Mentors, friends and professional connections do matter

Three successful Augustana grads, three different careers, three different stories.

But not entirely.

Establishing a career takes knowledge and skills, no question. But Augustana also taught Andrew Brimeyer, Madison Williams and Janice Wu another thing: Mentors, friends and professional connections matter, too. And that reaching out and listening to others is its own kind of knowledge:

• Brimeyer found his path to teaching after long conversations with his roommate and coaches about values.
• Williams’ class assignments required networking. Then she found she positively enjoyed asking advice from people in her chosen profession of sports journalism.
• Wu battled imposter syndrome at Microsoft with a series of personal get-acquainted meetings with each of her new co-workers.

Andrew Brimeyer ’15

English literature and business management double major

After Augustana, Andrew Brimeyer earned a master’s in education at Notre Dame. He’s been teaching junior high students at Annunciation Catholic School in Denver the past seven years. Most of his students are the children of immigrants and refugees.

He’s also the cross country coach and founder/director of Denver Urban XC, which encourages students of color to get involved in running. 

Not one to miss a chance to network, Brimeyer attended a conference last winter called the Boulder Running Clinic, and met coaches from all around the country. Some have had national champions and are sending their runners to Division I colleges.

"I think the most important thing is to just not be afraid to approach those people," he said. "Because at the end of the day, they’re just people. 

"And if you go up and you are curious and you ask ques-tions, they love talking to you. And so that’s a huge piece of advice I have for anybody going into any field: Just find people whom you really admire in your field and don’t be afraid to ask them questions. Most of the time they’re going to be willing to help you out, and you’re going to grow."

Brimeyer reflected that coaches and faculty at Augustana helped him clarify his values and find a path for them in teaching and coaching.

"My time at Augie made me realize that whatever it is that you’re doing, there’s got to be something bigger to it," he said. 

Coach Paul Olsen taught him that running cross country is more than just running. 

"Every time we’re out there, we’re celebrating life, and to me, that’s important," Brimeyer said. "In all of my work I try to make sure that there’s joy and passion, because that will carry over to the kids."

He is grateful for the guidance he received at Augustana in searching for a passion and for something that was "more than just a job."

Madison Williams ‘20

Multimedia journalism and mass communication major and French minor

Madison Williams took her Augustana diploma and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University straight to Sports Illustrated as a breaking news writer in 2022.

When she arrived at Augustana, she had a career in sports journalism in mind and set to work making it happen. She was a sports reporter for the Augustana Observer for three years, and then sports editor. Her Senior Inquiry was an analysis of DIII sports.

Williams knew she wanted to go to a small school, but she worried that she wouldn’t have as many opportunities there. 

“I actually got to do a lot more than I probably would have at a bigger school,” she said. “They gave me the opportunities right off the bat.”

Her biggest opportunity was covering Viking men’s basketball, where she learned the tools of her trade from professional journalists.

“I’m at the media table, you know, 18 years old!” she said. “It was a really cool experience for me to see all the interviews and then my sophomore and junior year, we hosted DIII March Madness. I was able to be around professional sports journalists, people coming in from all over to report on the teams.”

Williams brings everything she learned to work every day: how to write a lead, how to talk to sources and what questions to ask.

She also brought her interest in networking.

"I did it a lot because it was cool to just be able to talk to people who are doing what I wanted to do," she said. "I thought that would be helpful for me to hear their perspective."

Williams became skilled at sleuthing out the contact information of people she wanted to know. And then she just emailed them her questions.

"I wanted someone who would actually take the time to give me meaningful advice, and I definitely think I got that," Williams said. "One of the funny things is though, I had reached out to a writer at Sports Illustrated, and now she’s my co-worker."

She added, "When it comes to networking, just be willing to ask any questions. Even if you think they might not all want to answer."

Williams wants to help tell meaningful stories for people who might not otherwise have an outlet.

"Even if it is a sports story that may seem silly, there are things in the sports world that are very serious,” she said. “That’s what journalism does: We tell the stories that people need to hear about."

She’s also been thinking more about working in a male-dominated field. At Augustana, she noticed she was the only woman reporting on DIII basketball.

So when Mattel announced that Barbie’s Career of the Year in 2022 was "Women in Sports," Williams had an idea. She interviewed the NFL’s first woman coach, Jen Welter, for her thoughts on opportunities for women to have careers in sports.

Mattel sent Williams a note thanking her for a story inspiring the next generation of girls.

"It was something that I never really thought about because I’m so young into my career," Williams said. "So I’m not saving a life or anything, but I do want to inspire people."

Janice Wu ’18

Business administration-management, business administration-management information systems

Janice Wu’s family immigrated to the United States when she was 6. The daughter of a "tiger mom," Wu set her sights on becoming a neurosurgeon. Though she worked hard to prepare, she wasn’t accepted at her top choice medical school.

"I had failed. The best undergraduate medical program didn’t want me," Wu writes in her blog. "I wasn’t good enough. That’s what I believed for many years."

But then as she began to look at other schools, invitations to apply to Augustana in her mailbox caught Wu’s attention. Counselors told her she would be a good fit. 

She walked onto campus a pre-med student and walked off campus a business grad. 

"It was a completely different path than the one I had planned for myself when I was 14, but it has brought me on an entirely new adventure … to Microsoft," she said.

Today, Wu is a communications manager, handling public relations for Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

"One of the things they tell you in school, aside from getting good grades and leadership roles, is to network," she said. "The concept of networking has always been awkward to me. You mean you want me to go up to a random stranger who doesn’t know me and ask them to help me with, arguably, one of the most important things in my life – my career?"

Her achievements had come from hard work and skills, not contacts, because she was the child of an immigrant family who didn’t know anyone in their community. However, once she entered college, she saw that a lack of connections was a disadvantage.

"So network I did," Wu writes in her blog. "I started with on-campus events, because that wasn’t so awkward to me. These people were students here once, I can relate to them. Then I went on LinkedIn."

In the meantime, she and Connor Woolf '17 won the 2017 Rogers Business Plan Competition at Augustana. The Advertising Developers Club gave her the presentation skills and portfolio pieces that set her apart at job interviews.  

"I am confident the marketing plans and business plan played a role in helping me land my job at Microsoft!" she said.

Typically, Wu threw herself into networking as diligently as she studied, and turned a chance encounter into a pivotal internship.

Wu, working a summer job as a restaurant hostess, noticed a vice president at ADP at a luncheon and introduced herself. She talked about studying at Augustana as a business major, and her goal to work in technology.

"To my surprise, she said, 'Add me on LinkedIn.' I sent her a message asking if she wanted to meet up. A week later, we went out to lunch." And a few months later, Wu had an internship at ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.).  

"I’m a firm believer of creating your own luck," she said. "I guess that’s what my professors meant when they said, 'Go network.' Networking means making opportunities for yourself."

Wu took her newfound networking skills to her job at Microsoft in 2018. Right away, she set up 30-minute meetings with each person in her work circle. 

"I was intimidated by my new teammates, and I wanted to formally introduce myself before I felt comfortable asking for their input on a project," she said. "These meetings helped me get to know them as a person and helped them get to know me.

"Each and every single person you talk to helps you grow. That includes the person you share a cubicle or desk with, your manager, your manager’s manager, the receptionist, and yes, even the big bosses of the company."