When Maria Elvira Lopez’21 conducted her college search, she was motivated to explore beyond home.

“我在基多长大，”玛丽亚告诉我们. “这里有厄瓜多尔最好的大学. 但如果我留在那里上大学, 一切都似曾相识:家人, 朋友, 语言, 和文化. 我想出国学习新事物.”

Liberal arts colleges made sense as Maria desired close contact with fellow students 和 faculty. She ruled out colleges where students compete with each other for grades 和 honors, 然而. 她更喜欢一个让学生 促进彼此的学习 和成功.

梅·洛佩兹15年的招聘拜访, an alum of Maria’s high school who was working in the college’s admissions office, 证实了伯洛伊特的可能性.

“I could relate to May’s story about leaving Ecuador to attend college in the U.S. 我也很佩服她 有家的感觉 at Beloit 和 even thrived there, 和 the fact that she’d had two majors, one in 中国人 另一个 国际关系. That resonated with me, given my interests in the wider world.当伯洛伊特录取了玛丽亚，并给了她一个 奖学金，她立即接受了

Today, as a program coordinator in the finance division of 保护国际, Maria is beginning a career focused on what she truly cares about: environmental sustainability. 她的专业是 国际关系 和 环境研究 使她成为一个有吸引力的候选人, as she was familiar with international governance systems 和 Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement, both of which are relevant to the organization’s work.

布袋派发. 玛丽亚·埃尔维拉·洛佩兹，最左边.Maria also stood out on the basis of the significant practical experience she had acquired while at Beloit. 比如，作为伯洛伊特的助理 可持续发展通道, she led a project to distribute cloth bags so students could carry meals from the college dining service when in-person dining shut down during the p和emic. Reliance on single-use plastic carry bags was reduced. An invitation to students to decorate their bags helped ensure buy-in.

Additionally, as an outreach worker for Beloit’s 十大菠菜台子办公室, Maria helped connect the college community to the wider world while also sharing stories about diversity on campus. 因此, Maria published theme-based stories on the college’s website that were crowd-sourced from members of the college community, including alumni; spoke to students in the college’s 第一年辅导项目 about international education opportunities; 和 organized events.

Most significantly for Maria’s career development, 然而, was the applied work she did for a senior capstone project. Thanks to a tip from professor of 国际关系 和 环境研究 巴勃罗·托拉尔，玛丽亚向警察申请 世界自然基金会 给年轻人的补助金 促进环境可持续性. The grant allowed Maria to assemble a team to organize workshops in Quito that provided community leaders with tools 和 resources to make their neighborhood a healthier, 绿色空间.

“I had an incredible opportunity to apply what I had learned in my classes to a project with tangible, 积极的影响,玛丽亚分享道。. Maria presented the project 和 the related research in the college’s 研究研讨会. 前一年, she’d presented on environmental movements she’d researched while 出国留学 在莫斯科 in the college’s 体验式学习研讨会.

再循环纸袋派发“My experiences applying classroom learning while at Beloit, 除了我的学习, have been incredibly helpful to my current role at 保护国际. I underst和 the context for the organization’s work 和 have the organizational 技能 needed from me. Experience applying what you’ve been learning is everything when it comes to l和ing 和 succeeding in a 毕业后工作.”

来自教职员工的支持 也是非常宝贵的. “The 保护国际 staff who hired me were really impressed by how well my recommenders at Beloit knew me. 我真的很感激他们对我的投资, either as faculty teaching 和 mentoring me or as supervisors supporting my growth in the work place.”

接下来是什么? Maria is taking full advantage of opportunities to learn as much as she can from the teams that work in the Finance Division, 关注碳信用额, 影响投资, 保护基金. 虽然她吃了一些 经济学 在伯洛伊特的课程, Maria had not anticipated working in the financial side of environmental work. 现在, 然而, she’s learning just how critical that work is as she supports finance teams by gathering data 和 managing data bases, 安排会议和组织会议, 出版时事通讯.

“I’ve learned how to navigate new environments even when it’s uncomfortable 和 I’m not an expert in the topic under discussion,她说。. 经过几年的工作经验, 玛丽亚计划攻读研究生学位, having become more knowledgeable about where 和 how she’d like to make a difference.

That Maria is flexible, adaptable, 和 interested in continuing to learn is not surprising. 十大菠菜台子 intentionally promotes these kinds of 学习成果. Of course, Maria has a habit of looking for new experiences in order to grow. After all, she had never anticipated living in the U.S. 在申请伯洛伊特学院之前. Nor had she thought she’d learn Russian 和 spend a semester 出国留学 在莫斯科.

“十大菠菜台子 offers students many opportunities to explore, 运用课堂知识, 和 become critical thinkers unafraid to jump into the unknown. 贝洛伊特教你 技能 that are incredibly helpful in both the workplace 和 life.”