Careers

In UVM’s Program in Classics, immersion in language, literature, culture, history, and philosophy will prepare you for a wide variety of fulfilling lives and fruitful careers. Recent graduates have found immediate employment in secondary education, museums, publishing houses, journalism, and a variety of business and entrepreneurial endeavors. Others have gone on to the most selective programs in medicine, law, and a wide variety of the humanities. Graduate study in classics itself is also an option, with recent graduates securing fully funded Ph.D. offers from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Chicago, Berkeley, Duke, the University of Virginia, and the University of North Carolina.

Two professionals standing outside a courthouse, reviewing documents together on the steps.

Two people reviewing a document together at a table in a library.

Visitors viewing paintings in a museum gallery.

What Can You Do with a Liberal Arts Degree with a Major in Classics?

The Program in Classics prepares you for a wide range of fields that value critical and comparative thinking and analysis, the construction of evidenced-based arguments, strong communication skills, and deep historical and cultural understanding.

Past UVM classics majors have gone on to work in careers such as:

High school teacher
University professor
Lawyer
Assistant district attorney
Museum educator
Archivist
Doctor
Art dealer
Entrepreneur
Editor
Content developer
Journalist
Writer

Five people standing together and smiling in a lecture hall.

What You’ll Learn

When you graduate with a classics major from UVM, you’ll have gained the tools you need to be successful in your career, including the top five skills employers are looking for, according to the National Association of College and Employers Job Outlook 2025.

What You’ll Learn

When you graduate with a classics major from UVM, you’ll have gained the tools you need to be successful in your career, including the top five skills employers are looking for, according to the National Association of College and Employers Job Outlook 2025.

UVM Classics Majors Learn the Top Skills Employers Want

Critical thinking and problem solving

Body

Learning ancient Greek and Latin and using that knowledge to read ancient texts require you to master a complex system of information and its precise application. While doing English-language reading of the same texts in our Classical Civilization courses, you’ll also become adept at many forms of source-criticism and discourse analysis.

Teamwork and collaboration

Body

Teamwork and collaboration come from specific course assignments (for example, the four-person daily working groups in our Ancient History Gaming class). Our Greek and Latin classes tend to be small and meet together semester after semester, so you’ll also experience deep collegiality and group spirit.

Written and oral communication skills

Body

Your written and oral communication skills will become well-developed from constant analytical engagement with the verbal artistry of primary texts and their underlying linguistic systems, along with the written components of specific course assignments (such as term research papers).

Professionalism and a strong work ethic

Body

We strongly encourage our students, often by means of additional financial support, to present their research in regional conferences, such as the annual Classical Association of New England meeting, and/or submit it to undergraduate classics journals. In addition, you will need a strong work ethic to make meaningful progress in the study of ancient languages.

Initiative

Body

Progress in ancient languages requires focus and self-discipline, so it requires that you take responsibility for regulating your own study habits. Students who persist into the advanced levels are those capable of the sustained, self-driven effort that is required. 

Alumni Spotlights: How the Liberal Arts Shaped Their Careers

Joseph Goodwin ’25

Body

Person standing outdoors near a tree, smiling, with greenery and a brick building in the background.

Lives in: Durham, NC

Major: Classics

Why classics? “After I’d taken a course on early Christianity taught by Professor Emerita Anne Clark, I was curious about the historical, cultural, political, and religious contexts of the time and decided that the best way to approach the questions I had was through learning Latin and ancient Greek.”

Current position: Full-time graduate student and Bridge-to-Ph.D. fellow in the Department of Classical Studies at Duke University

What his day looks like: “Reading lots of Latin and Greek! The heart of classics is proficiency in both languages, which requires nothing more than lots of time and effort.”

What he loves about it: “I am getting paid to read texts that have affected humans in many parts of the world for 2800 years. I get to hear the voices from past cultures and engage in active dialogue with those voices. All these things help me locate and navigate the human experience in a way that is fulfilling to me.”

What he hopes to do with his degree: “The PhD is a long road to hoe, so for now, the education is an end unto itself. Whatever happens after my time at Duke is for the fates to decide!”

What he gained from a liberal arts education: “In a country with such high rates of literacy, it’s easy to forget that the ability to read, write, and reason does not mean that we automatically read, write, and reason well. Like with any other craft, these skills need to be honed and refined under the guidance of professionals. To read, write, and reason well is essential to being a healthy human, a responsible citizen, and an empathetic being.

