CATHERINE TOPOLINSKI (’13) enjoyed study abroad in both India and Belgium while she was in college. She chose to study political science because she enjoyed the courses.  She thinks political science gives students “a real nice skill set to use for whatever you want.”

Ms. Topolinski now works for Google. She never thought she could work there with a political science degree, and says, “I just interviewed for the h—l of it. I didn’t think that I would get the job…”  She did get the job, and she explains, “…whoever hires you is most likely going to expect to train you with the hard skills that you need, so I think that political science majors should just be confident in the skills that they have.” She adds, “You shouldn’t be scared to explore, kind of go out of your comfort zone, because there’s a lot we as political science majors are actually prepared for.”

One of the highlights of Ms. Topolinski’s time in the department was the friends that she made: “Even though it’s a pretty big major,” she explains, “you find people that you just keep taking classes with…so, I thought it was pretty awesome that towards the end of my career [in college] I just got to work with people that I loved, like my classmates, so that was fun.”

Ms. Topolinski can be reached at catherinetopolinski@gmail.com.