Pathways
Pathways: From Bucknell to Americorps

by Susan Lindt

After graduating with majors in anthropology and Spanish, Maren Burling ’19 committed 11 months’ service to AmeriCorps, a national program similar to the Peace Corps. Burling loves children, so her assignment in a bilingual school in a mostly Hispanic Washington, D.C., neighborhood suits her. “I’m a mix of teacher’s aide and social worker, and my entire class is taught in Spanish,” she says.

Burling volunteered with children in the U.S. and Spanish-speaking countries during high school and later through Bucknell’s Office of Civic Engagement. She designed her AmeriCorps service to learn more about Hispanic culture in the United States.

With an eye on foreign service, Burling will soon start a master’s in intercultural and international communication at American University’s School of International Service. By design, she survives on food stamps, a stipend of about $285 a week and wages from her weekend job. She wants to know the challenges of the families she serves.

“I care about my work; I want to see it from a minimalist, on-the-ground point of view,” she says. “If there’s any time to do what I’m doing, it’s now.”

photograph by Lisa Helfert
Pathways
Photograph of Maren Burling '19
Pathways: From Bucknell to Americorps
by Susan Lindt
After graduating with majors in anthropology and Spanish, Maren Burling ’19 committed 11 months’ service to AmeriCorps, a national program similar to the Peace Corps. Burling loves children, so her assignment in a bilingual school in a mostly Hispanic Washington, D.C., neighborhood suits her. “I’m a mix of teacher’s aide and social worker, and my entire class is taught in Spanish,” she says.

Burling volunteered with children in the U.S. and Spanish-speaking countries during high school and later through Bucknell’s Office of Civic Engagement. She designed her AmeriCorps service to learn more about Hispanic culture in the United States.

With an eye on foreign service, Burling will soon start a master’s in intercultural and international communication at American University’s School of International Service. By design, she survives on food stamps, a stipend of about $285 a week and wages from her weekend job. She wants to know the challenges of the families she serves.

“I care about my work; I want to see it from a minimalist, on-the-ground point of view,” she says. “If there’s any time to do what I’m doing, it’s now.”

photograph by Lisa Helfert
Pathways: From Corporate Banking to Bucknell

by Matt Hughes

Born in Singapore, raised in Malaysia and educated in Vancouver, Eddy Ng is used to operating in diverse environments. But when he began his international banking career, he started to notice disturbing patterns in the workplace. Rather than being spread evenly across the company, certain races and genders predominated in different departments, from accounting to information technology to the C-suite, and Ng wanted to know what might be driving that apparent segregation.

His curiosity was so strong that Ng left banking to pursue a Ph.D. in business administration and concentrate on diversity in the workplace. Since then, he has authored and/or edited four books and more than 100 papers, reports and editorials on topics from migration policies to generational differences in how we approach work.

Now the James & Elizabeth Freeman Professor of Management at Bucknell, Ng prepares his students to be compassionate managers striving to make their organizations more equitable and inclusive.

“My hope is that I can help people realize injustice in the world and inspire action for the benefit of humanity,” he says.

photograph by Emily Paine
Photograph of Eddy Ng
Pathways: From Corporate Banking to Bucknell
by Matt Hughes
Born in Singapore, raised in Malaysia and educated in Vancouver, Eddy Ng is used to operating in diverse environments. But when he began his international banking career, he started to notice disturbing patterns in the workplace. Rather than being spread evenly across the company, certain races and genders predominated in different departments, from accounting to information technology to the C-suite, and Ng wanted to know what might be driving that apparent segregation.

His curiosity was so strong that Ng left banking to pursue a Ph.D. in business administration and concentrate on diversity in the workplace. Since then, he has authored and/or edited four books and more than 100 papers, reports and editorials on topics from migration policies to generational differences in how we approach work.

Now the James & Elizabeth Freeman Professor of Management at Bucknell, Ng prepares his students to be compassionate managers striving to make their organizations more equitable and inclusive.

“My hope is that I can help people realize injustice in the world and inspire action for the benefit of humanity,” he says.

photograph by Emily Paine
Back to Issue