Career Discernment Bootcamp leads graduate student, Sarah Rolli, to a dream job at Molson Coors

Graduate & Professional Studies

Career Discernment Bootcamp leads graduate student, Sarah Rolli, to a dream job at Molson Coors

Sarah Rolli, a fifth-year doctoral student in the department of Biological Sciences, was recently hired as a Senior Yeast and Fermentation Scientist at Molson Coors in Milwaukee, WI. Molson Coors is one of the world's biggest beer manufacturers. Rolli credits Marquette University's Career Discernment Bootcamp with helping her connect and network with the company which ultimately lead to her new role.

As a Senior Yeast and Fermentation Scientist at Molson Coors, Rolli will research new microbiology techniques to improve the quality of brewing to aid in new product innovation. Rolli is very familiar with yeast cells which she uses in her research at Marquette. As a doctoral student in the department of Biological Sciences, she works in Dr. Emily Sontag's lab where they use yeast cells to study the response mechanisms used by cells when their internal proteins misfold after stress. She notes, "yeast cells are cheap and easy to grow in a lab setting. The stress mechanisms between yeast and human cells are highly conserved, so what we learn from yeast has the potential to apply to human cells which may help us better understand certain diseases."

Sarah Rolli in her lab at Molson Coors.

Rolli enjoys her research in Dr. Sontag's lab, and started thinking about where her experience would take her professionally after life at Marquette. She knew her next career step would be to transition to industry, but she was unsure on what area to focus. Rolli notes, "Transitioning from academia to industry can be difficult and unclear, and doctoral programs often focus training on academic career paths." This is when Rolli decided to apply to attend the Graduate School's weeklong Career Discernment Bootcamp. The bootcamp is offered each spring by the Graduate School in conjunction with the Humanities Without Walls consortium (HWW). The bootcamp introduces graduate students to the wide variety of careers available to them with advanced graduate degrees and gives students a series of opportunities during the week to learn how to make a transition from the academy to sectors beyond higher education. Graduate students learn about their values, mindsets, and consider ways to explore careers that align with what they find meaningful, they hear about the value of informational interviewing as one step in approaching networking, go on a site visit day where they meet with people working in government, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations, and engage in a mentoring lunch with local Milwaukee employment leaders to practice skills they learn during the week-long bootcamp.

It was at the site visit to Molson Coors in May 2024 that Rolli met Natacha Velez, Senior Director of Quality, during the employee networking portion of the visit. Rolli stayed in contact with Velez after the visit and was invited to attend another networking event at Molson Coors. The two events eventually led to a job offer with Molson Coors. Now Rolli is excited to take the techniques and research skills she learned during her doctoral program and apply them to an industry setting. Rolli notes, "Molson Coors is at the cutting edge of microbiology techniques in the brewing industry, and I am excited to be a part of a team working towards better application of microbiology to ensure quality of production."

Rolli highly recommends the Career Discernment Bootcamp to any graduate student who is interested in exploring a career outside of academia. Rolli notes, "the bootcamp allows for dedicate time to self-reflect on what type of career you may want, and the skills learned during the week will help you succeed in finding a position that you find fulfilling."

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