Centrepiece: Centre alumni demonstrate the value of a college degree

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: Americans’ confidence in higher education is trending in the wrong direction. In a Gallup survey conducted last year, only 36 percent of respondents expressed “a great deal” or “a lot” of confidence in higher education, down from 48% in 2018 and 57% in 2015.

College enrollment “plummeted during the pandemic,” said Courtney Brown, vice president of impact and planning for the Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis, “and it's come back from that. But we're not quite at pre-pandemic numbers, and we're nowhere where we were 10 years ago. And some of that is a result of people losing confidence in the system.”
 
On the other side of the equation, a 2023 Lumina Foundation and Gallup study titled Education for What? noted that “the economic case for earning a college degree remains solid,” with college graduates earning about $1 million more on average over the course of their career than U.S. adults without a degree.

Furthermore, the study noted, “The results show that additional years of education beyond high school make for a healthier, more civic-minded individual who is more likely to interact with neighbors and family members, and to do work that aligns with their natural talents and interests.”

“There are two tricky things that are happening there,” Brown said. “When you ask people if they think college is important, they say yes — that it's just as important or more important today than it was 20 years ago. They say that a bachelor's degree is very valuable: ‘It'll get me a job, a promotion, a better life.’ So, they value and want it.”

All that said, how does she explain the confidence gap? “People don't really know how much college costs,” said Brown, who speaks from professional and personal experience as a mother of four. Three of her children went to the same university, and “I paid different amounts for all three of them,” Brown recalls. “I never knew what my bill was going to be each semester. If I can't figure it out, I don't know how most people can.”

To change the narrative, she suggests colleges need to be much more transparent about the actual cost for a student to get a degree. The Centre Promise, announced in October, aims to simplify the often-confusing process of determining the cost of college by ensuring that 100% of all first-year students’ calculated financial aid is met.

Ensuring students are well prepared for the job market is also key to winning over skeptics, Brown said. While college grads earn much more over the course of their lives, helping students get started on their professional paths opens doors throughout their careers.

“We absolutely have to make sure that if you're going to spend the time and the money to get a degree, you should be able to get a job on the other end,” Brown said. “People are questioning the return on investment, and we have to make sure that that is working.”

That means not just preparing for the jobs that exist right now, she said. but also identifying jobs that people are going to need in the next 10 years.

“We know that people with college degrees can get good jobs and lead better lives,” she continues. “At a time when many young people seemingly want instant gratification — ‘I'm going to graduate, and I'm going to get the job of my dreams the next day’ — the payoff from a liberal arts degree might take a little bit more time.”

People with a liberal arts degree tend to be nimble, Brown suggests, and might be able to better navigate an AI-heavy landscape in the future with well-honed critical thinking skills. “Those degrees are probably going to be longer lasting in the AI world than some of the more technical ones,” she said.

“Another thing that we know works is if students have a mentor or a career guide, it helps them to stay enrolled, helps them to feel that they understand what they're doing and what it's going to lead to, and it helps them to get a job on the other end.”

In the fall of 2023, the Center for Career and Professional Development at Centre launched six Career Exploration Communities (CECs) to provide that sort of mentored link bridging their Centre education to internships and careers. The CECs allow students with similar career interests to work with a career coach to explore possible paths, participate in customized programming and events, network with industry insiders, and get the inside track on internships and jobs.

Centre’s alumni have been heavily involved in the CECs, providing mentorship and volunteering as career advocates to help students explore and launch careers.

“The expertise and experience of our alumni is a tremendous asset for students,” said Joy Asher, associate dean for career readiness. “Centre is educating tomorrow’s leaders and change-makers, able to solve complicated problems and adapt on the fly. Those who have walked this road before them are uniquely qualified to provide invaluable guidance and direction.”
 

Centre alumni 10 years out: Where are they now? 

One of the tools used to measure the value of a college education centers around the success of college graduates 10 years after they completed their degrees. National agencies use this breakdown to determine the return on investment offered by colleges. So as their 10th reunion year approaches, we checked in with a few members of the Class of 2015 to learn more about their professional and personal achievements and find out where their Centre experience took them. 

