Sometimes it can feel challenging to combine your professional aspirations with your personal interests, but a new video series illustrates that you can do just that—and thrive. 

The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts has launched “LSA in the World,” a new video series featuring LSA alumni from various industries, in their professional environments. The alumni get candid about their journeys and how their experiences at LSA helped to guide them. The series spotlights five alums who work in Chicago, Detroit, and New York City. 

The series kicks off with Sukti Dhital, who describes the way her passion for activism influenced her decision to become an attorney. She’s followed by Joe Holberg, whose desire to help others inspired him to create a start-up company, and by Sarah Tsung, who discusses how her love of dance and organizational work led to an internship at the American Ballet Theatre. The series also features Ben Ewy, who used his English major to build a career as vice president of design at Carhartt, and Joy Bivins, whose love of history and her hometown drove her to do curatorial work at the Chicago History Museum.

“If you don’t believe in your mission, you could really quickly hate a job,” says Dhital in her video. “You have to really love what you do, believe in what you do. It’s not easy, but it’s totally worth it if you just keep on.”

The series gives viewers an inside look at how the skills students hone through a liberal arts education can help them achieve success in any career, and, ultimately, to inspire current LSA students to do the same. 

“It is so critical that all students, all citizens be able to engage in the world in which we live and be critical about it,” says Bivins in her video. “And I think the role of the liberal arts is to inform us in how to do that.”

You can watch the “LSA in the World” series on the LSA YouTube channel.