Chelsea (Bowsher) Venable BA’10 was drawn to Willamette because she wanted to expand her horizons and meet people from around the world. She did exactly that during college, and the lessons she gained have shaped her life ever since.
“At Willamette, no one is going to tell you, ‘Here’s how you should think.’ They’re going to say, ‘Here’s all the information. What do you take from it?,’” Venable says. “You’re not always going to agree with your peers or professors, but they’re always willing to have that dialogue with you. So, you’re prepared to take those communication and critical thinking skills out into the real world, and to know that in the real world too, not everybody is going to always agree with you.”
Willamette offered grants and scholarships that made Venable’s four years on campus more affordable than in-state public university tuition. Today, she thinks often about the prior generations of Bearcats whose generosity funded those awards.
“Willamette’s motto of Not unto ourselves alone are we born has stuck with me my whole life,” she says. “As soon as I was in a financial position to give back, I wanted to give others the same opportunity that I was provided.”
Her way of giving back has been to set up a monthly gift to the Willamette Annual Fund to support today’s students.
Venable grew up in a small town in Colorado. Her first time at Willamette was move-in day. “Coming from a very rural community, you have a limited viewpoint,” she says. Her courses and classmates, including exchange students from Japan, expanded her knowledge of other cultures and ideas and taught her a lifelong lesson: the ability to understand other people’s perspectives will take you a long way in your career and personal life.
Willamette also taught Venable that change can be good and that adaptability is everything. She came in with a plan to become a teacher. Then, she says, “I took a rhetoric and media studies class, and I loved it.” With encouragement from a professor, the late Nathaniel “Nacho” Córdova, she majored in the subject.
Venable intended to work in marketing or advertising, but eventually, “I landed a job at Johnson & Johnson in clinical research, and I found that I really enjoyed it.” Now a senior clinical quality auditor at Johnson & Johnson in Jacksonville, Fla., she credits Willamette with her career success.
“No matter what career you’re in,” Venable says, “you’ll be successful if you’re able to adapt and learn quickly.”
