MC Career Center’s Graduate School and Continuing Education Fair opens doors for Scots seeking post-grad opportunities
Sept. 26, 2025
For the second year in a row, Olivia Carter ’25 found herself attending the Maryville College Career Center’s Graduate School and Continuing Education Fair … except this time, she’s no longer looking for a master’s program.
She’s already a part of one and returned on Sept. 24 to her alma mater to recruit fellow Scots to follow in her footsteps. A Psychology (Counseling track) alumna, Carter is enrolled in graduate school at Tennessee Technological University, and returning to the very same fair at which she found her post-graduate path 12 months ago was an amazing full-circle moment, she said.
“I talked to a couple of places at this same fair last year, and when it came time to apply, I really liked what Tennessee Tech had to offer,” Carter said. “I like that even though it’s bigger than Maryville College, it’s still small enough that I can get to know my professors like I did here. So after I decided, I arranged for multiple meetings with faculty and staff members at Maryville College to help me prepare for this, because I really wanted to get in.
“And they completely took care of me. We did mock interviews, they wrote amazing recommendation letters, and I got in … and now I’m here!”
Carter was one representative out of several who came to the Clayton Center for the Arts for the fair, all of them eager to convince interested Scots in the value of their respective programs. For Dr. Niklas Trzaskowski, director of the MC Career Center, the opportunity to arrange for face-to-face, one-on-one connections between Scots eager to continue their studies after commencement and representatives of partner programs eager for well-qualified graduates is at the heart of what his office does.
“We are bringing representatives right here to campus to connect with students individually,” Trzaskowski said. “Students have the opportunity to discuss graduate programs directly with people who are able to answer their questions directly about admission requirements, etc.
“Through these interactions, students not only build their professional communication skills, they can learn about opportunities available to them to continue their education right here in our region.”
More than 120 Scots attended the event, he added, and the majority of the programs that set up recruitment tables are within a few hours’ drive from East Tennessee. The institutions at the fair this year included Bryan College; Furman University; Johnson University; Lees-McRae College; seven different Lincoln Memorial University programs, from the Caylor School of Nursing to the Duncan School of Law to the Carter and Moyers School of Education and more; Maryville College’s Master of Arts in Teaching Secondary STEM program; Middle Tennessee State University; Tennessee Technological University; Tennessee Wesleyan University; Union Commonwealth University; the University of Pikeville; the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga; the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Pharmacy; and five graduate programs from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, including the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, which drew two highly accomplished Scots looking for their next steps after graduating with political science degrees.
“I was originally set on law school, but then I changed my mind, and now I’m wanting to be a professor, so I’m looking for a master’s program,” said Abhilasha Ghosh ’27. “I’ve actually been to a symposium at the Baker School, and I really like their programs. I’ve talked to the faculty there, and the dean, and I really like it, so I’m kind of hoping to go there.”
“They offer a great dual degree program, where you can get a Master of Public Administration or a Master of Public Policy and your law degree,” said Josh Cornell ’26, who returned to the fair for the second year in a row to narrow down his choices before graduating next May. “I’m just interested in schools in this area, so having a fair that can bring all of these great schools here so that people might be interested in actually getting to talk to another human being instead of over the phone is great.”
Carter wasn’t the only alum who returned to her alma mater as a recruiter at the Graduate School and Continuing Education Fair. Dr. Heather Conaway Roberson ’93, representing Lincoln Memorial University, recalled that during her undergraduate days, administrators would bring graduate school representatives for speaker sessions on occasion, but the opportunity to encourage Scots currently navigating paths she once did is rewarding on a number of different levels.
“Going to graduate school, it’s going to help them tremendously whenever they are trying to move up into whatever job or career that they choose,” she said. “And if you can get an internship while you’re in grad school, that helps you with employment. You not only get that degree, you get experience working with this company or that organization, and that definitely gives them an edge.”
For Ashley Webb West ’15, the associate director of transfer and graduate admissions at Tennessee Wesleyan, the key is for fair-goers to explore as many schools as possible, because there’s undoubtedly a program that will pique their interests at one of them.
“Our most popular master’s program is our Master’s of Business Administration,” she said. “We also have a Master’s of Science in Sports Leadership that’s really kind of taken off; we’re very, very proud of that. And then, of course, Nursing is one of our most popular undergraduate degrees, so it just makes sense to offer our Master’s of Science in Nursing as the next level for these qualified graduates.”
And giving Scots information on those programs, she added, is almost as fun as coming back to Maryville College.
“I have so much fun being here and speaking with the students and asking them, ‘How’s that professor? How’s this professor?’” she said. “This is so much fun, and if I somehow get to be a part of another Maryville College student’s higher education process, then … well, go (Tennessee Wesleyan) Bulldogs, but also, go Scots, by God!”
Most importantly, Cornell added, is that Scots who weren’t able to attend, or who did and didn’t find a program that interested them, network with the Maryville College Career Center as quickly and as often as possible.
“They’re open for students to come by and stop by and actually talk to and help you cater everything to your experience,” he said. “They’re here to help you figure out what you want to do. I stopped by a few weeks ago and asked which schools were going to be here today, and I just heard some familiar names that I was interested in. That was it; that was what made me realize, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to go take advantage of this and go to that fair!’”
