Tufts seniors in the spotlight By Romy Oltuski and Julie Kalt Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Updated: Thursday, May 21, 2009 16:05

ANDREW LEE In the face of a downward-spiraling economy, many seniors are looking at graduate school as a way to avoid the stagnant workforce. This is true for graduating senior Andrew Lee, except that his continuing education will not be the typical academic experience. Enrolled in Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) for the past four years with the goal of becoming a commissioned Marine officer, Lee will be attending The Basic School (TBS) in Quantico, Va., where students develop the professional knowledge and skills to effectively lead Marines under their command. Upon completion of TBS, he will attend flight school for two years. Meredith Klein / Tufts Daily

"I always knew that I was going to do ROTC. I started as Andrew Lee a freshman and was initially in the Navy program, but switched my scholarship from Navy to Marines after attending [Career Orientation and Training for Midshipmen] during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year," he said. Lee found that the Marines had a higher esprit de corps and a more developed sense of camaraderie. He said that these characteristics both attracted and motivated him. During his time at Tufts, Lee has lived with the goal of being a team player. He ran crosscountry all four years at Tufts and ran the Boston Marathon with the Tufts team this year. This tendency toward teamwork will be important as he embarks on his post-graduation journey. "I have a commitment to be a pilot for eight years upon completing flight school. At that point I will choose to stay [in the armed forces] or get out," he said. "If I leave, I want to go to

business school." To Lee, his choice to do ROTC was borne from his desire to serve his country. "The reason I joined is that we are a part of this 9/11 generation and I am going to do my service that I feel I owe as an immigrant," he said. "I am a part of this country and I want to give back. It's the same as Peace Corps or AmeriCorps or Teach for America." PATRICK ROATH Patrick Roath, who graduates today, has some words of wisdom about how to ensure success: "Try everything, do everything." It is advice that he himself has followed and will continue to follow after graduation. Roath, an International Relations major and an English Patrick Roath minor, was awarded a prestigious U.S. Fulbright grant through the State Department and will use this grant to teach English at a high school in a rural province of coastal Malaysia for seven months. "It's going to be really cool to give people language skills," he said. "It's a form of service that I think is really valuable." Roath is no stranger to this type of service. During his sophomore year, he attended the Boston Academy of English where he learned to teach the language. Involved with The Tufts Observer since sophomore year, Roath served as editor-in-chief this past fall; he also acted as chairman of the Media Advocacy Board on campus.

Meredith Klein / Tufts Daily

Meredith Klein / Tufts Daily

Jyll Saskin

In addition, he served as a leader of Tufts Wilderness Orientation for two summers. "They were both incredible experiences — having the ability to introduce freshmen to Tufts and get to know them really well in that environment," Roath said. During his time between graduation and Malaysia, from May 22 to Aug. 14, Roath will be interning in the White House Communications department working with local media affairs or new media. From his work in the Council of Foreign Relations to working in a branch of the White House, Roath hopes to represent the United States in a positive way abroad.

"I want to represent the values of the U.S. government and of the country," he said. "The town I'll be working in is almost all Muslim and very conservative. I hope that I gain an appreciation for what our country tries to do abroad from a very ground-level perspective and how people think about their own place in the world." JYLL SASKIN It was clear to graduating senior Jyll Saskin, aspiring fashion magazine editor, that she would continue her education after graduation. The where and how were slightly less clear, but she soon decided to go down a somewhat experimental route and join the first class of Harvard Business School's brand new 2+2 Program, in which students work in any professional field for two years and then attend business school for two more. The program, intended to add diversity to the business classroom, encourages students of all academic concentrations to apply. A child development and psychology major looking to be editor-in-chief of a magazine, Saskin knew the program was a good fit for her.

Meredith Klein / Tufts Daily

Robyn Goldberg

Saskin found out about 2+2 when a friend of hers read an article about the program in the New York Times. It was mostly by chance that she discovered her passion for magazine editing, as well. "The summer after my freshman year, I wanted to do something fun, so I became a makeup artist. Then my sophomore year, I wrote a fashion column for the Daily and it was a lot of fun … I decided to apply for the internship at [Canada's Flare Magazine] and I applied to the beauty department because I was a makeup artist and I thought that would help," she said. "I got the

Meredith Klein / Tufts Daily

Aditi Manwani

internship and by the end of that summer, there was no turning back. I knew [magazine editing] was what I wanted to do, and I've just been working hard at that ever since."

For Saskin, a business degree is not a departure from her career path but another step along the way. Among other advantages, in an economy in which print publications are suffering, Saskin feels that a business degree will be looked at favorably and may be pertinent to growing industry problems. "I feel like a business degree is more like a degree in leadership than a degree in business," she said. "It's all about running corporations [and] managing people. My ultimate career goal is to be the editor-in-chief of a magazine, and once you're in that position, you have to deal with the business side of things a lot."

Meredith Klein / Tufts Daily

Jessica Snow

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