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Internships were one of keys in another successful year for recent Monmouth College grads

Results from school's annual First Destination Survey are in

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (05/28/2025) — Monmouth College may have just sent its Class of 2025 off into the "real world," but the Class of 2024 was also on school administrators' minds, as the data from the annual First Destination Survey was recently announced.

Among the highlights was a 96% success rate, which means that within six months of their graduation, the vast majority of the class was either employed or in professional or graduate school.

Along with that information is the fact that Monmouth's "knowledge rate" - the percent of graduates for which the institution has reasonable and verifiable information concerning their post-graduate activities - was 82%, which is significantly higher than the national average of 56%.

"Our First Destination report for the Class of 2024 continues to show that Monmouth College graduates are moving on to meaningful work and graduate school experiences, as well as serving and educating in communities all over the world," said Marnie Steach, who directs the college's Wackerle Center for Career, Leadership & Fellowships. "Our graduates are using their Monmouth College experience to impact the world."

Sixty-four percent of the class reported having at least one internship during their time at Monmouth, which is often a key factor for securing full-time employment after graduation.

'Get your foot in the door'

Alumnus Chris Byers '89 - who co-owns Advanced Rehab & Sports Medicine with his Monmouth classmate, Mike Salaway '89 - addressed that dynamic while speaking to a business class at his alma mater in February.

"If you can get your foot in the door for an internship, chances are you can get your foot in the door for a full-time job," said Byers, referring to a study that showed that 40% of interns wind up taking full-time positions where they had their internships.

Class of 2024 graduate Grace Goodrich, who works an hour from campus at HNI Corporation, is a perfect example. Between her junior and senior years, Goodrich was selected for a 10-week summer internship with HNI, the parent company of HON Office Furniture. Goodrich, who made the connection with the Muscatine, Iowa-based company at a career fair on campus, was back at Monmouth earlier this year, speaking to the same class as Byers.

"When I was a student here, I put myself in uncomfortable positions. You should want to be uncomfortable," she told the class. "I wouldn't trade my experience at Monmouth for anything."

That experience included being a part of the Pi Beta Phi sorority and the Fighting Scots softball team. The business major also went on a trip to Australia, led by one of the department's professors, Tom Prince.

With Goodrich that day was HNI's sales support supervisor Josh Bair, who shared information about the company's internship program.

"We're focused on building talent," he said. "You develop the skills you're going to need."

Goodrich is by far not the first Monmouth graduate to work for HNI, a fact pointed out by the class's professor, Mike Connell.

"The people who went before you paved the way," he told his students. "HON looks for Monmouth people."

Monmouth connections also paved the way for members of the Class of 2024 to work at Anytime Fitness, Veloxity Labs and Rural King, to name a few. Some of other companies that employed '24 grads include Price Waterhouse Coopers, Carle Health and the Office of the Auditor General, in addition to local school districts and banks.

Another speaker to Connell's class was Corbin Beastrom '15, who founded the Chicago-based search firm Illyrian. Beastrom's connection to the Class of 2024 is the internship experience he provided for Lydia Perez - a Scot connecting a Scot, as Steach likes to say. Although Perez didn't stay on with Illyrian full-time, she parlayed her work experience into a full-time position with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship.

While 77% of the success rate involved employment, the other 23% included continuing education at schools such as the University of North Carolina, Oregon State University and University of Iowa. In-state schools included the directional state schools Northern, Southern and Western, as well as the campuses of the University of Illinois in Champaign and Chicago.

Media Attachments

Anita Gandara, a member of the Class of 2024, showed off her plans to attend Oregon State University and earn a master's degree in communication.

Class of 2024 graduates who earned a degree in chemistry or biochemistry pose with their professors prior to last year's Commencement ceremony.

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