What Might My Career Look Like if I Major (or Double-Major) in History?
Oct 12, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Gendebein Room (Skillman Library)
Please join us for a unique career night, with five recently-graduated alums who majored (or double-majored) in History at Lafayette College. While on campus, these alums were engaged as: Posse scholars, McKelvy scholars, President of Student Government, editor of The Lafayette, founder of the South Asian Students Association, President of TEDxLafayetteCollege, intern for acclaimed podcast “Various Breads and Butters,” Excel Scholars, Writing Associates, members of ABC, ISA, MSA, NIA and Zeta Psi (amongst others). They have embarked on remarkable and robust careers in: academia, development, journalism and law.
This event has been organized by the Department of History, with co-sponsorship from the Offices of: Advising and Co-Curricular Programs, Alumni Engagement, and the Provost; the Africana Studies and Engineering Studies Programs; the Departments of: Government and Law, Languages and Literary Studies, and Math; the McKelvy and Posse Scholars Programs, together with the Gateway Career Center.
The event will feature short presentations, a Q&A session and time to speak with the alums — Khadijah Akeem ‘19, Matt Grandon ‘12, Kamini Masood ‘19, Ian Morse ‘17, and William Omorogieva ‘15 — in smaller groups. Dinner will be served.
Khadijah Akeem ‘19
Khadijah Akeem double majored in History and Africana Studies at Lafayette. She also received an MA in History and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently a first year PhD Student at George Washington University in DC, and the recipient of their Provost Diversity Fellowship. At GW, she intends on studying Black Americans’ conversion to Islam in DC during the late 20th century to understand the positionality of Black Muslim women as key figures and producers of culture. At Lafayette, she was an active member of ABC, NIA, and MSA and participated in the Excel Scholars Program, the Mckelvy Scholars Program, and the College Writing Program as a Writing Associate (WA). She is a proud member of DC Posse 10.
Matt Grandon ‘12
Matt graduated from Lafayette in 2012 where he double majored in History and Spanish, and served as the President of Student Government. He went on to receive a Master’s Degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Since that time, Matt has worked in development at the University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard University, where he has held the position of Associate Director of Development (Major Gifts) at the Graduate School of Education since 2021. Matt is a passionate Lafayette alumnus and has held a number of alumni volunteer leadership positions. He currently serves on the Alumni Association Board and has been the chair of the sub-committee on Alumni Engagement & Development since 2020.
Kamini Masood ‘19
Kamini Masood is a PhD Student in South Asian history at Columbia. Her interests lie at the intersection of social and cultural histories of eighteenth century South Asia, histories of gender/sexuality and the body, and slavery and carceral studies. Her research currently focuses on Persian slave narratives from eighteenth century South Asia. She graduated Lafayette College in 2019, with a bachelor’s in History. While at Lafayette, she was affiliated with the McKelvy House and the International Students Association, and founded the South Asian Students Association. After bachelor’s, she spent two years teaching in Pakistan, before returning to New York to begin graduate school.
Ian Morse ‘17
Ian is a freelance science and environment journalist, focusing on mining, climate and land. He majored in History and Mathematics-Economics, studied abroad in Istanbul and Cambridge, and wrote and edited for The Lafayette throughout his four years. Other activities on campus include: TEDxLafayetteCollege as president, the “acclaimed” podcast Various Breads and Butters, a tenure as a Writing Associate, a library fellowship in Digital Humanities, and a stint as an Excel Scholar. After graduation, he taught English with Fulbright in Indonesia, where he stayed for another 1.5 years reporting on disaster recovery, extraction, and economic development. He continues to investigate topics in Indonesia from his base in Seattle, and he was recently part of an award-winning team whose investigation with the BBC exposed systemic failure to distribute the benefits of oil palm plantations to communities. He’s reported for the New York Times, Washington Post, Mongabay, Al Jazeera, and many others. He also writes Green Rocks, a newsletter that doesn’t want dirty mining to ruin clean energy.
William Omorogieva ‘15
At Lafayette, Will was a History and Government & Law double major, a member of ABC, Zeta Psi, and worked for recreation services running intramural sports. Will is a proud member of DC Posse 6. After graduation, Will worked at a law firm in recruiting and as a paralegal for a year before attending Columbia Law School. During law school, Will participated in the Adolescent Representation Clinic, interned with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in the Felony Major Crimes Unit, and volunteered with Kids In Need of Defense (KIND). He graduated from law school in 2019, is a fourth year Associate at the law firm Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., and recently joined the White-Collar Defense & Investigations practice group. At Arnold & Porter, Will also maintains an active and diverse pro bono practice, ranging from representing clients in immigration and asylum cases, defending voting rights in the most recent Presidential election, and protecting the constitutional rights of unlawfully incarcerated individuals.