CAES, Amy '08 I'm presently in school for a Masters in Library and Information Science at University of Wisconsin - Madison. I'll be graduating in May, and then plan to move somewhere in the midwest or east coast with my partner. I'm running the LGBT Campus Center library, and am involved in the Jail Library Group (http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~jail/), which provides library services to individuals in the Dane County Jails. I'm not sure if I'll ever be employed as a corrections librarian, but I plan to stay involved post-graduation. I'm also raising a guide dog, Promise, with OccuPaws Guide Dog Association (http://www.occupaws.org/).
CONLEY, Eli '08
After Oberlin, I moved to Oakland, CA and began working coordinating grassroots fundraising for
Californians for Justice, a non-profit that organizes with young people of color for racial justice in the California public schools (caljustice.org). I've been an active volunteer with the Catalyst Project, an organization that works with white social justice activists to build our vision, strategy and commitment to racial justice movements. As of fall 2009, I'm transitioning out of full time non-profit work to start performing around the bay area as a folk/country singer/songwriter, and teaching private voice lessons from my home. http://profile.myspace.com
CORDELL, Caitlin, '07
When I was studying at Oberlin, many people would ask me what I was able to do with a Comparative American Studies Degree. Well, that was the second question. The first question was, "What's that?" Surprisingly, I have been able to do a lot with my degree which has a focus on Identity and Difference. I currently work for the YMCA of Greater Seattle. My position is Leadership Development Coordinator. I was hired because I had a lot of experience in youth development and because I had an extensive knowledge of diverse populations and communities in the United States. My employers were impressed with my ability to talk with young people about identity in a clear and confident way. My job allows me to create programs for at risk teens with a focus on leadership development. Right now I have a program that teaches young people business skills through selling their own art and crafts at local markets. I run a Teen Advisory Board where students learn how to be leaders in their community through service and team building. I also co-facilitate a series of mini courses at a local high school that uses experiential learning to get students thinking about how they can have positive impact in their community. Comparative American Studies classes and professors have all had a great impact on the way I conduct my programs at work.
CAS students will find many experiences in the area Leadership Development at the Y. We serve teens in a lot of capacities and there are many ways we are not able to serve them due to lack of staff and money. This is why an intern would be greatly helpful. Our programs go from in depth leadership programming to recreational programming. We have summer programming as well, where we teach young people about service, healthy living and leadership. Interns can choose to join in our programming or work individually on a separate project that serves teens at the Y. CAS students can expect to use their knowledge of identity, privilege and oppression while teaching young people real life skills. They can also expect to learn more about issues of oppression that face teens in the greater Seattle area.
ccordell@seattleymca.org
DOMAGUIN, Daniel R. '06
I'm currently the Youth Center Therapist and Health & Fitness Educator at the San Diego American Indian Health Center, serving urban American Indian & Alaska Native youth between the ages of 9-22. My primary responsibilities include: individual/group/family therapy, crisis intervention, academic counseling, physical fitness programming (including a weekly martial arts class), and proper nutrition education, utilizing traditional nutrition models from different tribes. CAS teachings permeate my practice and the activities I get my kids involved in. For example, I had my youth take part in the Day of Action to Defend Public Education protests here in San Diego, including making speeches (http://sdaihyc.blogspot.com/
I'm also involved in health advocacy outside of work. I am the co-Health Program Coordinator for the Filipino American Arts & Culture Festival, or FilAmFest. In this role, I oversee different organizations from around San Diego County who help educate the Filipino American community in practices of wellness and prevention of disparities.
In my spare time, I've learned how to crochet a hat, bead bracelets on a loom, and lindy hop/jitterbug at a moderate tempo.
FRANCISCO, Melissa B. '05
After graduation, I interned at the Independent Press Association-NY, which later replaced the national Independent Press Association after it collapsed. I helped the non-profit support local community and "ethnic" media and journalists in obtaining access to government agencies and in moving their stories to bigger markets. I also dabbled in freelance writing and started volunteering with the GABRIELA Network, a grassroots feminist solidarity organization. GABRIELA Network's major campaign at the time was justice for a woman who was raped by U.S. servicemen in the Philippines, an ongoing news story that has had international coverage. For the past couple of years, I've been a legal assistant with the ACLU's national Racial Justice Program, helping with litigation and advocacy related mostly to airline profiling and juvenile justice. Through this position, I've been fortunate to witness and participate in a movement to critically examine and ultimately stop a pattern in which students are funnelled into prisons from their schools, or the "school-to-prison pipeline." What I explored academically and practically as a CAS major has been truly invaluable to my career choices and path since I graduated from Oberlin. I'm looking forward to returning to school in the next few years, and to continuing a career in social justice. 
FEUSTEL, Jane E. '06
After graduation I joined Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC) as a one of the lead get-out-the-vote organizers on the successful minimum wage increase campaign and coordinator of the Women's Voices, Women's Vote project. In that role, I did door-to-door outreach to women in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color throughout Aurora, Colorado. Since the 2006 election, I've been working at Colorado Progressive Action, the lobbying arm of CPC, working on various social justice issues including racial justice, voter education/outreach, economic justice, and ending the war in Iraq. I have also been involved as a member of Luz Reproductive Justice Think Tank in Denver. In this group I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet and work with amazing folks. Luz is a space where we can provide support for each other, dialogue about how the intersections of oppression affect us and our communities, and create action to implement a reproductive justice analysis in our communities and throughout Colorado.
