Shelbie Torok, recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in History with minors in Music and Historic Preservation. Shelbie’s fondest moments at EMU come from all the time she spent with her friends and exploring the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor areas together. While at Eastern, Shelbie took second place in the EMU History Essay Contest and was selected to present her writings at the Undergraduate Symposium. This Fall Shelbie will be attending the University of Michigan, pursuing a Masters of Information in Library Sciences and Digital Curation.

Shelbie is thankful for the support of EMU faculty like Dr. Murphy, who during the history senior seminar provided critical information including info on graduate school options, and a day with a person from the career development office. “Other professors were open when I reached out to them about opportunities outside of class, as well. Dr. Cook directed me to the Facebook page for the student organization run by graduate students in the Historic Preservation program, Preservation Eastern, where I was able to find an opportunity to work with the Internet Archives last summer.

Shelbie’s advice for students: “Submit your work and essays to contests at EMU and reach out to professors about opportunities such as the Undergraduate Symposium if you are interested. Get involved in an organization in your field. Reach out to your professors, you never know what kind of opportunities you will find! Don't be discouraged! It took me seven years to get my degree going to class part-time and working full-time for most of that. Some semesters felt like I was going nowhere, but in the end all the hard work paid off.”