By Bri Brands 

With career opportunities in fields ranging from business and public service to science and the arts, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) students have a world of opportunity at their fingertips after graduation.

Alongside the Pomerantz Career Center, CLAS students can explore careers in the arts, humanities, and sciences through Career Treks—exploratory trips to cities and employers that offer insight into potential career paths.

“Students have the opportunity to engage directly with employers and professionals through networking events, employer panels, workplace tours, and other hands-on activities,” said Alaysia McAtee, employer events specialist and career coach for the Pomerantz Career Center. “The goal is to take career exploration beyond the classroom and give students a chance to experience industries, organizations, and communities firsthand.”

In the spring 2026 semester, the Pomerantz Career Center hosted the Lights, Camera, Careers: Arts & Media Career Trek to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. During the career trek, students had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival, a local nonprofit that hosts more than a week of events leading up to the Fourth of July.

Brittany Barnhart, executive director of the Freedom Festival, said she loves seeing the wide variety of experiences CLAS students bring with them, as it helps generate fresh ideas for the festival.

When Barnhart hosts students during a career trek, she encourages them to think about how their liberal arts education gives them an opening to explore options they had never considered before, such as event planning.

“I love working with CLAS students because everybody brings something different,” she said. “Even when we get people whose majors have nothing to do with event planning or marketing, we hire them because they have that willingness and eagerness to learn and bring their experiences and fresh ideas with them."

McAtee said the Pomerantz Career Center emphasizes that career paths are rarely linear. She encourages students to consider how their unique backgrounds, skills, and interests could translate to a variety of fields.

“Many degrees, particularly within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, can lead to a wide variety of professions and industries,” McAtee said. “When planning career treks, we focus on creating opportunities for students to explore areas they are interested in while also helping them recognize the transferable skills they are developing through their coursework.”

For Emma Greenwalt, a third-year CLAS student majoring in sport and recreation management with an event management certificate, being the Freedom Festival’s event and marketing intern gave her the opportunity to apply skills she learned in her CLAS coursework to a real-world setting.

Greenwalt didn’t feel she had gotten a lot of the experience that was needed for event planning before beginning her internship as a second-year CLAS student, but coursework for her event management certificate gave her the opportunity to market events on social media and establish relationships with vendors.

“My experience from that helped me a lot with my communication skills,” she said. “That confidence helped me communicate the best way I possibly could and make connections.”

McAtee encourages students to constantly keep an open mind as they explore career options—even if it means admitting a career path they thought they were set on is not what they expected.

“Career exploration is not always about confirming what you already think you want to do. Sometimes the most valuable experience is learning what you don't want to do,” she said. “When that happens, we can continue the exploration process and help students identify other possibilities that may be a better fit. That is what career treks are all about: giving students the opportunity to explore, learn, and make more informed decisions about their futures.”

The Lights, Camera, Careers: Arts & Media Career Trek is just one of several possibilities for CLAS students to further their careers. Each semester, the Pomerantz Career Center offers treks across multiple industries, including health care, business, technology, and more.