April 9, 2018
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This is a fascinating time right now for liberal education, and I will tell you why, said Rob Neal, a managing partner with Hager Pacific Properties, to an audience of 91 Aquinas College students at a recent on-campus Career Forum. Another Industrial Revolution is under way, and that Industrial Revolution is not one of hands meeting implements and machines, like the last one. Its one of human cognitive ability meeting Artificial Intelligence. Thats going to create some very interesting opportunities, especially for those who have a liberal education.

How the Colleges students can make the most of those opportunities by applying the gifts of their liberal education and showcasing them to prospective employers was the subject of the afternoon forum, sponsored by the Colleges Office of Career Advisement. Over the course of 90 minutes, the students received expert advice and strong encouragement from a panel of three distinguished business leaders with deep ties to the College.

The students who are best fit for this new Industrial Revolution are those who can reason and think synthetically and link things together to unpack really difficult concepts, students who can take the things that they have learned before and leverage them into a new understanding that perhaps no one else has seen, Mr. Neal continued. Were looking for different types of employees than we looked for just a few years ago. The very special skills that you received from 91 Aquinas College are going to separate you from others.

Joining Mr. Neal on the dais was his wife, Berni, a member of the Colleges Board of Governors who also serves on the boards of the Catholic Leadership Institute, EWTN, Legatus, and the Magnificat Foundation; and alumna Jane Nemcova (98), the vice president and general manager of global services for machine intelligence at Lionbridge, a global language services provider. The panelists each presented brief talks, discussing the rapidly changing nature of the modern economy and the role of liberal education in the marketplace. They also took students questions, offering advice and strategies about how to search for the right job and how to stand out during the application/interview processes.

In the last three years that I have spent trying to lead the conversation on ethics and the bigger-picture ideas about whats going on in AI, I see that the industry needs people who are well-formed in philosophy, said Mrs. Nemcova, who at Lionbridge specializes in linguistic support for machine learning and artificial intelligence. I say philosophy, but its also math and logic and music all of the things that give you a broad education because theyre absolutely fundamental.

A would-be employer is likely to be intrigued by a 91 Aquinas College students educational background, she added, but it is incumbent upon the student to demonstrate how a liberal education will set him or her apart from other candidates. You could talk about different projects or applications that you did in spatial recognition, or astronomy, or something that you might not traditionally think is applicable but conveys the value that you have, she said. The more details that you provide, the more its memorable for the employers. It stands out if you can talk about Copernicus at length, while other students barely know who he is.

A veteran of the advertising industry who has since become a philanthropist and self-proclaimed serial volunteer, Mrs. Neal warned  students that, although their skills will suit them well in the evolving marketplace, they will face the burden of being ahead of their time. Its like the iPhone, she began. The world didnt know it needed an iPhone. We didnt even know what it was, this touch screen yet now we cant go anywhere without it. In their professional lives, Mrs. Neal observed, the Colleges students will follow a similar trajectory. Youre doing things in a way that the world doesnt know it needs yet. But youre that first class. Youre the transition. Youre the pioneers.