More on-point Obies should move to Denver !!! You can stay with me until you a find a place of your own (or just come visit).
GARRETSON, Dorothy B. '08
Since September of 2008, I have been an Americorps VISTA at the Community Mediation Center in Columbia, SC. I recruit volunteer mediators and do community outreach. (I am now in my second year in this VISTA position.)In my free time, I am a referee for the Richland County Regulators, a local roller derby team. I also do activities with the SC Progressive Network and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia.
HAYDEN-MOY, Anna '09
I started working with an Americorps program in Austin, Texas at the beginning of September. The program is called Americorps for Community Engagement and Education, or ACEE. With this program I tutor one-on-one with kindergartners in 2 bilingual (Spanish-English) classrooms at Andrews Elementary who are performing at a lower level in their basic literacy. It's a great program for any majors hoping to get some experience teaching or working with literacy (there are English language tutors as well)!
HOFFMAN, Rick B. '05
After graduating from Oberlin, I worked for a variety of nonprofits in the fields of health, fundraising, and social services. I completed a Masters of Public Administration at Baruch College (part of City University of New York) in December 2008. Since then, I have worked at New York Road Runners in a program dedicated to fighting childhood obesity and also did some temporary research projects for an economics professor at Baruch and also at the United States Fund for UNICEF. I am currently a doctoral candidate in the departments of Sociology and Community Medicine at the United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, where former Oberlin College President Nancy Dye works as the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education.
GRABER, Anna '07
I am waitressing and teaching preschool at the Urban Arts Academy in Minneapolis.
NEWBERGER, Barrie '07
I spent a couple years working as a paralegal in non-profit law offices: first at an office in Charleston, WV, that represents low-income homeowners in suits against banks and mortgage companies that are practicing predatory lending; then at an office in Berkeley, CA, that represents people who are being sued for defamation after speaking out on an issue of public interest (think citizens who speak out against polluting power plants or mining companies). Now I have finally made my way to law school so I can continue similar work as an attorney, hopefully as a public defender or doing prisoners' rights/sentencing reform work. Keep up the good work - the CAS department changed my life.
TUYET, Ngo '10
Since leaving Oberlin, I enjoyed a relaxing summer, traveling within the U.S. to visit family and friends. This past fall, I moved back to Oberlin to take on a temporary part-time contract position working at Asian Services in Actions, Inc. (ASIA). At ASIA, I conducted community outreach around health information and services, targeting the Vietnamese population in Cleveland and surrounding areas. My contract ends mid-December. While working, I have also started the graduate school application process. I am applying to various schools of public health with the hopes of earning a Master's in Public Health, with a focus on improving the health of underserved communities.
SALAZAR, Lauren '09
Hello Current and Former CAS-ers! After graduating Oberlin in May of 2009 I drove across the country back home to California (with some stops in Chicago, Minneapolis, Glacier National Park and Seattle) and at the end of July 2009 I moved to Lima, Peru. I studied here for 6 months on my study-abroad and decided to return for a while until I apply for Grad School. I am living with my boyfriend in a lovely apartment near his family's house, and I am working as an English Teacher at a small school (1st grade to Juniors in high school) and also teach private classes (including TOEFLS and GRE) in the evenings and weekends. It has been an adventure settling in, but nothing too hard to handle. I am planning my return to the US in April 2011 hopefully to begin a Master's in Public Policy in the Fall of 2011. If any Obies (or friends of Obies) need some orienting to Lima while on vacation or soul-searching travel, I'm certainly available. Best wishes to all!
SCHREIBER, Sarah '05
After graduation, I began working at Bike Out, a group offering physical health & wellness programs for LGBT youth in Los Angeles. I lost my job when we lost all our funding (yes, CAS students, it happens in the world of nonprofit!) but organized successfully with a group of former staff & volunteers to make sure our programs would continue. They are now happily housed at LifeWorks Mentoring www.lifeworksmentoring.org, where I still volunteer to lead bike trips for baby queers. I'm currently working as a Program Coordinator for Youth Mentoring Connection www.youthmentoring.org, a group running innovative & effective mentoring programs for teens in South Central L.A. I volunteer with AWARE awarehome.blogspot.com, a local white antiracist group, as a member of the facilitation team and the organizing workgroup. I also completed a fellowship with Public Allies www.publicallies.org somewhere along the way. I am grateful for all of my experiences at Oberlin and beyond, and I look forward to 1) always learning and 2) figuring out grad school: the next frontier.
THOMAS, Shannon '09
After graduating in 2009 (Gosh it still feels weird saying that). I'm teaching English to 2-4 years old in Quingdao, China, a seaside city of about 4 million people. So far, so good and I'm forever grateful for the CAS department and faculty in how they helped shape how I view the world and my (and others) position in it.
