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Thousands of students picked up their degrees Sunday after years of classroom-based learning and experiential learning.
This is part of our coverage of Northeastern University’s 2024 commencement.
“Two had also done co-ops at the company,” Coindreau tells Northeastern Global News.
Coindreau was just one of thousands of students picking up their degrees during Sunday’s commencement at Fenway Park after years of classroom instruction, co-op and experiential learning.
Guardian Agriculture, which is based in Woburn, Massachusetts, produces a very specific kind of drone, called the SC1 autonomous electric vertical takeoff and landing drone, used by farmers to aerially apply insecticides on their crops. Coindreau was able to parlay his Northeastern co-op at Guardian Agriculture into full-time work, which he says he’ll begin following graduation.
“As my part-time work started, it seemed like everything was going well,” Coindreau says. “They asked me if I wanted to become full-time after graduation.”
Coindreau reflected on how his five years at Northeastern helped him in the job market.
“Northeastern has prepared me well,” he says. “My time here was very career focused, all about producing good, quality work as opposed to just knowing things.”
Scores of students will leave Northeastern after graduation with jobs already waiting for them. According to the university, 97% of Northeastern graduates are employed or in graduate school within nine months of graduation.
Ellie Witham, a 23-year-old graduate with a master’s in public history — and a double Husky — will be going on to work for the National Park Service. She accepted the position this past week.
“I’m really excited, especially for the ramp up to the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution over the next few years,” Witham says moments after Sunday’s graduate ceremony.
Witham credited her adviser, Kabria Baumgartner, with helping her to forge connections with local institutions, museums and the National Park Service.
Public history, Witham says, is about applying history outside of the classroom, making it more accessible by “bringing it directly to people and communities.” She completed her co-op with the Massachusetts State Archives and the Library of Congress.
“I spent the last five years here at Northeastern, so I’m excited to see what’s beyond,” she says.
After earning her undergraduate degree in Australia, Bhakti Ukey, 30, graduated with her master’s in information systems from Northeastern in December. It was around that time that she began working for an AI startup called LinkedAI.
“We are working on projects that are helping companies build a bridge, using AI, between where they are and where they want to be,” Ukey says.
Ukey says the connections she acquired at Northeastern were key to her landing the gig.
“Meeting people and the links that the university provides helped open the door for me to this job and more relationships,” Ukey says.
For 26-year-old Akhil Krishna, finding full-time work while working toward his master’s degree in data analytics was hardly complicated. The company he worked for as a graduate student, LG Energy Solution Vertech Inc., hired him midway through his co-op.
He is now a software engineer for the Westborough, Massachusetts-based company.
“They asked me to come on after some time, which makes it easy because now I’m working with the same team as before,” Krishna says.
Jacob Liebovitz, a 22-year-old cell and molecular biology major, is going to do a full-time, post-baccalaureate program at an area college.
Liebovitz credits his co-ops at both Moderna and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals as helping propel him into the position.
“The co-ops are what really helped me the most,” Liebovitz says. “Now I’ll be working full-time and getting paid a salary.”
Liebovitz hopes to go on and pursue a Ph.D. after the year-long work-study program.