The School of Education’s Selected Studies in Education (SSE) major allows undergraduates to explore careers beyond the classroom. Two alumni—Victor Yang ’16 and Angela Woods ’05—share some lessons on how they forged paths outside the classroom with the SSE major.
The program’s five focus areas—technology and media, schooling and diversity, physical activity, post-secondary and human services, or pre-teaching—prepare students for any career with a learning, training, service, or advocacy component, including coaching, counseling, higher education, instructional design, law, and library science.
Another path for SSE graduates is policy, politics and nonprofit and international development work, which has been the outcome for Yang and Woods.
Victor Yang ’16 says his education background comes in useful when advocating for older adults in the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging.
Yang ’16 is currently chief government affairs officer for the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA), having also worked in Congress, in the Biden Administration and for various political campaigns. Woods has worked for the Department of State (DOS) and, most recently, the Nakupuna Companies, a sub-contractor for the U.S. Bureau of Global Health, Security and Diplomacy. In December, she returned to DOS as the director of operations of the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy.
Yang’s and Woods’ careers illustrate how an SSE degree can provide in-demand skills and practical experiences—not to mention a spirit of exploration. Both alums are happy to pass along a few of the lessons learned from their journeys.
Lesson 1: It’s OK if classroom teaching isn’t for you—SSE lets you explore service careers beyond the classroom.
Both Yang and Woods set out to be classroom teachers, driven by early experiences. Yang, the son of immigrants, grew up in Boston’s Chinatown. As a young person, he worked as a legislative intern for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and at the American Chinese Christian Educational and Social Services (ACCESS), where he ran an after-school program to help Chinese immigrants navigate the educational system.
As an elementary education undergraduate, Yang had an early placement at a child care center, which gave him real world experience of the education system and challenged him “to think more about education policy, especially as this was during the implementation of No Child Left Behind.”
Yang’s interest in policy grew to the point he decided to transition to SSE in his junior year. Students often combine SSE with another major, and Yang also enrolled in English and textual studies: “I thought that honing my writing skills would help my job search.”
Originally from Florida, Woods was inspired to apply to SOE by her high school guidance counselor, an Orange alum. Like Yang, Woods began in elementary education. “One of the great things about SOE is that you get started early with classroom experience and by my sophomore year I had done both tutoring and classroom instruction,” says Woods.
Angela Woods ’05 (left) moderated the 2024 Women in Leadership panel for the U.S. Department of State’s TechWomen Program: “The opportunity was special because I had the pleasure of managing the program from 2019 to 2023.”
Although Woods eventually realized classroom teaching wasn’t for her, she wanted to stay in the education field, especially when she learned about careers in higher education. SSE’s flexibility also was attractive. “I could create my own path based on my interests,” she says.
Some of Woods’ interests lay in student development. Enrolled in the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program (part of SOE’s Center for Academic Achievement and Student Development), she interned for CAASD’s Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) during the summer. Selected studies also gave her the opportunity to study abroad in Spain, where she worked with the US-Spain Fulbright Commission in Madrid: “That opened my interest to international education and work in government.”
Lesson 2: When starting your career, networking works!
After graduating with his SSE and English degrees in 2016, Yang returned to ACCESS as a program coordinator, and like many freshly minted graduates, he made ends meet with a side gig driving for Uber.
But just as Yang took a chance on switching his majors, so he did with his career. A friend working in software engineering in the Capital Region persuaded him to give government service “a shot.” “So I moved to D.C. and went to networking events and started interning on Capitol Hill, answering phones and giving tours,” says Yang. These efforts eventually led to an entry level position as a health and appropriations legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Networking works, at least in Yang’s case: “If you can get your foot in the door, it’s totally worth it, but if you don’t succeed, it might mean it’s not the right timing.” The path to government work is often circumstantial, and Yang suggests anyone looking for this type of career should not be discouraged if it doesn’t work out initially.
Lesson 3: Diversify your experiences—you never know what will come in useful.
Woods discovered one way to give herself the best chance of success in public service was to diversify her experiences and keep options open.
After graduating, she continued on her path to a higher education career, earning a master’s degree at the University of Maryland, College Park. Like Yang, Woods then returned to an earlier experience—at CSTEP (“I really enjoyed working with the students”)—but the Florida native confesses that Syracuse’s notorious winters discouraged her from settling.
Besides, her next move was a perfect fit for her combined background in higher education, student development and government programs. At The Washington Center, Woods managed academic internships for the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies.
In 2012, her internship abroad with the US-Spain Fulbright Commission proved useful, helping to land her job in DOS, where she assisted in managing the Critical Language Scholarship Program and eventually—from 2019 to 2023—the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ TechWomen program, which empowers women leaders in STEM from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East.
“I never imagined as an education graduate I would end up working for DOS,” Woods says. “I thought the only federal agency that would be open to my background was the Department of Education.”
For the full story, visit the School of Education website.
Sadie Keefe ’26 (English education) contributed to this article.