By: Bria Rathway 

Hello everyone! My name is Bria Rathway and I am a recent Carlow University graduate. My time at Carlow was more than I could have ever asked for. All I did was blink and 3 ½ years later here I am. I graduated with two majors, Human Resources and Management in Health Services with a minor in Information Technology. Currently I am working as a Researcher at UPMC in their Talent Acquisition Department with the nursing team. I am so blessed to have landed this amazing opportunity and I have BLOC to thank for it!  

I joined BLOC my freshman year and then was voted as Secretary of BLOC in sophomore year and remained in that position throughout the rest of undergrad. BLOC gave me so many opportunities to better myself for my career while giving back to the community. Mary Onufer, our faculty sponsor goes above and beyond for this organization. She has set up for us to attend multiple PTC (Pittsburgh Technology Council) events. At these events we were able to network our skills and got to submit our resumes in person to future employers. At one of these events we also got to meet and hear Mayor Bill Peduto speak on the future technology plans that are in store for Pittsburgh.  

I started my journey at UPMC in the summer of 2018 where I was chosen as one of the Human Resources Summer Associates. Before submitting my application, I went to The Career of Office Development and Jen Holbert helped me perfect my resume. After submitting my application, I was granted a one-way video interview. After that I was called in for a face–to–face interview where I found out it was a panel interview. I walked into a room with a long table with five managers of the Human Resources department sitting on one side.  

The interview went better than I could have ever expected because I had so many great situations to talk about. I talked about how BLOC does a book drive every year and we collect as many books as we can around campus and we also clean them and put stickers on them to be donated to Children’s Hospital library for the children to have! When I was asked a teamwork question BLOC popped into my head again. Every year BLOC puts on a dinner for its members at the end of the school year. The other three board members, Professor Onufer and I work all semester to pull this dinner off. We had to plan everything, from what we will be having for dinner to who our guest speakers will be for the night. Looking back on my Summer Associate experience it was an internship that gave me the confidence I needed to succeed post-graduation.   

BLOC has had a lot do with my success post-graduation. If you are in the business field, HR, or IT I would suggest joining the group and finding out for yourself what an amazing opportunity you can get from BLOC.