Alumni Archive
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Dan Greer
B.S. History '06
Dan works for a large financial services firm in Plano, Texas. He primarily helps families make investments to reach their financial goals. He also is involved in marketing and being part of a team in his daily tasks. Greer describes what he does as “History 101 – research, context, communication.” He looks at “real time information, put[s] that information into broader context, observe[s] the variables and articulat[es] it to his clients in language that makes sense to them.”
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Chris Helms
M.S. History '09
Chris is Collections Manager and Registrar at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, a public museum in the middle of Greek Town. In his position, Helms has many different responsibilities. As Collections Manager, he handles the conservation of the objects and works with donors. As Registrar he deals with the technical side of museum administration, including photographing items and managing the data base. He also supervises the interns who work at the museum. Helms credits his undergraduate degree in history from Western Illinois University and his master's work at Illinois State with preparing him for his current position.
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Natalie Olinger
B.S. History '07
Natalie works as at a local community bank in the western suburbs of Chicago. Having graduated with a BS in History-Social Sciences Education this career path was not originally part of her plan. After student teaching at Marlow Middle School in Huntley, Illinois, however, she unfortunately found that teaching jobs were scarce. Fortunately, she quickly found a job at a local bank and moved into the field of business banking. Despite her change in careers, Olinger credits her history classes for giving her strong writing, analytic reading, and research skills which helped her to quickly learn her new job and advance in the banking field.
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Vanda Rajcan
M.S. ’11
Vanda currently works as a researcher at the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. While still a student at ISU, Ranjcan applied for, and received, a three-month internship at the museum. The directors of her internship were so impressed with her work that she was offered her a full-time position in October 2010. Ranjcan believes that her course work at ISU—as well as her second master’s degree in politics and government and her language skills—contributed to her success as a researcher at the Holocaust museum and her admittance into the competitive Northwestern history program. At ISU she took broad seminar courses that “allowed her to get a grasp on several countries at the same time.” She encourages today’s students to gain a broad historical context, learn languages, and to take courses outside of their comfort zone.
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Marla Tetzlaff
B.S. History ’11
Marla majored in history and minored in information systems. She currently works as a software application engineer at Charles Schwab in Denver, Colorado. Tetlaff credits her success in her current position to her unique combination of fields at ISU; “the different skill sets I acquired in my major and minor helped me become a well-rounded student.” She specifically mentions that she benefitted from her strong reading and writing skills, as well as her programming and IT background.
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Whitney Wilda
B.S. History ’06, M.S. History ’11
Whitney just finished her 6th year teaching freshman World Cultures and World History Honors at Hinsdale Central High School. She also served as the World cultures Curriculum Team Leader this year. Wilda encourages people aspiring to be teachers to get as many endorsements as possible even in fields not related to history like Special Ed and ESL, to network, volunteer, and make themselves stand out. She also cautions future teachers to be realistic in their expectations, “If your heart is in teaching and no other job will make you happy, you have to be able to move, even consider teaching in another country for a while. There are places hiring teachers.”