Briana Lathon Bluford
Centre major: Politics
Postgrad studies: Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville
Occupation: Senior Counsel, Kentucky Lottery Corporation
Where is she now: Louisville, Kentucky

For Briana Lathon Bluford, Centre was the logical next step in a journey that began when she was young, nurtured by a family that upheld the highest of standards.

“My parents, and especially my paternal grandmother, encouraged me to try something new. Education was very important,” she said. “As was being curious about travel… a general interest in being around smart people who want to use their powers for good… and caring deeply about the community.”
Even then, the choice wasn’t sealed until a campus visit her junior year at Louisville’s duPont Manual High School. 

“When you set foot on that campus, it feels like a special place,” she said. 

Bluford was a member of her high school’s mock trial team and remained focused on pursuing law throughout her educational journey. She majored in politics at Centre and “tried to do it all,” getting involved in student government and serving as an RA along with other clubs and activities. 

After Centre, she graduated from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville where she regularly crossed paths with a strong contingent of fellow Centre grads. 

Her dream was to follow in the footsteps of Paul Butler, a former prosecutor who Bluford said “tried to change the system from the inside out.” But interning with the U.S. Attorney’s Office made her realize that wasn’t to be her journey. 

After graduation, she joined a Louisville firm and began practicing business law. 

“I loved it,” she said. “It was really fun it allowed me to work with a lot of different teams.” 

As was the case for many during the COVID pandemic, Bluford did some soul-searching on where she wanted to be. The answer was to continue to focus on law, but from inside an organization. That led her to her current role as senior counsel for the Kentucky Lottery Corporation. 

She has also been active in her community and statewide, serving on the Louisville Public Media Board, Louisville Bar Association Board and Kentucky Derby Museum Board as well as a recent stint as a young alumni trustee on the Centre Board of Trustees. 

It’s a journey set in motion by her parents and grandparents, Bluford said, and further boosted by her Centre experience. 

“Often, when I look at my journey, I feel that Centre is an extra chip on my skills to help convince people that they can feel good betting on me and all the skills and my training,” she said.

Jessica Cruzan
Centre majors: Economics & Mathematics
Postgrad studies: University of California-Davis
Occupation: Head Brewer and Brewhouse Manager, Deschutes Brewery 
Where is she now: Bend, Oregon

Jessica Cruzan left her native Louisiana looking for a liberal arts and sciences college to broaden her horizons. During a road trip with her mom, she toured Rhodes, Washington University and Centre. 

“Centre was super-cool and totally delivered on the tour,” she recalls. “It was just one of those places my mom and I thought felt right.” Financial aid sealed the deal and she flourished while studying math and economics. 

After Centre, she lived and worked in Washington, D.C. doing research and fact-checking at the Washington Post. A few nights a week she worked at a local bar and enjoyed the connections made over a cold beer.

“Checking out breweries is a thing that my family did a lot,” she said. “So I just started tinkering,” making gallon-batches of homebrew in her 300-square-foot apartment. 

After reading about the Professional Brewing Program at UC-Davis , she said “See you, D.C. I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go do something else.” 

As she completed the program, Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, visited the school looking for interns. After getting her foot in the door, Cruzan was soon hired as a full-time production brewer. 

“And then this opportunity to be the head brewer and brewhouse manager opened up and I convinced them that my math background and econ background and my attention to detail was going to make it work, even though I didn’t have the most experience in the industry,” she said. “And so I’ve been doing this for almost three years now.”

Eric Theodore
Centre major: Art 
Postgrad studies: Laguna College of Art + Design
Occupation: Professional artist 
Where is he now: Aliso Viejo, California

Eric Theodore is making waves in Southern California as a figurative artist, capturing realistic images of the world around him. 

It’s a style he honed at Centre and continued as he pursued his master of fine arts degree at Laguna College of Art and Design in California. 

“It’s one of the top schools in the country for realistic representational artwork, which was the foundation I got at Centre with Sheldon Tapley being my instructor,” Theodore said. “He really taught us how to paint and how to paint from live models.”

