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Alumni speak to 'The Power of Language'

Three alumni will return to campus for an April 17 panel discussion about the ways in which proficiency in a foreign language has been essential to their careers. "The Power of Language: Rewarding Careers for the Multi-lingual" will feature Katherine Avgerinos '06, Lauren Burke '06 and Carl Prather '04. In addition to discussing their own career paths, the three will help current students and other attendees understand how to put their language skills to work and market their fluency to future employers.

Avgerinos was a Slavic studies and history double major at the College who went on to earn a dual master's degree in international relations and public relations from Syracuse University. Fluent in Russian, she now works for Ketchum, one of the largest public relations firms in the world, where her key clients are the Russian government and Gazprom, a Russian gas company. Burke self-designed her Chinese language and literature major at Connecticut College and now, fluent in Mandarin, she works as an immigration attorney - with a focus on human trafficking - at The Door Legal Services Center in New York.

She has served as a consultant to local, state and federal law enforcement and NGOs, advising them in the patterns and practices of Chinese human smugglers. Burke is also the founder of Atlas, a nonprofit cooperative empowerment center for immigrant youth and their allies currently in development with plans to open in January of 2012. Prather is a senior analyst at EMP Latin America, a leading private equity firm for Latin America and the Caribbean, working in the fields of business development, market analysis and financial modeling. After majoring in international relations and Latin American studies at Connecticut College, he graduated from the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University with a degree in international business and finance.

The panel discussion - co-sponsored by the Office of College Advancement and the SGA Advancement Committee - will take place on Sunday, April 17, at 4 p.m. in Cro's Nest in the College Center at Crozier-Williams. It will be moderated by Julia Kushigian, professor of Hispanic studies.



April 14, 2011