CAREERS IN THE MAKING continued from previous page


industrial/organizational psychology. He earned his master’s after double majoring in business and psychology at Springfield College. While getting his master’s degree, Fitzgerald interned 40 hours a


week at United Technologies in Windsor Locks, Conn., in the contracts and compliance department. “The fieldwork experience I was given credit for really gave me that


push to actually make the effort to get real-life experience beyond my books,” he said. Every day Fitzgerald viewed his internship as an interview. “If you’re truly interested in continuing your job after your intern-


ship you have to be on your ‘A’ game every day. You never know who you’re going to meet that might provide you with a possible job opportunity,” he said. “You need to make sure you’re networking with as many people as possible and then showing all of your capabilities.” Once he graduated, the company offered him a job in that same


department, which he took for a few months until he moved to the senior purchasing analyst position. “The internship allowed me to network within the organization,


develop experience and knowledge with the company’s systems and operating principles, as well as the overall understanding of what it means to work within the supply chain organization,” he said.


Carla Lide


For Carla Lide G’11, having her name attached to a Springfield College diploma brought her an unexpected post-college internship that turned into a full-time job as an academic advisor for students at Fordham University. During her job search after graduating from Springfield College


with a master’s degree in education in athletic counseling in June 2011, Lide came across an opening for an academic advisor for the Fordham men’s basketball team. Although she applied, she did not get the job. “Instead of getting that


position they called me and said ‘You’re from Springfield College, we love Springfield College. Everyone who comes from there is amazing. Would you settle as an intern?’” said the 26- year-old Verona, N.J., resident. Lide jumped at the


opportunity and worked one-on-one with first-year student-athletes in making their transition to college a smooth one. In many ways,


Carla Lide 12 TRIANGLE 1 Vol . 85, No.2


she served as a counselor for about 20 students. After eight months, she left the internship only to receive a full-time job offer from Fordham in the same position a year later. These days she works with about 60 student-athletes from football,


softball, men’s and women’s track, and men’s golf teams on a weekly basis to keep them focused on their academics and assist them when issues with balancing studies and sports arise. While Lide’s experiences after


“They called me and said ‘You’re from Springfield College, we love Springfield


College. Everyone who comes from there is amazing.’”


college guided her career path, her time in school was just as important. During graduate school, she became a member of the College’s AmeriCorps program and served as an academic coach during an


internship at Putnam High School in Springfield. Lide feels the practical work she engaged in at Springfield College


provided a foundation for handling difficult student counseling sessions, which she says she now handles with ease. “I had so many experiences, not all difficult, that now I’m able to


reflect on each and ask myself ‘what did I do then that I can use for now,’” she said.


Art Groux


During his fieldwork as a Springfield College emergency medical services management student, Art Groux ’92 was riding along with a New York City ambulance crew when a call came in to respond to a nearby street corner. Groux was surprised to see that instead of a home or an apartment,


the person in need lived in a cardboard box. “That was an interesting experience. I gained a whole new perspec-


tive on this work,” he said. “You have to go where the calls are no matter what.” That firsthand training and other learning opportunities through


Springfield College provided Groux, now 45, with the skills he needed to pursue a career in emergency services. Currently, he serves as chief of the Suffield (Conn.) Volunteer Ambulance Association, a job he has held for the past 14 years. In that capacity he runs


“Sometimes what you learn and how you do it are slightly


the day-to-day operations of a medium-size, nonprofit ambulance service, which responds to emergencies in Suffield and surrounding communities. The more than 100 volunteers provide about 26,000 hours a year of ambulance coverage alone. In addition, Groux spends about 20 hours a week as a paramedic. “I went to Springfield College to learn how to manage emergency


different. We got to see not only how it looked in a textbook but how it applies in reality.”


services but also to become a paramedic. I really love being a paramedic,” the Agawam, Mass., resident said. “I enjoy getting out in


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