Over the next few weeks, we are excited to be featuring profiles of numerous alumni of our department. Our BA and MA graduates have found success in a very wide variety of fields, applying skills and knowledge they gained as history students in many different ways in their chosen careers.
In this first installment, we are very pleased to feature John O’Sullivan, Founder and CEO of the Changing the Game Project. John earned his Masters in history at UVM, specializing in US foreign policy and Holocaust Studies.
What is your current job?
I am the Founder and CEO of the Changing the Game Project, a movement dedicated to reforming sports and slowing down the massive dropout rate in youth sports. I have written two books, and I travel and speak around the globe about coaching, parenting, and creating values based youth sports organizations.
What path did you take to your current job/career, after graduating from UVM? Is it the path you expected to take when you graduated?
I was an assistant soccer coach at UVM, so I continued in the full time coaching world for another decade after leaving UVM, mostly on the youth level. I started the Changing the Game Project in 2012, and have done that full time since then. It was certainly not how I had planned to use my Masters in US Foreign Policy and Holocaust studies!
Why did you choose to study history?
I love to know where we came from, so we can have a better idea of where we are going. I am especially interested in studying leadership, and thus worked with Dr. Mark Stoler studying diplomatic history in the 20th century. I also love to read, research and write, so history was a great fit.
What was your regional concentration? What drew you to study that part of the world?
US Foreign Policy and Holocaust studies, as the WWII period has always fascinated me as it shaped the world we live in today. My thesis was on the US Catholic press response to the Holocaust, basically looking at the psychology of bystanders to genocide. It was fascinating.
What was your favorite history course that you took at UVM?
A comparative 20th Century US Foreign Policy course co-taught by Dr. Mark Stoler and Dr. Robert Kaufman from Political Science. They each taught one day a week for 90 minutes, on the same topic, from a different viewpoint. It was fascinating reading and studying the same set of facts and how people could reach different conclusions, and they are two of the smartest people I ever met. I also did an independent study of Reinhold Niebuhr which was fantastic as well.
What skills did you gain as a history student that you apply in your current job?
The ability to research, to compile different viewpoints, and synthesize information in written and spoken form. The ability to interpret and communicate is a lost art, and studying history is a great way to learn this and add value in any field of work.
Any words of advice for our current history students?
Your degree can take you anywhere to do anything, because it teaches you to think and communicate. Follow the things you are passionate about, travel the world, do what you love, and realize that when you look back on your life, the only things you will regret are the things you didn’t do.
You can follow John on Twitter and follow the work he does Changing the Game on Twitter and on Facebook.
