North. South. East. West. Those are the cardinal directions.
What is “Cardinal Directions” at Ball State?
It’s a speaker series that:
- helps to professionalize Ball State students majoring in Anthropology, English, History, Modern Languages and Classics, and Philosophy & Religious Studies.
- connects students with alumni and other professionals who share career stories, job advice, and internship/job leads in order to light the way for the next generation.
- highlights the career pathways that our students often take after graduating.
Some of our events are broadly applicable to lots of majors–in the humanities and otherwise, such as:
- networking for introverts
- personal branding
- applying to graduate school
- preparing for “alt-ac” positions in higher education
- serving nonprofit organizations
Some of our events are very specific, serving a particular concentration within a major.
- editing and publishing
- working in strategic communications
- fundraising
- working in public relations
- pursuing a career in library and information science
- starting a business as a creative
- teaching English abroad
It’s also a blog-post series that:
- illuminates the many amazing career pathways available to students who major in disciplines whose names do not indicate what you can “do” with the degree. “English” as opposed to “Journalism,” for example.
- demonstrates clearly that Ball State humanities majors are thriving in the workplace.
We meet many of our alumni speakers when we interview them about their career journey for the Ball State English and College of Sciences and Humanities blogs.
If you’d like to share your cardinal directions, check out our communications portal.
It’s part of a broader initiative:
Cardinal Directions is part of the Humanities Compass Advantage, an initiative within the College of Sciences and Humanities.
The series is organized by Prof. Cathy Day, Director of the Compass Advantage.