On April 15, SUNY Oswego held the "Alumni Panel and Pizza Event: How to Get Paid to Make the World a Better Place" in the Shineman Center.
The event highlighted accomplished alumnae, such as Julie Ruffner ’13, Crista Mullady ’17, MacKenzie Grow ’18 and Jessica Recinos-Peralta ’24 M'26, to not only speak on their experiences within their careers but to also offer advice to current students interested in law, public health, advocacy, community organizing, social work and more.
As students and audience members enjoyed pizza and soda, assistant professor of politics Linea Cutter acted as emcee, introducing each alumna and asking them questions about their career experiences.
Currently working as a caseworker for Monroe County Child Protective Services, Ruffner talked about her appreciation for every women’s studies focused English class that she took at SUNY Oswego.
“It changed everything,” she said. “Every perspective I had from when I walked in the door until I left … You don’t look at the world the same.”
This shift in perspective, combined with her involvement in the Women’s Center and as a student representative for the women’s studies program, helped Ruffner realize her responsibility to work for repaired injustice.
After graduation, Ruffner worked at a youth homeless shelter in Oswego, at ACR Health in Syracuse and numerous other places that helped her carry out this responsibility. She emphasized that social justice comes in many forms.
“It has a lot of faces because there is a lot of need,” she said. “Working for WIC [the Women, Infants and Children program], working for food banks, volunteering.”
Ruffner highlighted the importance of making an impact on the community, and even if that impact is not always visible, she is proud to see the differences she can and continues to make.
Mullady, a family law and matrimonial paralegal at Montefusco Law Group, also spoke about the importance of her education within her current career.
“My coursework encouraged me to build very strong writing and analytical skills,” she said. “Ninety percent of what I do is letter writing.”
Along with her academics, Mullady additionally interned with Title IX Office, teaching courses to students involved in Greek life, clubs and sports teams.
“Because I had that experience, I felt like I wanted to go into a field of advocacy,” she said.
With this new career path in mind, Mullady started working full-time immediately after graduation while also studying for the LSATs. But when things did not go the way she planned, she decided to take a step back and reassess.
“I was really hard on myself until I realized that maybe there is another way that I can have a very meaningful legal career,” Mullady said.
She then received her paralegal certificate online through Stony Brook University. After this achievement, she first worked in estate planning and probate then moved to family law to which she found a stronger sense of satisfaction for helping others.
Mullady also spoke on the many challenges that come with her job, such as unfavorable court decisions, pushing litigation and many more. But even with these frustrations, the benefits of being able to support someone in need keep Mullady going.
Grow, the current vice president of learning and advancement at Rising Communities, looked back on her own identity as well as her time as an Oswego resident in choosing her college major. She explained not only the issues of impoverished communities but also how that played into her identity in being the daughter of multiple generations of cyclical incarceration and addiction.
“I think those combinations of experiences and identities led me to want to pursue more knowledge about these constructions,” she said.
At SUNY Oswego, Grow majored in gender and women’s studies while also working at Oswego County Opportunities as a treatment counselor for adults with severe mental illnesses. Her experiences there led her to pick up the health science minor so she could understand more about how health and mental health intertwine.
“All of these experiences help me to be, I think, hyper-aware of systems, of this sociopolitical context,” she said.
After graduating from SUNY Oswego, Grow went to UCLA to earn a master of public health in community health sciences in 2020. While there, Grow found her current job as an intern in 2019 and has been at Rising Communities ever since.
Even in a field with many challenges, Grow still spotlighted the job’s benefits: Making a difference in the communities she works within as well as winning grants to aid her organization.
One of her proudest accomplishments was writing and winning a $900,000 grant underwritten by Proposition 64, which collects cannabis tax revenue and puts it into communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. With the money, her team created the prevention, equity, accountability, resilience and reparations program which brings in youth to learn about land-back movements, reparative justice and reparations as well as advocating for transparency.
“I don’t look at my career as labor, I look at it as service,” she said.
Recinos-Peralta, who recently took a position helping launch SUNY Oswego's TRIO Student Support Services program, spoke on her experience as both an educator and victim advocate for Oswego County, SUNY Oswego and Cayuga Community College. In those roles, she appreciate the shared experiences she took from her gender and women’s studies classes.
“I can relate to this,” she said. “I felt this. I know what this is like.”
These courses helped her understand why certain systems and restrictions are in place and how it affects access to particular groups of people. They additionally helped her learn how to talk to people and understand the different layers of identities.
“Because of that, I am able to help clients and advocate for them just from understanding intersectionality and understanding the role it plays,” she said.
Recinos-Peralta, who has since earned a master's in higher education leadership from SUNY Oswego, took this new understanding to working for the university and Oswego County. Growing up in New York City, this was a culture shock for her due to the lack of awareness and prevention for the county’s social issues. Because of this absence, she emphasized the importance of advocating for others.
“They may need it,” she said. “Especially if they’re in a place or identity that they’re scared to advocate for themselves.”
Recinos-Peralta also talked about frustrations that came with working in these programs, such as funding cuts, being angry with interconnected systems and people not understanding the role of access, power, barriers and social issues. But even with these challenges, she always recalled the difference she made in her clients lives.
“Any time I’m having a hard day, I remember when clients have given me their handmade gifts, their drawings, their letters,” she said. “That is my favorite part of this career is just being able to help someone get back on their feet.”
— Written by Kayla Kubelka of the Class of 2026 for University Advancement