By: Lenzy Borden
Let’s jump ahead, shall we?
You made it! You have graduated from the best university in the Nation (that’s what we believe, anyway) and you’re looking forward to life after Auburn. If you are anything like 18 year old me, you have planned the next four years of your life in college, and they will be epic, but after graduation you do not have that clear vision yet. That’s ok! I went ahead and talked to some Alumni for you. Here’s what their lives are like now and it sounds pretty sweet to me.
Explore
Lauren had two goals after she graduated: get into a great Physical Therapy Program and travel as much as possible. She knew that her studies would take much of her time, as they should, so she decided to take 2 semesters off and travel. Her bucket list included places from Yellowstone National Park to New York City, and everything in-between. She even had some dreams of roaming the streets in Paris and Rome. So 2 weeks after graduation, she packed her bags and headed to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia and picked the first flight out of the South. She ended up in Jackson, Wyoming and enjoyed some fresh air before heading down to San Francisco. Being the true Auburn fan she is, always donning something AU, she would often hear a “War Eagle” in the airports. She said the strangest place she met an Auburn Alumni at was on a flight to London; their seats were next to each other.
Be Intentional
When you come through Camp War Eagle as a freshman, you will meet Melissa Dunn. I love sharing her story because she truly is an Auburn Woman. Melissa transferred to Auburn University as a junior and later graduated with an Elementary Education degree. She never pursed a teaching position, because her heart was with college students. She enrolled at Auburn for Graduate School and received her Master of Education (Higher Education Administration) the Summer of 2000. Before graduation, she was offered a full-time position in the Admission Office at Auburn as an Admissions Advisor. This was not Melissa’s first experience with this office, as she was a Student Recruiter during her Undergraduate studies.
Her path to her current position as Assistant Director of Orientation Programs is a unique one. Her former advisor when she was a student, Mark Armstrong, moved to First Year Experience (FYE) and had an opening in that office that he wanted Melissa in. She started working during the Summer with Freshman Orientation and, in August 2002, she was offered a full-time position in FYE and has made it her home ever since. March 1st will be 21 years working for Auburn as a Professional, and 25 years if you count her undergraduate years as a student worker. That is a quarter of a century serving the University that she loves. This is Melissa’s life after Auburn — more AUBURN!
Put in Hard Work
Luke is a COVID-19 graduate. He completed his senior year online and graduated in August of 2020. He’s the most recent graduate of Auburn in this post, and is giving some insight of what life looks like for someone who started his professional career during a global pandemic. In Spring 2019, Luke was offered a job with one of the world’s largest companies– AMAZON. He was going to be a district Shift Manager in Tampa, Florida, which happens to be one of the largest Amazon Fulfillment Centers in the United States. When graduation rolled around, he loaded up his U-Haul and headed to the Sunshine State. While he loves his job, it has really pushed him in ways he did not imagine. While at Auburn, one of his courses covered the topics of conflict management and accident prevention in the work place. On an average day, he manages 80+ employees, so the knowledge and training from that class has prepared him for his daily duties in being a manager in a shipping facility. One of his largest take-aways from attending Auburn University is the importance of community. Luke said, “Auburn values individuals. Freshman to Senior, Faculty to the President, each one of us was a working piece into keeping that institution alive. This mindset is what I live by everyday at work, because if one person falls behind, the entire facility falls behind.”
So, whether you are ready to jet off after graduation, find your dream job, or give back to the University you love, Auburn will always be that foundation for you. You’ll want to come back and enjoy those days in the stadium, sit on Samford Lawn, or grab lemonade downtown, because it’s who we are. We’re the Auburn Family and that’s life after Auburn.
