision we make. As a writer, I can approach deeper ideas; as a teacher, I’m getting students to broaden their thinking; as a citizen, I’m evaluating my relationships, my politics, my whole lifestyle with more complexity. Philosophy has added a depth and richness to everything that isn’t always comfortable but is always valuable. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in or what beliefs you hold, just being in contact with the questions of philosophy and the variety of potential answers, the strategies of thought that get us there – you’re going to be better off.

International Affairs Professional

My experience at OWU as philosophy student fostered a foundation of skills and knowledge I currently use as a fellow in graduate school and my professional career. Expectations for close reading and concise writing helped polish what started as a rather rough stone. Course work was intense and engaging with many students, myself including, lingering after class or in order to continue discussing topics with professors and other students. Such genuine personal engagement colored what I continue to see as the small liberal arts school experience.

Outside of study, there were ample opportunities for practical application of class material through departmental programs like Socrates Cafe, OWU programs like visiting authors, or student initiated gatherings. That latter was perhaps the most surprising, finding myself up until midnight arguing with biology students about the nature of bias in the natural sciences. Moments like these spoke to the kind of engaged students and atmosphere OWU cultivated.

In my course work and my experience, I was engaged in questioning and establishing of what is important to me and where I would direct my efforts after college.

Immediately after receiving my B.A. in philosophy, I was offered a teaching position in Austria through the Fulbright Commission. Though I had no formal pedagogical training, my exposure to questions about the nature of knowledge and thought gave me a leg up in developing effective teaching methods.

In 2010, I joined Peace Corps partly out of a hunger to understand different cultures and models of thought—an interest which been kindled during my study at OWU. What I saw and experienced there raised fundamental ethical questions about human nature. My beliefs were challenged and stretched, but I found myself examining and facing my new reality with approaches I had learned in as a philosophy student.

In 2013, I was accepted into the Peace Corps Fellows program at Teachers College Columbia University. Success in my course work at Columbia leans heavily on the rhetoric and writing skills I gained as a philosophy student at OWU.

Graduate Teaching Associate at The Ohio State University

Since graduating from Ohio Wesleyan, I spent two years teaching high school in Ecuador. I was able to use my philosophy background there as I developed a new philosophy program in one high school, and taught Philosophy and Theory of Knowledge in another. I was then accepted into the Graduate program at the Ohio State University where I completed an M.A. in Latin American Literatures and Cultures. I am also finishing up another M.A. in Latin American Studies, focusing on community development and am roughly halfway through my coursework on a Ph.D. program.

My time at Ohio Wesleyan University was absolutely fundamental to my academic success thus far. The combination of my studies in the Philosophy and Spanish department led me exactly to where I am today. The Spanish department sparked my interest and built my knowledge base in Latin American literatures and cultures; at the same time, the Philosophy department gave me the critical reasoning and philosophical tools needed to succeed at the graduate level. In fact, the skills and experience that I gained at OWU have enabled me to approach the complicated literary and cultural theory that I now love and work with on a daily basis. In my research, I often engage many of the thinkers and theories we dealt with in my philosophy classes at OWU. To put it simply, I could not possibly be where I am today were it not for OWU and their excellent Philosophy and Spanish departments.

Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

I loved my time at OWU and value all the experiences it offered me. I was part of a very close-knit group of international students, all from very diverse backgrounds. The knowledge I gained from my peers was both transformative and invaluable. I also enjoyed all of my humanities classes, in particular my philosophy classes. With encouragement from my mentor, Dr. Stone-Mediatore, I ended up applying to graduate school in philosophy and graduated with my Ph.D. from SUNY Binghamton (SPEL program). I now teach as an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the Philosophy Department. As a freshman, I could not have envisioned this path for myself, and this trajectory certainly would not have been possible except for everyone that supported me along the way. And for that, I am truly grateful.