Tuesday’s breakfast will give students the kind of drive that bacon and eggs cannot deliver.

The Will Women’s Breakfast Empowerment Series will provide guest speakers who will share their experiences in transitioning from college to their professional careers. The event is free to all students, men and women, from 8:30 - 10 a.m., but students are encouraged to sign up through the Career Center.

This is the first year that the Women’s Center and the Career Center have put the event together, said Stephanie Erdice, director of the Women’s Center. This third installment of a four-part series will focus on educational and business professionals. The final section, later this spring, will concentrate on women in science and technology-related fields, Erdice said. An important element to the series is the networking aspect, which allows students to introduce themselves to professionals in their field.

After a continental breakfast of coffee, fruit and muffins, students will be given the opportunity to talk with Shippensburg University alumnae, Sarah Maclay and Jill Rakowicz, Erdice said. Both women are art teachers and two of the five founding co-op owners of Bluebrick Gallery in Gettysburg. The guest speakers will be able to tell students the kinds of things they did to build their resume and prepare for life after graduation. To get a good job after graduation, students need more than a high GPA to set them apart from the competition, Erdice said.

Rakowicz wished she had taken the opportunity to study abroad while she was in college, she wrote in an email, because it would not have anchored her career to a certain location.

“There are so many opportunities when making a transition into a professional career,” Rakowicz wrote, “that involve moving out of our comfort zones, including those away, sometimes far away, from home.”

For Maclay, it took her a few extra years to figure out what she wanted to do with her passion as an artist, she said. She worked in a restaurant after high school where she was able to showcase her artwork. After about 12 years of selling her art to different galleries, she enrolled in Shippensburg University’s art program for education majors.

Even though Maclay took a different approach to college than the norm, she said that talking to lots of different people and putting herself out there were important aspects to her career.

“It’s scary to put yourself out there,” Maclay said, especially as an artist, because she had to walk into art galleries and ask to have her work displayed, despite the possibility of being rejected.

Activities like volunteer work, study abroad experiences and internships can help lead students to their passions, Erdice said, which helps decide on the career path that is right for them. 

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