Alumni in Residence

Discover how sociology can be applied in your career! Christy Skie graduated from USI in 2007 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology. Immediately following graduation, Christy secured a position with the State of Indiana at Department of Child Services where she remained for nearly a decade as a Family Case Manager. From there, she went on to work as a Senior Parole Agent before transferring to Vocational Rehabilitation. She has served in this capacity for nearly 4 years as a Youth Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor. Christy currently serves on the following: Business Advisory Council Statewide Transition Advisory Council Southwest Transition Cadre Commission for Homelessness and other committees Recent honors include: Rising Star Award for Vocational Rehabilitation The Phenomenal Woman Award from USI

Heather Offerman graduated from USI in 2009 as a Spanish major and psychology minor. Heather went on to teach Spanish courses and complete her Master’s (2014) and PhD (2020) degrees in Spanish Linguistics at Purdue University, with a two-year contract in between both degrees teaching Spanish and English courses at a university in China (2015-2017). She is now at Davidson College in North Carolina as the Lower Division Coordinator and a lecturer of Hispanic Studies. Her research focuses on phonetics, phonology, second language pronunciation teaching, second language acquisition, and curriculum development. In her time at USI, she enjoyed taking an array of literature courses from Dr. Hitchcock and Dr. Huerta, as well as grammar and history with Dr. Latorre, which helped to broaden her worldview and philosophically challenge her way of thinking. She eventually found her love of linguistics taking a course in Spanish Diction with Dr. Rosas Mayén her senior year. The faculty at USI were crucial to her success in her career through their support and encouragement of graduate school and of her endeavors to become a professor.