What can you do with a humanities degree? Almost anything. And the Stars to Steer By lecture series will show you how.

The popular series (a partnership between the College of Sciences and Humanities Dean’s office and the Ball State Career Center) returns in Spring 2020–with a few changes.

What’s New about Stars to Steer By?

  • All of the events will take place in North Quad 160 from 5-6:15
  • All of the events feature Ball State humanities alumni.
  • In order to help you narrow down your career options from “anything” to something more manageable, we’re introducing the concept of “pathways,” five broad career categories (see the points of the star above) that humanities students often pursue. 
  • Moving forward, all Stars to Steer By events will be advertised according to these categories so that you can explore different career directions. 
  • Think of it this way: In the years ahead, we’d like students to choose a major, a minor and 1-3 pathways.

What’s not new about Stars

  • There will be pizza.
  • There will be prizes.

Why These Pathways?

We chose these five pathways based on the data about where humanities majors go after graduation.

Read more about career outcomes for humanities majors. 

Also, here’s a breakdown by specific major. 

January: Creative Arts & Communications

“Storytelling Careers: Advertising and Marketing”
Thursday, January 23 at 5 PM in NQ 160 Lounge

  • Melissa Jones, Copywriter, Intersection Advertising Agency, Muncie
  • Macy Jo Byerly, Digital Marketing Coordinator, Paradigm Digital Group, Fishers
  • Marisa Sloan, Digital Copywriter, Asher Agency, Fort Wayne

Melissa Jones graduated in May 2018 with a BA in English/CW and minors in French and professional writing & emerging media. At Ball State, she was heavily involved with the Daily News, The Broken Plate, Jacket Copy Creative, and Book Arts Collaborative. She used experiences and expertise gained in these roles to secure an internship at Intersection Advertising Agency. After her summer internship, Intersection hired Melissa as a full-time copywriter. In this role, Melissa blends her background in writing, design, and marketing to help develop an array of creative projects—from radio commercials to billboards, from websites to television scripts, from social media to strategic plans, and everything in between.

Macy Jo Byerly graduated in May 2019 with a BA in English/English Studies and minors in professional writing  and business. At Ball State, Macy Jo was involved in Jacket Copy Creative and The Broken Plate. She also copyedited for The Daily News and interned at a local digital marketing agency. She built on her experiences and writing skills to work as a Digital Marketing Coordinator at Paradigm Digital Group, a digital marketing agency. In this role, Macy Jo gets to blend her love of copywriting, editing, social media strategy & management, and digital marketing. She creates content for client websites and social media; manages client social media accounts; creates and implements monthly email marketing campaigns; creates graphics for client promotion; and writes and edits monthly blog posts.

Marisa Sloan graduated in 2019 with a BA in English/CW and minors in art history and professional writing. By leveraging her immersive learning experience, especially with Jacket Copy Creative and Digital Literature Review, she secured a full-time role as a digital copywriter as Asher Agency in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here she blends her creative and analytical halves in crafting copy for traditional and digital campaigns at the local and national level. She bounces between mediums such as a radio script, social media ad set, direct mail campaign, and website copy on any given day. Additionally, she manages content marketing efforts in multiple sectors, producing long-form blog posts, white papers, and case studies. Lastly, she works with web developers to structure the content for new client websites, conduct content and SEO audits, and optimize web pages for search engines.

February: Government & Law

“Legal Careers for Humanities Majors”
Thursday, February 13 at 5 PM in NQ 160

  • Sean Southern, Legal Talent Manager at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, Indy
  • Whittley Pike, Senior Associate Director of Professional Development at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indy
  • Jessica Mayflower Beinart, Executive Legal Assistant/Senior Paralegal at Bays Family Law, Zionsville

You can read all about Sean Southern‘s career journey on the English blog.

Whittley Pike graduated from the Honors College in 2011 with a BA in English/RW with a minor in German. She participated in Student Government and an Indiana House of Representatives internship. After college, she attended Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. For several years Whittley was a partner in a small law firm focusing on Elder Law, estate planning, and trust administration. Ms. Pike served as Co-Chair of the Proactive Elder Law team of the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys (NNEPA), presenting that team’s findings regarding diminishing capacity as well as proactive trust planning through a series of NNEPA conference workshops. Whittley also served as NNEPA Career Counsellor from 2017-2019. In that role, she coached new and transitioning attorneys on their next steps toward pursuing a law practice that more adequately met their personal and professional goals. In her current role, Whittley works as career coach to law students and organizes on campus programming for career exploration at the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. 

Jessica Beinart graduated in 2011 with a BA in English/CW and a minor in professional writing. After a brief stint as a professional blogger for Emmis Communications, she put her professional writing skills to use as a legal assistant. Jessica worked her way up from legal assistant to paralegal to senior staff at Bays Family Law where she worked primarily in family law related cases. She also handled all of the estate and probate related cases including guardianships and estate planning. As of the fall of 2019, Jessica works as a paralegal for the state at the Department of Workforce Development. She has enjoyed working in both private and public law.

March: Education & Training

“Public History in the Real World”
Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 5 PM in NQ 160

  • Daniel Gonzales, Director, Exhibitions Research, Indiana Historical Society

Daniel Gonzales earned his B.S. in Secondary Education from Ball State University in 2007 and his M.A. in Museum Studies from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis in the spring of 2010 as an E. Desmond Lee Fellow. Following graduation he began work as a researcher at the Missouri History Museum. In 2013, Daniel took on the position of Museum Curator with the St. Louis County Parks system eventually being promoted to Historian for St. Louis County. In 2018, he took the position of Director of Exhibitions Research at the Indiana Historical Society.

Learn more about him. 

April: Education & Training  

“Be THAT Person: Teach!”
Thursday, April 16, 2020 at 5 PM in NQ 160

  • Liz Majewski, English, Lawrence Central High School
  • Michelle Elsheikh, History, Fishers High School
  • Emily Howland, Spanish, Warren

Liz Majewski graduated from Ball State in 2015 with a Bachelor’s in Secondary English Education and a minor in Coaching Aquatics. She found her home teaching English at Lawrence Central High School, where she has also held positions as an assistant swim coach, head middle school golf coach, eLearning coach, and PLC leader. Liz spends a lot of time promoting extra curriculars in the building, writing grants, and developing new course curriculum to help improve the experience of Lawrence Township students. Currently, she teaches English 11, Women’s Literature, Hip Hop Literature, and Speech.

Michelle (Subler) Elsheikh joined the staff at Fishers Jr. High School in 2015 after teaching history and geography courses within the Wes-Del Community Schools and Carmel Clay School districts. A 2012 graduate, Elsheikh received two Bachelor’s degrees in both Social Studies Education and History. A strong believer in civil discourse, Elsheikh has developed complex units that engage students in civil discourse while simultaneously strengthening empathy and analytic, research, synthesization, and thesis writing skills. Involved in all aspects of a school’s community, Elsheikh has also served as a cross country coach, student council advisor, class sponsor, academic team coach, director, INTERACT advisor, Equity Team Member, Staff Orientation Ambassador, and founder of the FJH GSA. 

Emily Howland graduated in May 2019 from the Honors College. She majored in Spanish Education (Secondary) with a minor in Linguistics. Upon graduation, Howland accepted a teaching position at Warren Central High School where she teaches Spanish I and II and coaches marching band and color guard.

All events are free and open to the public. Humanities majors are strongly encouraged to attend, but students of any major at Ball State are welcome.