Suffield’s College Counseling and Alumni & Development Offices hosted the seventh college-to-career virtual discussion of the year on March 30. The program invites alums to speak with interested students about their careers, college major choices, and experiences at Suffield. As part of the junior-year Leadership Program curriculum, the goal is to expose current students to life beyond Suffield and provide guidance from alumni working in various fields.
Upon graduating from Suffield, Jasmine Rayonia ’13 went on to study at Northeastern University and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, concentrating in marketing and management information systems. Throughout her time at Northeastern she held roles in the marketing field including working on the marketing tech side of Adobe, as well as on the performance marketing team at online retailer Rue La La (now Gilt). After graduating from college Jasmine moved to New York City to take up a role on the growth marketing team at Brooklinen, a home goods brand that is now one of the fastest growing online direct-to-consumer e-commerce companies. She has grown with the company over the past five years and is now the Director of Growth Marketing, responsible for overseeing all paid advertising on several marketing channels including out-of-home, podcast ads, social media ads, and more.
Jasmine spoke about selecting Northeastern partly due to its city location, saying, “How I wanted to live my life, both within school and out of school, was a huge factor for me.” Northeastern also offered a co-op experience that she was really excited about, which allowed her to get some job experiences before graduating, setting her up for success when she was ready to pursue a full-time role. She said, “Not only did I learn the ins and out of what I wanted to do, co-ops or internships in general are helpful to show what kind of work environment you want to be in.” She highly recommended using the college career counseling office for opportunities like this. She also spoke about selecting marketing as her career path, saying, “Within all the sectors of business, it was the part that was the most creative. I had fun in art classes at Suffield and I knew that I wanted some of that creative element in what I did professionally.”
Juniors preparing for the college application process are heavily supported by Suffield’s college counselors and alumni mentors. While their college choice is an important decision in their lives, the mentoring sessions provide insight into many unanswered questions. It is made very clear that communication is a key to success and there is more than one way to accomplish a rewarding future.