Alumni Address Seniors at “Rivers Connect”

“Thinking about the future can be somewhat daunting,” featured speaker Alex Krotinger Lisavich ’04 told the assembled members of the Class of 2019. “Try not to think about ‘What I want to be when I grow up’ and focus more on how the experiences in the years ahead will prepare you for success.”

The Monday evening gathering was a rebranding of the event formerly known as Career Night. The new name and focus reflect a shift in emphasis toward acquiring self-knowledge and life skills after high school, as demonstrated by the experiences of the visiting alumni who shared their stories. The event also functioned as an introduction to the strong network of Rivers alumni that the seniors will soon join, imparting the message that Rivers graduates are there for one another and can help create or foster important connections.

The students gathered for dinner in Kraft Dining Hall and then listened as Lisavich outlined her path from college, where she played three varsity sports and relied heavily on the time-management skills she mastered at Rivers, through a short-lived career in finance to her present position as a learning and development manager at software firm HubSpot. “Sitting in your seat 15 years ago, I never dreamed I would be working in high tech or in learning and development,” she said. Navigating next steps can be hard, Lisavich noted, so rather than focus on particular careers, the visiting alums planned to “provide valuable and universally applicable advice in areas such as developing and articulating your personal brand, creating an effective job-search strategy, making the most of your network, and more.”

After Lisavich’s remarks, the students broke into small groups and headed into classrooms, where pairs of alumni described their own journeys after Rivers. Like Lisavich, Julia Robinson ’02 took a job in finance after college, and similarly found that it wasn’t the right fit. “I didn’t know what I wanted; I went down a lot of avenues and tried a lot of things,” she said. She became a personal trainer, worked for a number of startups, and finally opened her own business, Modern Barre Fitness Studios. Her message to the students was reflected in her own path: “If you get into a job and you don’t like it, you can switch. You don’t have to stick with it – it doesn’t work that way anymore.”

Chris Curtis ’02, producer of The Mut & Callahan Show on WEEI Sports Network Radio, stressed the importance of exploring different interests while in college and relatively free of responsibilities. “Do as many things as you can while you can, so you can get to the root of what you want to do,” he urged the seniors.

Some alums spoke of finding college – even a small college – overwhelmingly vast compared to the small Rivers community. But many sought to quell seniors’ concerns about the looming unknown that is college. Several, for example, spoke of being pleased to discover how ready they were to take on challenging coursework. James Greenslit ’02, now head mens’ soccer coach at Roger Williams University, told the students, “Academically, Rivers prepares you as well as anyplace.”

Seniors enjoyed having the chance to meet with their future selves. “It was a great opportunity to connect with some influential Rivers alums who have been successful in a variety of fields. I thought everyone really got a lot out of the evening,” said Johnny Kontaros ’19. Added Maren Durant ’19, “Overall, I thoroughly appreciated talking to alumni and hearing the different paths they took following their Rivers experiences. It made me excited for my future after high school.”

Above all, the message to seniors was not to sweat that future, whose twists and turns are as impossible to predict as they are rewarding to navigate. “People are making money from being Instagram stars,” Robinson pointed out. “If they can do that, you can do anything.”