Graduating Seniors Reflect on Four Years of Real-World Learning

This spring, seven graduating seniors sat down with admitted students and their families for panel discussions reflecting on their four years at Champlain College. Across different majors, their stories told a remarkably consistent message: a Champlain education is rooted in experiential learning and changes you in ways you don’t fully expect.

• Samantha Taxter ’26 // Marketing
• Olivier Lorin ’26 // Game Production Management
• Jannatul Anjum ’26 // International Business
• Taylor Harrington ’26 // Game Art
• Haiva Askari ’26 // Professional Writing
• Haily Sumner ’26 // Social Work
• Will Swearingin ’26 // Degree Design Lab (Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics, and Global Studies)

Learning by Doing, From Day One

Career-focused learning at Champlain begins on day one, unfolds across classrooms, internships, co-ops, and global experiences, and is supported at every step by faculty, advisors, staff, and a community invested in students’ success.

Will, a graduating senior in the Degree Design Lab, started his very first semester as an intern at the Leahy Center for Digital Forensics & Cybersecurity right here on campus.

“I stayed until just this past year, working my way up to be a Team Lead, leading 13 other students on client engagements all across Vermont. That experience was incredibly developmental. It pushed me forward to think about career paths I didn’t previously consider, developed my leadership, my communication, and out of anything during my time here, that single thing set me up the most for my future.”

— Will Swearingin ’26, Degree Design Lab

Taylor, a graduating Game Art major, put it plainly, “The fact that I can put on my resume that I have three produced and published games before even leaving college is amazing.” Through the Champlain Game Studio, students work cross-disciplinarily with game programmers, designers, and producers to build games from the ground up — and with industry professionals they may one day work beside. “The professors have so many connections to industry professionals. I got to participate in the Ubisoft competition, developing a game with the mentorship of current Ubisoft employees. It was amazing and definitely set me up moving forward.”

For Haiva, a Professional Writing major, the classroom was a networking arena. Her favorite course, one she liked so much that she took it twice, was Publishing in the 21st Century, where industry guests visited every single week.

“Yesterday, I was at orientation for my new job, and I was in a meeting with the CEO and other higher-ups. I was able to sit there, have a conversation, and not be nervous. I think Champlain really does a good job preparing you with the experiences they offer; I’ve been able to find my voice and learn it’s not that scary to sit here and speak in front of people.”

— Haily Sumner ’26, Social Work

“In Marketing, they pair you with businesses in Burlington, and you learn how to communicate with professionals in real-time. Going through the process of showing your work to executives, getting exposed to people in different disciplines, working alongside designers, people who code, people who manage projects, all sorts of different areas. You’re learning by doing, which is something that really worked for me.”

—Samantha Taxter ’26, Marketing

“It teaches you how to learn from failure, to work with a team, and to resolve issues. You’re getting a sense of how to work with teammates from all different disciplines in game.”

—Olivier Lorin ’26, Game Production Management

The consistent practice of these skills across major and industry boundaries is what sets them apart and teaches students how to put their best foot forward, even in unexpected challenges.

“Being able to take those skills from your major and use them to push forward a different position is a skill that I have grown so much through Champlain. And that’s not just ‘how do I draw something’ or ‘how do I model something?’ It’s also ‘how do I communicate with this group of people versus an office that has that energy?’ You learn to adapt what you have.”

—Taylor Harrington ’26, Game Art

The People That Make It Possible

What makes Champlain’s approach work isn’t just the opportunities; it’s the support systems that allow students to try, fail, and get back up again. Anjum, who completed five internships, shared her appreciation for the Career Collaborative and Career Coach, Pat Boera, who reviewed every resume and cover letter Anjum submitted, and once drove her to a networking event across the state on a Saturday morning.

“Every single job I’ve applied to, I’ve emailed my resume and cover letter to Pat. Not because I can’t do it myself, just because she gives me more confidence. With the hundreds of students she’s in charge of, she still takes the time to look at your resume, to go through your LinkedIn, and to figure out the smallest ways that you can flip this to make yourself sound more important. That really detailed attention is so important for the person I have become in these four years.”

—Jannatul Anjum ’26, International Business

Olivier echoed this with a shout-out to Game Studio Career Coach, Connor Holtkamp, and highlighted a recent trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where approximately 30 Champlain students attended industry talks and networking events. “What Connor and the Career Collaborative do very well is set you up for success and make you feel like you’re actually able to connect on a professional level with these industry professionals.”

“The way that the professors are industry professionals as well, it is just incredible. You’ll gain so much from talking to them, learning about them, and asking them questions. When I went to Montreal, I was kind of worried because I presumably wasn’t going to have a job for the first time in my college career. I talked to my professor during the first class that I had in Montreal, and told her that I was a writing major. I got a job working for her as a blog writer.”

—Haiva Askari ’26, Professional Writing