Maureen Muldoon
Senior Career & Internship Specialist: Science, Health & Environment
Biography
About Me
Hobbies & Interests: Personality inventories, yoga, musical theater, travel, hiking Hometown: Carbondale, IL and Buffalo, NY Education: Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH. Majors: Communication Studies, Spanish. Minor: Music (vocal) M.Ed. in College Student Services Administration from Oregon State University What do you like about your Career Community?I get to advise students with diverse interests that intersect with health and human services. These career paths focus on direct and in direct service to others. With a goal of making a positive impact in others’ lives through therapy, direct patient care, management, clinical research, and so much more. I am constantly learning from students’ experiences and the interests they bring to exploring possible career paths.What was your best/worst student job or internship?
For part of my college years I studied arts management and interned with the Interlochen Arts Festival in Interlochen, Michigan. I got to manage volunteer ushers with the concert office and acted as a house manager for large-scale concerts of well-known artists like Shawn Colvin, Keb’ Mo, Donna Summers and so many others. I got to see all these concerts for free as part of my job! This was a perk over dealing with disruptive patrons, which were mainly few and far between. I also worked as part of a team with college students studying across the U.S. who enjoyed music and the arts as much as I did.What was your first job?
After graduating from college, I worked in a cafe while also volunteering with an international non-profit before landing a full-time job with a small organization called Vocational Services Team. I found this job on my college’s career services job board! I was an administrative and computer lab assistant providing workers compensation clients with basic MS Office instruction, while also managing the front desk reception area. I met the most interesting people, developed organizational skills, and really learned to hone my time management skills to oversee varying tasks independently. I still apply what I learned from that job to my current administrative responsibilities at SuccessWorks.What made you decide to work in career services?
The spring semester of my freshman year, I discovered openings to be a career education outreach (CEO) peer mentor with the career services office. I ended up working in this office for 10 hrs/week for three out of my four years in college. I had no idea how this experience would ultimately impact my path to working in student services in higher education! While I didn’t get the admissions counselor position I interviewed for after graduation, I did get a master’s degree in college student services administration. In this grad program, I had more opportunities to work in career development with exploring students. And here I am after all these years, still working in career services and still getting to live vicariously through all the awesome things UW-Madison students get to do.