“To have received a liberal arts education is the culmination of a childhood dream. I am a first-generation college student, and as a boy I was obsessed with historical figures who received and benefited from a liberal arts education. As I grew older, I came to learn that the liberal arts are taught the world over.  I could not be prouder and more grateful to share in such an ancient and ubiquitous human experience.”

Kyle Cornman, M.A. ’22

Body

Person standing on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean and distant islands.

Lives in: Carrboro, NC

Majors: Greek and Latin

Why Greek and Latin? “I hope to teach Greek, Latin, ancient history, and related topics at the university level. Back when I applied to UVM to pursue my Masters, the university was one of few in the country that offered rigorous training in these ancient languages and a stipend to make the pursuit of such studies possible.”

Current position: Graduate student instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Ph.D. candidate

What his day looks like: “I teach university courses for the Department of Classics at UNC and also take coursework and pursue research towards the acquisition of my Ph.D. in Classics with a Historical Emphasis. So far, I have had the fortune of teaching courses in ancient Greek, Latin, and ancient history.”

What he loves about it: “My two favorite spaces are the seminar room, where I can make meaning through engaged discussion with my students, instructors, and peers, and the landscape of Greece, where I can get in touch with the setting of the ancient world that I’ve dedicated myself to studying. My current position gives me regular access to both spaces.”

What he hopes to do with his degree: “My ultimate hope is to step into the shoes of my instructors and pursue a lifelong career of teaching and learning.”

What he gained from a liberal arts education: “The fields within the humanities and social sciences that I have been able to engage with demand the ability to analyze and interrogate data, identify patterns, form arguments, and communicate clearly and persuasively. Classical studies force their acolytes to work with a great deal of information, process it quickly, make meaning from it, and develop that meaning through communication and collaboration. Being able to quickly and concisely form original observations and then communicate those concepts in a manner appropriate to the given format — be that a seminar discussion, classroom instruction, major research project, conference paper, or grant proposal — has been essential to my continued success in this field.

“Since many of the same skills—such as critical thinking, efficient analysis, and effective communication—are demanded and thus cultivated by different fields within the liberal arts, one can easily explore different subfields and develop interdisciplinary understanding. The breadth of the liberal arts helps to foster a multivalent perspective that, for me, is absolutely necessary both within and beyond the workplace.”

Natalie Battistone ’13

Body

Person in a pumpkin patch holding and kissing a large pumpkin.

Lives in: Brooklyn, NY

Major/minors: Classical civilizations major, acting and scenic design double-minor

Why classical civilizations? “I began taking Latin in high school and felt like I'd been initiated into a secret school of arcane knowledge that informs everything. It was the natural progression for me as a storyteller to continue this investigation in college.”

Current position: Actor (Krymov Lab NYC, Riot Act LA) and freelance artist

What her day looks like: “My job entails performing (on stage and on camera), developing new work, rehearsing, and auditioning. I also freelance as a coach, director, consultant, and artist, which affords me opportunities to approach work from different perspectives.”

What she loves about it: “I love that my job is always different. There are some days where I am working on something new and others where I get to return to something very familiar. But even well-loved material takes on new meaning when encountered at a different point in life. I enjoy perpetually stepping into the unknown because it demands absolute presence and curiosity. There’s no net. Only more change.”

What she gained from a liberal arts education: “I am non-linear thinker. My liberal arts education instilled in me the value of discipline and the skills of critical thinking and academic writing. Organizing thought into a cohesive argument underpinned by a precise structure was a hard-earned, invaluable experience for me. While an affinity for writing and creativity was always there, form eluded me until I began studying at UVM. The study of classics fueled and sharpened my imagination. It inspired me to build connections across time. It taught me to dig deeper, to follow my curiosity all the way back to the beginnings of civilization.

“Working in creative spaces requires a great deal of flexibility, adaptability, and risk-taking. I find I am more inclined toward collaboration and have a great capacity for synthesizing information because of my time spent in seminar-style courses. The heart of the seminars were discussion and research. I enjoy root-cause problem solving where I have to find the link or bridge between seemingly disparate concepts and ideas. Everything is connected.”