Three Robins Alumni Now Working at Dow Jones

When Dina Staurulakis, ’17, was job hunting this summer, her first call was to one of her mentors, Bill Bergman, lecturer in marketing.

“I was having minimal success finding a job. Professor Bergman helped me focus my search and determine if the result was an opportunity I wanted to pursue,” Staurulakis said. “He helped me identify that my skills and personality would work well in a sales and marketing role.”

She interviewed at multiple organizations in the months after graduation, but was still searching late into the summer. Then, Professor Bergman got a call from another Spider alumna, Maura Quick, ’14, a client associate at Dow Jones.

“We had just gone through a reorganization, and had a lot of open positions. So I called up Professor Bergman, one of my former professors and said, ‘I want to hire another Spider,’” Quick said.

So, Bergman connected the two.

Quick interviewed Staurulakis, and within a few weeks, offered her a job as marketing coordinator for Dow Jones.

“She made my interview day so much less stressful,” Staurulakis said. “She eased my nerves, talked me through the process, and even introduced me to other people in the office. When so many of them knew the Richmond name, knew the Spiders, it confirmed for me that I wanted to work here.”

Quick says she also worked with Bergman to get her first job, and she wanted to make sure another student had the same opportunity.

“I was lucky enough to have Professor Bergman looking out for me, and I wanted to pay it forward. It was really great being able to do that for someone.”

Lauren Whalen, ’15, and Katie Burke, '17, also work at Dow Jones. Whalen and Quick started on the same day. Bergman says, it’s an incredible opportunity to have Spiders working at such a prestigious organization.

“Robins students rely on each other, and they’re willing to help each other after graduation,” Bergman said, “which is why it’s so neat that they connected, and Dina landed the job.”

After having both Staurulakis and Quick in the classroom, he knew they would work well together in the professional environment.

“They are both inherently smart and natural born sales people. They’re both very gregarious, outgoing, and likeable the second you meet them,” Bergman said.

Staurulakis says the connections she has made through the Robins School were just part of what helped her secure her first job. She also credits many of the skills she learned in her classes to helping her nail the interview.

“We are given so many opportunities with internships and career services, and just by being a Robins student, you get so many chances to learn those soft skills,” Staurulakis said. “My courses prepared me so well for my interviews in terms of communicating my strengths and giving me great talking points.”

Staurulakis started at Dow Jones the last week of September.