Allison Byrne
Santa Clara University history alums enter many different types of occupations when they graduate. Recent graduate Allison Byrne '16, for instance, is now in Fayetteville, Arkansas, working as a collegiate development consultant for Delta Gamma sorority at the University of Arkansas.
Allison came to Santa Clara from Bellevue, Washington. She declared a history major during her sophomore year, and graduated with a double major in history and psychology. She was a member of both the history and psychology honor societies, Phi Alpha Theta and Psi Chi, respectively, and she served as President of Psi Chi. During her junior and senior years, she worked as an office and research assistant in the History Department.
Allison was a member of Delta Gamma during all four years at Santa Clara. The chapter advisor at Santa Clara had herself served as a traveling consultant for the sorority soon after her own graduation and Allison was intrigued enough by the possibility to apply for the consultant position herself. She and three other recent college grads were assigned to the University of Arkansas.They were tasked with assisting women students there in re-establishing a chapter on campus. Allison very much enjoys her position. She especially enjoys seeing the young women with whom she is working grow in their own leadership skills as they discover previously untapped talents within themselves.
Allison finds that a number of the skills she developed as a history major have helped her tremendously. The organizational and critical thinking skills she developed as she wrote history research papers have come in very handy as she assists the young women at Arkansas to set up their own chapter. Allison has found that the studies of gender and cultural diversity that characterized so many of her history classes have greatly assisted her in living in a different area of the United States and in helping the Arkansas chapter of Delta Gamma become one of the most ethnically diverse sorority chapters on that campus. Allison is greatly enjoying her postgraduate year, but at the same time is looking forward to returning to the West Coast at the conclusion of this academic year.