Molly Burich ’05 may be many miles from Greeley, but she carries her UNC experience with pride, and is making sure others have access to UNC’s educational opportunities 以帮助后代实现远大梦想的方式.
Burich was born in Wisconsin (which made her a Green Bay Packer fan for 生活). “My dad’s job took us on a little bit of a journey,” 她说. 全家搬家了 from Wisconsin to Chicago to Indiana, finally settling for her high school 年 in 科罗拉多斯普林斯.
When it came time to choose where she wanted to go to college, she visited 北卡大学和科罗拉多州立大学. 尽管她是搬家专家，但这次 relocating to a new school would be something she’d do without family to ease the 过渡. 她说，CSU让人不知所措. “我记得离开那里的时候，我感到很害怕. Then when I went to UNC a couple of weeks later, I just felt a real sense of connection 去校园. 这感觉是可控的，足够大，但不是压倒性的. 从一开始 moment I was like, ‘Okay, I could do this, I could live away from home.” “是吗?”她回忆道.
She had originally put UNC on her list of schools to explore because she 我以为她想当老师. 然后，在博天堂官方的一个晚上，在宿舍里 orientation, she picked up the course catalog and began to look through it. 她来了 across course listings for political science, and in that moment, changed her mind ——以及她的职业生涯. 第二天，她列出了自己的专业是政治学.
她的导师是布鲁克·布莱尔博士.D.他是政治学教授 国际事务中. 他也是绿湾包装工队的球迷. 所以，我们确实因为足球而建立了联系。” 她说. He was her professor for the introductory Political Science class, and she knew even during her first semester that she had found her academic and professional 路径. 她说，从第一天起，她就再也没有回头.
Her second semester, she started to meet more people and made friends 她仍然很接近. 大二那年，她成为了一名校园导游. “我总是 trying to convince people to be a political science major,” 她说.
“一切都恍然大悟. 这真是一段美妙的大学经历。” 她说.
After graduating from UNC, she earned her master’s degree in Public Policy at DePaul University in Chicago in 2007 and went on to take a position at a health 华盛顿政策咨询公司.C. 在那里，她发现自己热爱健康 政策. Her clients were pharmaceutical companies and – as has happened throughout her career – she found herself working at the center of pivotal changes and current 与医疗保健相关的事件.
“这是在奥巴马医改辩论期间. 我读了每一条法律，每一条 为我的客户总结的版本. 所以，这真的很令人兴奋 是时候了解卫生政策了，是时候生活在D州了.C.工作上百万个小时 一周没赚到钱，”她笑着说. “但这就是你所做的 的简历. 于是，我就这么做了.”
As time went on, she moved through her career, changing companies and building skills. She began to work in federal 政策 and took an opportunity with her employer at the time, Otsuka America Pharmaceuticals, to move to California to be a state lobbyist 横跨七个西部州. 她曾在另一家公司工作过一段时间，现在是 back at Otsuka, leading the health 政策 team located in Princeton NJ.
她的作品再一次与时事交织在一起. 在COVID-19大流行期间 she found herself having conversations around the kitchen table with family and friends. “I remember I was sitting at the kitchen table with my family at Christmas in Colorado, 谈论COVID疫苗的临床试验. 我说，‘伙计们， the clinical trial for these products are really large and are providing some really 重要的数据，’”她说. “一方面，我认为(COVID-19)现在有 more understanding and appreciation for clinical trials and for what it takes to bring 产品推向市场，这很好. 另一方面，我认为我们还有更多的工作要做 to do explaining that didn't happen overnight and it didn't happen without sacrifice.”
As she talks about her career and the challenges she’s seen over the 12 年, it’s not hard to see that the decision she made one night in a residence hall 博天堂官方给了她一条自己喜欢的工作之路.
“I think my career has exceeded what I thought was possible, but my love of 政策 was sort of born and cultivated at UNC in the Political Science department,” 她说. “I attribute it to talented professors who had a lot of good debates in 课堂上呈现了很多不同的侧面. 我绝对相信联合国军司令部的政治 Science department for helping me find that passion and then really cultivating it.”
It’s something she hopes others will also experience during their college 年.
“Here I am, I was this girl who went to UNC, had a great experience, and now I regularly interface with members of Congress and talk to them about healthcare issues including the needs of those living with mental health challenges,” 她说. “我有这个很棒的 career and sometimes -- especially now with everything being virtual (due to COVID) -- when I sit at my house in my home office in slippers and leggings talking with members of Congress on a Zoom call I'm just like, ‘Whose life is this?’
“I would just say, dream big and get as much out of that college experience as you 可以，因为这是一个基础作品. 我如此深情地回忆起它，而且 was because I was part of a great department at a great university. 我从不怀疑 这就是为什么会这样.”
It’s because of her experience at UNC and its 影响 on her career that Burich chose to establish the Molly Burich Political Science Scholarship Endowment, to be awarded to junior or senior Political Science majors, with a preference for 女学生.
“I always knew that I wanted to be able to give back to UNC and started relatively 越早越好，”Burich说. “我很感激我能够理解 how to do it in a way that we can set up this award now that's going to continue over time. Once I realized it was possible to think about establishing a scholarship, then 我非常专注于想要做这件事. 对我来说，这是一种回馈和给予的方式 back to a wonderful department that really shaped my life and my career trajectory.”
She says she’s excited that in a few 年, she’ll be able to connect with students 受益于她的奖学金. “作为一个住在全国各地的校友 and can't be active in local events or go visit campus, this is a way I can have that lifelong connection to the college while helping to reward and hopefully cultivate 政治科学领域有更多女强人.”
