Patricia Fitzsimmons advises the world’s largest research-based biomedical and pharmaceutical company on patent issues. She is corporate patent counsel at Pfizer headquarters in New York, and she specializes in neuroscience. Previously, she supported Pfizer’s patent portfolio for the pain reliever Celebrex.

Fitzsimmons says her job is a perfect blend of her degrees. After graduating from SLU, Fitzsimmons did graduate work in chemistry at Colorado State University. She then returned to SLU for law school.

“It’s interesting, challenging work,” she said. “I have to interpret not only what scientists are saying but what the law is saying. I use what I learned at SLU every single day.”

Peter McCarthy is the third of nine children. He knew his parents couldn’t help with college. In fact, he worked at Target to pay for his last two years of private high school. He thought he would need to work to get through SLU until he was named a Presidential Scholar.

“The scholarship had a tremendous impact on me and my family,” he said.

McCarthy said the scholarship allowed him to live on campus, focus on his studies and enjoy extracurricular activities such as rugby. It also allowed him, at the age of 18, to begin training as an emergency medical technician (EMT). McCarthy worked as an EMT during his last three years of undergraduate studies and his first few years at SLU medical school.

After completing his residency in pediatrics and internal medicine at SLU, McCarthy joined a health care group that provided physicians on a temporary basis to emergency departments throughout the nation. McCarthy worked in Missouri and Illinois for two years before joining St. John’s Mercy full time in 2003. In addition to being an ER physician, McCarthy is vice chief of staff and director of emergency medical services (EMS), providing medical direction for seven different ambulance services and all fire services in the area.

>“When you’re 18 years old, you don’t see how something shapes you. And now, here I am at 38, directing EMS services,” he said. “That never would have happened had I not received the Presidential Scholarship and the freedom that came with it."

After graduating from SLU, Gina Christopher worked as a nanny in Germany for a year. She returned to the United States to earn her master’s degree in music education from the University of Kansas and became a certified music therapist.

Christopher spent nine years in the Special School District of St. Louis County working with students who did not respond to regular classroom stimuli. She used music to help these students learn, identify emotions and develop appropriate social skills.

After starting a family, Christopher decided to concentrate on tuning pianos and giving private piano lessons.

“I enjoy exposing students to composers and their music,” she said. “I also like helping students figure out how they learn and then watching as they grow."

“Between being surrounded by the Jesuits and listening to the Indigo Girls, my sense of social justice flourished,” he said.

Halfway through his graduate studies in sociology, Perl took off a year to serve in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps as a case manager at a homeless shelter for men in Hartford, Conn.

He resumed his studies at Notre Dame and became a sociology researcher for CARA, a national, Catholic research center affiliated with Georgetown University. Through his surveys with Church leaders and lay Catholics, Perl explores such topics as the effects of Catholic schooling on children, public reaction to the sex abuse scandals and Catholic attitudes about poverty, politics and global issues.

“I’m happy to be serving the Church in a way that uses my skills as a social scientist,” said Perl, who works from his home in Pittsburgh. “I hope what I do is helping Church leaders make informed decisions.”

Tricia Scerba was the only French major in her medical school class, and she has the Presidential Scholarship to thank for that distinction.

Since childhood Scerba knew she wanted to be a pediatrician, but she said the scholarship allowed her to explore other subjects.

“Had I gone to another school I probably would have stayed entirely on the science track, but my professors at SLU encouraged me to broaden my scope,” she said. “The scholarship took the pressure off me financially and let me take advantage of different opportunities.”

Scerba spent her junior year in France, and during her medical education at the University of Illinois, she completed a maternal/child public health internship in Paris. After completing her pediatrics residency at the University of Tennessee, Scerba joined the Rural Health Center in Clinton, where she is the only pediatrician in a county of 16,000 people.

“I love working in a smaller setting,” she said. “I know a lot about my patients and my community, so if a patient needs anything beyond my care, I know where to go.”

After graduating from SLU’s nursing school, Laura Shambro spent four years working at Jewish Hospital in the hematology/oncology ward. Then, she was offered a job in home health care.

“Home care is truly why I went into nursing,” she said. “You develop relationships with your patients, and you allow them to stay in their home, which is what most patients want.”

Shambro specializes in gerontology and agrees with those who say today’s elderly comprise the greatest generation.

“They have so much wisdom to give us, and they deserve to be well cared for,” she said.

Had she not received the Presidential Scholarship, Shambro said she probably would have gone to a state school and missed out on the strengths of a Jesuit education.

“I had amazing professors who taught me how to think,” she said. “I’ve met many nurses who are caring but don’t have the critical thinking skills I developed at SLU. I know those skills have furthered my career.”

Amie Merz Thompson receives a paycheck every other week, but she values the two bottles of homemade barbecue sauce sitting on her desk just as much. They were given to Thompson by a mother who was going through a nasty divorce and needed counseling for herself and her two teenage daughters.

Thompson has been helping individuals and families through the rough spots for more than 15 years.

A few years after graduating from SLU, Thompson earned her master’s degree in counseling from Webster University. She began working at the Caring Corner, a social service agency in Festus, Mo., serving 11 counties. Eventually she became owner and expanded the agency’s resources. Much of her counseling services are geared toward helping children in foster care.

Thompson also is certified as a state, federal and international substance abuse counselor. The Department of Transportation employs her to provide counseling to truck drivers, train conductors and highway workers who test positive for illegal substances.

“I love what I do,” she said. “I figure if I can make a difference in someone’s life, if I can make it better, then I’m doing what I was put here to do.”