Where Are They Now? Spotlight on Young Alumni Emily Reynolds '00, Jimmy Ryan '00 and Patrick McInerney '01
Reprinted on the web from the Fall/Winter 2006 Issue of Highlights

Additional Links:
Highlights Archive
Front Page
Communications Center

So, you’ve graduated from college.
Now what?

In these profiles, Highlights talks to three recent college graduates about what they are doing now. Each has pursued a different path, and not necessarily the ones they imagined for themselves as CCES students: Emily Reynolds finds herself making a difference at a non-profit in Washington, DC, Jimmy Ryan is in medical school in Charleston, and Patrick McInerney is living the fast-paced life of a young, on-the-go advertising assistant in New York.

EMILY REYNOLDS '00: NOT INTIMIDATED IN THE LEAST

Emily Reynolds exudes self-confidence. It is something she attributes, in part, to growing up “an only child in an extremely loving and supportive family,” and to “CCES, which fortified that experience. I grew up learning I could do anything I put my mind to. I was only intimidated by college the first day,” she said, referring to her four years at the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in marketing and communications, and played volleyball for two years, one of them on an Ivy League championship team.

“I was going to be the next C.J. Cregg on The West Wing,” she said of her ambitions in college. “If I’d been told I would be doing nonprofit work when I got out of college, I would have said no way.”

But an opportunity came along that derailed her plans to become a press secretary on Capitol Hill. In July 2004 she joined the Center for Women’s Business Research as an executive assistant and has since been “promoted a couple of times.” Now, as a business development associate, she is responsible for fundraising and business relationship management, and she is absolutely passionate about her job.

The Center was established in 1989 as a research organization that could inform the public about the social, economic, and political impact of women entrepreneurs on our society. Today, Emily indicated, nearly half of all privately held businesses in this country are owned by women, a total of 10.4 million establishments generating two trillion dollars in annual revenues.

“The Center is an empowering organization, not a victimization organization,” she said, explaining the appeal of her work. “I am a strong supporter of developing women leaders,” she said. The Center works to support women business owners and to develop their potential as political leaders through its affiliation with other women’s groups, such as WIPP (Women Impacting Public Policy) and NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners). “It’s something I believe in,” she commented, “it’s really important.”

Did we detect a hint of political leadership ambitions of her own? Maybe, she admitted, she might have answered yes before she started working in D.C.; now she is not so sure. So where does she see herself five years from now? “Hopefully, married with kids!” she exclaimed. She is also entertaining the thought of pursuing a dual M.B.A. and J.D. program. She is not sure where this graduate training will take her, but we’re sure it will be far.

JIMMY RYAN '00: A CIRCUITOUS PATH TO MEDICAL SCHOOL

"When I was at CCES, I never thought I’d be going to medical school,” said Jimmy Ryan when Highlights reached him between classes at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston. “I thought I’d be working and living in Greenville,” where his “Mice on Main” Senior Project made its mark downtown as a tourist-worthy attraction.

After graduating from CCES, Jimmy went to Duke University as an economics major, intent on one day running his own business. There he participated in a student-run company that delivered food on campus from off-campus eateries. In his sophomore year he served as the Chief Financial Officer of the company, which grossed about $90,000 in annual sales (but netted him, as one of the firm’s three dozen shareholders, “not much more than minimum wage”).


“I didn’t really like my economics classes, and after my campus business experience, I realized that economics was not really for me. I really liked dealing with people. I found I was more attracted to science-based disciplines,” he said.

In his junior year he began to think about the possibility of medical school; his brother, David Ryan ’98, was already in medical school in Charleston. To catch up on the science and other prerequisite courses he would need for medical school he attended summer school at Duke between his junior and senior years, completing a semester’s worth of work and enabling him to graduate way ahead of schedule in December 2003.

“I wasn’t prepared to apply to medical school yet, so I hung around Duke during the spring semester after I graduated, auditing classes and studying for the MCAT” (the Medical College Admission Test). That summer he decided to move to Montana and found work at the University of Montana. He spent 12 months there doing basic science research on the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. “The research gave me great experience in how research is done and prepared me well for medical school,” he said.

Today he is in his second year at MUSC, immersed in his studies. He lives with his brother David in Charleston and is thinking of following in his footsteps into the surgical field. He volunteers at two student-run clinics associated with the university, one for the homeless and one for individuals without health insurance.

“CCES prepared me very well for my classes at Duke and for medical school,” he noted. “The school provided me with a great foundation of knowledge. Probably one of the most important things I took from CCES academically is the ability to write well.  
Be it applications for schools, jobs, or positions, I have always had to write essays and have always felt that the English department at CCES did an exceptional job at teaching me how to communicate effectively and to portray myself in writing.

“In addition, the values instilled in me at Christ Church—the work ethic, giving back to the community, teamwork, and how to deal with setbacks and adversity, which I learned in athletics—all these lessons have been invaluable to me.”
We suspect that one day they will be invaluable to his patients too.


PATRICK MCINERNEY '01: CONQUERING THE BIG APPLE

"I’ll never forget the tour I took of the Leslie Agency with classmate Melissa Jimenez ’01, when I was a junior at CCES,” Patrick recalled. “In the upstairs offices there were a lot of suits walking around. But downstairs, everyone was dressed in jeans and tee shirts, there was music playing, stuff all over the walls, and I thought, This is what I want to do.”

Fast forward four years and this time Patrick is touring a number of big-name ad agencies in New York as part of a select group of advertising majors from Boston University. “We met with Boston alumni at each of the agencies. The executives at each stop pitched us, telling us why we should come to work for them. It was a lot of fun.”

He got his start in the advertising business in November 2005 without even conducting a job search. Home for Christmas in 2004, he attended sister Katie’s basketball game at CCES where he met former College Guidance Director Jackie Suber. She put him in touch with her daughter, Susan Credle ’81, Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director at BBDO, and winner of nearly every industry award. In 2004 Susan had been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Achievement for her work, her involvement in the community, and her role in “inspiring, mentoring, and training others to succeed.”

Susan and her husband, Joe, wound up taking Patrick to lunch in New York, and referring him to a spot opening up at her agency. Today Patrick works (in jeans and sneakers, shorts and flip-flops during the summer) as Creative Assistant to Susan, a job he loves. “I do a lot of administrative stuff,” he told Highlights, “but I also get really involved in the creative work too.” Patrick already has a Cingular billboard in Times Square to show for his work!


"The hours are long, but I work with the coolest people imaginable,” said Patrick, whose ambition is to rise to copywriter at the agency one day.

Those at CCES who remember his high spirits and free-wheeling sense of humor have no doubt that his ads will one day be winning awards too.

Pictured left: Patrick McInerney's clever copy, enshrined in New York's Times Square.