Leigh Ann Osborne graduated in 2008 with majors in Religion and Art History. She was then accepted into a highly competitive program at Sotheby’s Auction House in New York City. She is currently working at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
Karen Cook graduated from Gettysburg College in 1999. She combined her Religion major with a Music major and taught high school music. She then enrolled in the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where she completed two Masters' degrees in musicology and music theory pedagogy. Karen is currently a graduate student at Duke University, where she is in her fourth year of a Ph.D. program in Musicology. Karen, who intends to teach in a college, university, or conservatory, explains the value of her undergraduate major in Religion:
I made the decision to pursue music as a discipline and as a career because I knew that I could also put my religion degree to work. Music has been so intimately tied to so very many religions and spiritual practices that it is almost impossible to ignore. By studying music, I therefore also get to study religious and cultural history. I focus on the music of the late Medieval/Renaissance/early Baroque periods, so I get to play with the pre-Reformation and Reformation-era world - fun both for music and for Christian studies, of course! I also have a secondary specialty in the 20th-21st century - mostly popular and jazz studies, where different religions often play a large role. I design the courses I teach to reflect an understanding of the interaction between music and religion, among other things. But my time in the religion department hasn’t only informed my career, but also my life - studying different religions and traditions forces one to think outside the box, to learn how to deal with people and literature that is unfamiliar or even disturbing, to read between the lines, to think analytically and critically, and ultimately to rethink one’s own worldview. I can’t think of any better preparation for today’s world.”