Meet our Graduates

We take career development and networking seriously. How seriously? For business student Demi Queen, a practice run at a mock job interview event on campus went so well it led to a real internship offer, which led to a job with a downtown Chicago law firm. “The resources Dominican has for you as a student are endless,” she says. 

As a student at Dominican, Carlos Benitez was able to engage in critical questions about equity, liberation and justice both in the classroom as well as through campus involvement, including his job at the Center for Cultural Liberation. It's this 360 degree experience that prepared him to pursue a PhD program in community psychology. "I'm really thankful because it's prepared me to hold service and social justice close to my heart. Those are Dominican values and they are exactly what I plan to do with my life."

At Dominican, Bernadette Nowacki not only found her calling, but also mastered the skills to succeed in it. “My clinical instructors at Dominican were outstanding,” she explains. They demanded precision in technical preparation while emphasizing the importance of communication, cultural sensitivity and empathy, she says. And they inspired her to help shape the future of health care. Today, Bernie, as she’s known to her friends and patients, is on a path to becoming an ER nurse in Chicago and, ultimately, a clinical instructor herself.

When Anusha Mody decided to study engineering, her mom googled NASA, pinned all the job opportunities to a wall and said, “You’ll work here someday.” Between her junior and senior years, Anusha was accepted into the NASA L’SPACE Academy summer program, where she led a team in a design challenge to develop a mission proposal for landing a rover on Mars. They even presented their project to a NASA panel. Today, Anusha is a systems engineer associate for Lockheed Martin at their Texas facility that produces the F-35 stealth combat aircraft. And she’s still got a plan for proving her mom right. “Eventually, I would love to be a project manager in the space industry,” she says.

After switching his major to fashion design and merchandising, Joshua Ocampo realized his previous background in math and calculus would be instrumental to his success in his new passion. He enjoyed the analytical requirements of design and found his math skills to be beneficial for precise measuring. Under the guidance of a faculty mentor, he created costumes for the Goodman Theatre’s production of The Music Man. “I sat in the audience on opening night and saw the garments on stage that I had spent five weeks bringing to life,” he says. “I couldn’t stop smiling—it was just the best feeling ever.” Now, he’s one step closer to his dream of working in couture fashion.