Life After Goucher: Caroline Less ‘15

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Photo from Caroline Less.

Responses collected by Erika DiPasquale, Associate Editor

March 5th, 2017

What have you been up to since graduation?

Since graduating from Goucher, I have had so many awesome opportunities to work in public education. I completed my undergraduate degree in the Fall of 2015, and during the Spring of 2016 I worked in a middle school as a paraprofessional, where I was able to confirm my desire to teach. The summer after graduation I enrolled in Brandeis University’s MAT program and I am currently working towards getting my Masters in Secondary Education and dual certification in English and Moderate Disabilities.

What do you miss about Goucher?

I think the thing that I miss the most about Goucher is being so close to my friends all the time. In a community like Goucher, you get used to having all of your best friends within a 100 yard radius of you; it’s easy to meet up for lunch or coffee or a study session. It takes a lot more coordinating to meet up with friends post college because we all have really new and different schedules and don’t live in the same building anymore, or even the same state!

There’s also a lot more free time in college, and it’s easier and kind of cheaper to feed yourself when you have a prepaid meal plan and lots of healthy (not all healthy though) options. Grocery shopping and cooking takes up a lot of time!

Any advice for seniors?

I’d tell seniors to be selfish. Take the time to do things for yourself, and take advantage of all the things Goucher, Towson, and Baltimore have to offer. Your work will get done (you’ve gotten it done every year up to now!) and it’s important to realize that things might get harder and busier after college, so use this time to put yourself first and enjoy these last few months with your wonderful Goucher friends and the amazing and supportive Goucher staff and faculty.

What do you know now that you wish you had known as a first-year or before graduating in general?

As a retired college athlete, I wish I could go back and tell my younger self that my academic performance, extracurriculars, and who I am as a person defines me more than my identity as an athlete. I will always be hardworking, dedicated, kind, and occasionally frazzled, but I realized that it’s tough to try and keep up the identity of an athlete when more important aspirations and desires became apparent in my life in and out of college.

What part of your Goucher experience has had the most influence on your first year out?

I think my study abroad experience has been the most influential. You learn so much about yourself when you spend six months away from what’s familiar to you. Before I studied abroad, I was not entirely sure what I wanted to do after graduating from Goucher. While studying at St. Andrews in Scotland, however, I slowly realized my desire to teach, the only aspiration I could think of that would allow me to keep working with literature and help young people reach their full potential. My semester abroad also inspired me to apply for jobs abroad. I’m hoping to teach abroad after graduating and I have Goucher’s awesome study abroad requirement to thank for that!

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