Students Explore What Comes Next at Paving the Road
Alumni, parents, and other professionals joined students in Boston to share career perspectives and build connections across the Colby community.
Students explore career paths through small-group conversations with professionals at Paving the Road 2026 in Boston. (Photo by Addie Roberge)
By Derek Hurder
Almost 300 Colby students spent Oct. 13, 2026 in Boston exploring careers with alumni, parents, and other professionals who offered a closer look at their careers and the paths that led them there.
The annual Paving the Road program brought the Colby community to the InterContinental Boston for a day of panels and interactive sessions, followed by an evening networking reception. Across six industry tracks, students could ask questions, test their interests, and practice making professional connections.
The afternoon paired discussions about careers with opportunities to practice interviewing and networking. Mock interviews, networking roundtables, and conversation circles gave students time to speak directly with professionals and ask questions about entering their fields.
Exploring the possibilities
Since 2011, Paving the Road has expanded from its original focus on careers in finance to include tracks in consulting and strategy, creative professions, health sciences, law and policy, and technology and data science.
This year’s finance sessions explored investment banking and alternative investing, along with getting hired in the age of artificial intelligence. Consulting sessions paired discussions about recruiting and technical interviews with a panel on the future of work.
In the creative professions track, James LaMarca ’23, founder and chair of Contemporary Climate Gallery, led a session on turning an idea into something real. Amanda Cook P’29, vice president and editorial director at Crown Publishing, Penguin Random House, explored finding a new direction at any stage of a career.
Health sciences panels included perspectives from clinical medicine, medical research, and public health, followed by roundtable discussions and mock interviews. Law and policy sessions examined routes into the profession, the skills involved in the work, and trends affecting the field.
The technology track included sessions on selling technology, building with artificial intelligence, and careers involving data and research.
Students in the conversation
Current students contributed as speakers and moderators throughout the afternoon. Bryn Kerslake ’27 joined recent graduates Dave Boku ’26, a software engineer at Remark, and Derek Hessinger ’25, a software engineer at WHOOP, for a session on the first years of working as an engineer.
Sophia Hausladen ’27 moderated a health sciences panel on changes in healthcare. Rachel Kim ’27, president of the Colby Pre-Law Society, moderated a conversation about paths into law and policy.
Shared experiences at Colby can make those conversations easier, said Meredith Moore, director of industry and community partnerships at DavisConnects. Alumni who recall a campus tradition or remember facing the same uncertainties can help students feel more comfortable asking questions.
“Every time you speak to someone that’s coming from a different place than you are or has had a different experience than you have, you become more confident about what you’re capable of doing,” Moore said.
New opportunities each year
Students can return to Paving the Road throughout their time at Colby, exploring different tracks as their interests develop. Moore said students who have attended before often come back to explore more opportunities. The chance to meet different alumni each year is another reason to return.
“Maybe your first year you came, and you were interested in health professions. By your senior year, you’re actually considering going into something else,” Moore said. “So maybe you’ve taken all that science background that you’ve had, and you’ve decided you actually want to go into the consulting world.”
Continuing the conversation
The evening reception brought participants together across the industry tracks, giving students an opportunity to expand their conversations beyond the afternoon’s sessions. Alumni, parents, and other professionals offered students additional perspectives on the work they might pursue and connections they could continue developing after returning to campus.
An introduction in Boston can become a conversation about a potential opportunity or the beginning of a mentoring relationship, giving students someone to turn to for advice when a question arises.
“Networking doesn’t stop the minute you shake the hand and meet someone and get their LinkedIn,” Moore said. “That’s only the tip of the iceberg. That’s where it begins.”
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