Tapley’s “classical academic approach to painting and drawing is really not the norm in academia today,” Theodore said. “So that was a really cool skillset I got to build at Centre and it ended up being perfect to come out here and pursue my MFA.” 

Before attending Laguna College, Theodore was an art teacher in Texas for nearly five years, The pandemic was a catalyst for him to pursue grad school, which turned out to be a fateful choice. 

“Things went really well. I had my art in three different museums this summer, so that was great. And my exhibit at the Lupina Art Museum sold out, which is really cool,” he said. “The school bought two of my paintings, so I’m in the permanent collection here.” 

Theodore also won the trustees’ choice award at Laguna College and was awarded an artist residence at the college, where he maintains a studio space. 

It’s been a long journey from his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he learned about Centre via a high school classmate of his sister. 

“It’s a great opportunity that I’m living next to one of the most lucrative art communities in the world with the Los Angeles art scene in the greater area here,” he said. “It sounds a little bit crazy, but I’m going to try to pursue just being an artist. 

“I really want to see how far I can go with it.”

Kit Thomas
Centre major: Politics
Postgrad studies: Washington and Lee University School of Law
Occupation: Assistant Federal Public Defender, Capital Habeas Unit 
Where is she now: Nashville, Tennessee

The bonds Kit Thomas built at Centre College run deep. It’s those ties that leap to mind when she looks back at her time on campus. 

“The best friends of my life are from Centre,” she said. “I still keep in touch with them on a daily basis, if not hourly basis.” 

But that social network is far from the only thread that runs from her undergraduate experience to her work with inmates on death row.

“I wrote my senior seminar paper on the death penalty and presented it at the Rice Symposium,” she recalls. “And I remember sitting in pottery class when my mom called and said, ‘Yeah, I think you should go to law school.’

That evening phone call stands out in Thomas’ memory because her attorney parents had been steering her away from law.  But the die was cast and Thomas went on to graduate first in her class at Washington and Lee University School of Law.

“I was really well prepared for law school after attending Centre,” she said.
Her Centre experience also paved the way for her to connect closely with her law school professors, leading to several summer internships. 

“I went to law school knowing I wanted to do death penalty work and I went to W&L because they had a professor named David Brook who has represented a lot of high profile death penalty cases,” she said. “I love my job.”

Thomas clerked in Federal District Court in Owensboro, Kentucky for Judge Joseph McKinley, clerked on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals for a year and clerked in home hometown of Charleston, West Virginia for Judge Robert King before joining the Federal Public Defender's Office in the Nashville Capital Habeas Unit.

"Love Centre,” she said. “I come back every fall for the law school fair and I represent my law school at the law school fair, so it’s always nice to get back to campus.”

Selwyn Mallah
Centre major: Economics and Finance
Occupation: Strategic Finance Manager at Exodus 
Where is he now: Lawrenceville, Georgia

The cliché of getting into a startup business on the ground floor sounds like a line from an old TV series. 

But like many such tropes, it has roots in reality. And for Selwyn Mallah, becoming part of the leadership team building a tech startup happened quite organically. 

Selwyn started building his skills after coming to Centre to play football, majoring in econ and finance. 
On the field, his highlight play came in a historic Centre victory. During a 2013 victory over Birmingham Southern, the Georgia native intercepted a pass and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.

That game was win number 100 for Centre coach Andy Frye. 

Mallah also returned two interceptions for scores his senior year during an exhibition win over the Dublin Rebels as the football team traveled to Ireland before the start of the regular season. 

He began his professional journey as a finance intern at Cox Communication before joining the company full-time as a financial analyst. As cryptocurrency surged into the mainstream in the early 2020s, Mallah founded a company to help investors understand the ins and outs of the crypto-asset industry. 

His interest in the field led him to Exodus, a startup building a user-friendly crypto wallet for investors to store and trade digital currencies.  Mallah quickly moved up from a senior analyst to strategic finance manager, helping shape the company’s future. 
 

This article appears in the Fall/Winter 2024 edition of Centrepiece.