Creating Career Success

“When American education was being born, there was a deliberate attempt to be different from Europe,” says Paul Riggs, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who holds a PhD in history. Riggs explains that European universities siloed areas of expertise, so students focused solely on their study areas. In the U.S., “We, as a young republic, had a whole different approach, and it was the liberal arts tradition of creating well-rounded people who were up for anything.”

While the term has become the subject of some pop culture banter, liberal arts prepare students not just for work, but for the world. This uniquely American approach to learning is the hallmark of a Wilkes education and the basis of the general education curriculum.

Required of all undergraduates, the general education curriculum stands as “an affirmation of the strong belief of the Wilkes faculty in the value of study in the arts and sciences for all students and includes a broad spectrum of courses designed to stimulate the intellectual, personal and social development of our students.” At Wilkes, aspiring entrepreneurs take English classes, pre-pharmacy students may study music and nursing majors explore philosophy.

In addition to housing the classes that serve as an introduction to coursework on campus, the College of Arts and Sciences prepares students for a variety of successful careers through a robust mix of majors, minors and pre-professional programs in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences.

“One student is doing insect isotope analysis in a lab, while another is interning at a law firm and studying for the LSAT,” says Riggs. “In the meantime, just across the street, another is in rehearsal for an upcoming musical and preparing to audition for professional theater work, so there is tremendous diversity.”

With these diverse majors, alumni of the College of Arts and Sciences have forged career paths across a wide range of industries. Danny Devito ’20 and Emily Russavage ’20 are just two Colonels who created their own versions of success. While one chose artistic endeavors and the other scientific study, Wilkes prepared both for their career journeys.

Anyone who watched Super Bowl LIX in February 2025 has witnessed some of Devito’s talents.

Devito started with FOX Sports as a freelancer in 2020 and became an associate designer in 2021, followed by senior associate designer a year later. He was recently promoted to lead designer, managing a team of five. This spring, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Digital Innovation for his work at Cosm, an immersive entertainment venue featuring an 87-foot diameter 8K LED dome in Inglewood, California.

Devito, who grew up in Wilkes-Barre before moving to Maryland, first combined his passions for design and sports creating graphics and social media posts for his high school football team. In his free time, he started a YouTube channel to share his work. “People were blown away by what I was doing,” says Devito.

Though he once thought about a career in engineering, Devito decided to follow his artistic pursuits to the digital design and media art (DDMA) major at Wilkes. “I ended up falling in love with the skill of design,” Devito says. “It was a good fit.”

In spite of the fit, Devito admits he struggled a bit, but his challenges may have been different than those of the typical college student. Even while he was taking classes to add to his design skill set, he was building a freelance career working on projects for the Seattle Seahawks football team and an NBA game for the 2K video game company. “Those were the kinds of opportunities I built up,” says Devito, “and trying to balance school, a social life and a freelance career at the same time was not always the easiest.”

Devito credits “the big three” of DDMA — Eric Ruggiero, associate professor and chair, Lisa Reynolds, associate professor, and Steve Husted, adjunct faculty — with encouraging him to stay on track and pushing his skills to the next level. “They’re not only great career mentors, but great life mentors,” says Devito. “They helped shape me into the professional that I am.”

Under DDMA faculty, Devito gained hands-on experience with coding, video editing, motion graphics and typography, which he says was probably the biggest technical help to him as a designer. But it was the feedback portion of the project classes, known in the industry as “dailies,” that most clearly resemble the real-world workday.

“I wish I had taken those dailies a little more seriously,” says Devito. “That’s a real thing. Your boss is going to want to see progress every day.”

To Ruggiero, it’s these project classes, with production schedules, journals and the feedback loop of dailies, that help make DDMA at Wilkes so unique — and help the program turn out highly qualified creative professionals.

“All those things are absolutely what you deal with in the real world,” says Ruggiero. “It’s that professional work ethic in the classroom. The bottom line always is, you have to make things, right? You have to make things for a deadline that are at a quality level, and if you’re not producing, you’re affecting the whole chain in the process.”

Devito has certainly been producing during his time with FOX Sports. In addition to his creative work for the NFL, he was the digital lead for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, working 20-hour days for a month. At the time of the interview, Devito was focused on creative for the Indianapolis 500.

Reflecting on his time at Wilkes, Devito is grateful for the opportunity to hone both his creative skills and his professionalism. While he admits he didn’t spend much time on the science side of the College of Arts and Sciences, he has fond memories of his earth and environmental science lab with Lt. Col. Mark Kaster, who also helped with the process of securing tuition assistance through the GI Bill, available courtesy of  Devito’s parents.

And while he didn’t focus on the sciences during his academic career, technology plays a vital role in Devito’s day-to-day work as a creative. As with so many industries, AI has a seat at the table in design, though Devito sees it as a tool rather than an artist. With AI, he can remove an image from a shirt or cut people out of an image in seconds, embracing the technology so he can get back to creativity. “My advice would be not to be afraid of AI,” says Devito. “Learn how to use it because it’s here.”

As for any advice to up-and-coming creatives, Devito emphasizes networking and getting eyes on their work by sharing it on social media. “I got my job at FOX through networking and my portfolio.”

In the rare moments when he’s not hard at work for FOX, Devito often finds himself in front of a screen. He’s a movie buff and gamer, counting Fortnite and Marvel Rivals among his favorites. And, since he’s based in Los Angeles, there’s always a beach, concert, sporting event or restaurant to try. “I’m a little spoiled living out here. I feel like there’s always something to do,” says Devito. “I’m very fortunate to have a good group of friends to keep me balanced outside of work.”

Devito knows he’s fortunate at work too, combining his passions and talent with professional skills built at Wilkes to produce creative for some of the most high-profile sporting events in the world. Though FOX tried to hire him even before he earned his degree, he’s glad he decided to cross the finish line. “It was a bet I had to make on myself,” says Devito. “I’m pretty happy with the way things worked out.”

She’s hoping her work with the USDA will lead to more ways to use fungi in settings such as grape vineyards and crop fields.

Regardless of the pest or the plant, Russavage’s goal is the same — to put her scientific skills to work to support American agriculture. “We can improve farmer profits,” she says. Russavage often gets to put her creative skills to use, too. When she does presentations for farmers, students and the public, she’s grateful for Wilkes University’s gen ed curriculum English classes for enhancing her writing, editing and critical thinking skills.

“I really like giving these presentations because I get to be a storyteller,” Russavage says.

Creativity also comes into play when Russavage is out in the field. “My research is not sitting at a lab bench,” she says. “A lot of the tools that are useful in the laboratory don’t cut it out in the field.” So, when the research team needs a tool that they don’t have, they make it by brainstorming, designing and building it to their own unique specifications. “How can we modify this to make it best fit what we need to do? It is a constant maneuvering for my students and me to figure out how to best make things. We’re like sculptors,” Russavage says.

Her work with students is another vital part of the Wilkes culture Russavage has carried into her career. In total, she’s formally mentored over a dozen students, regularly working with three or four at a time. “I knew I liked research, but I was surprised to find out how much I enjoyed mentoring students,” says Russavage. “They’re really innovative, they’re artistic, they’re technologically savvy, they’re super thoughtful, they’re funny and they’re just really excited to learn.”

Russavage learned plenty of lessons in the College of Arts and Sciences, but the drive to support others in their discovery has become an essential part of who she is as a scientist and a person. She credits those on campus who helped shape her success — Stratford, Lisa Kadlec, professor of biology, Mike Steele, professor of biology, and Ken Klemow, professor of biology emeritus.

“They have all been so amazing. They were the best mentors, and they still are,” says Russavage. “And now they get to be my friends.”