Engage. It's been a productive mantra for Wickel Titalom. After all, it brought him to Loyola. "I knew that I wanted to go to a big city for college, so I visited every university Chicago has to offer. Loyola, from the very beginning, was the front runner for me." Titalom liked Loyola's reputation. "Loyola University Chicago is really respected in the health care industry." He also found Loyola’s Jesuit tradition a good fit and, having lived abroad, saw the University’s global focus as an opportunity to meet and study with international students.

Since arriving on campus, Titalom has secured not just one but several internships. "That’s another great thing about going to Loyola. Employers see the Loyola name and automatically think to themselves, 'This is a very viable candidate.'"

So viable, in fact, that Titalom landed his first internship after his freshman year instead of waiting until his junior or senior year, as many college students do. He worked in a small medical practice with the director of sports medicine at Chicago's Weiss Memorial Hospital. Currently, Titalom has two internships, one as a case manager at Mental Health America of Illinois, where he uses his knowledge of medical establishments and his Spanish language skills to assist the families and children he serves. His other internship is with Oncimmune, a small biotechnology firm specializing in early lung cancer detection, where he develops partnerships to promote awareness.

As busy as Titalom is with his studies, internships, and student groups, he will graduate in four years. His future plans? Apply to Teach for America, get a graduate degree in health administration, and land a job as a hospital administrator. Reflecting on the value of his Loyola education, Titalom says, "I know that my Loyola experience is going to set me apart in the workforce."

Experts, scholars, practitioners—Loyola’s faculty in a nutshell. They are in the know, working and researching at the front of their fields. An impressive group to learn from, indeed.

Like Professor Nicole Ferentz, Loyola’s Director of Fine Arts and a visual communications instructor who also freelances in graphic design and paints and designs her own pieces. She gets to walk the exciting line between theory and current practice—and share it all with Loyola students.

Art in action is how you could describe Ferentz and the rest of Loyola’s fine arts faculty. Professional artists and scholars, they are passionate about their work and dedicated to inspiring students to achieve artistic excellence that can serve others. Their work can be seen in art galleries, theatres, and concert halls throughout the world—including Chicago.

Loyola’s creative home is at the heart of the fine arts, for pure enjoyment or academic study. A cultural hotspot, Chicago’s museums, concert halls, libraries, organizations—and its artists—are a vast resource for Loyola students in and out of the classroom. Students even find internships at some of the city’s most creative venues, preparing them to enter the creative world after graduation.

As experts in their fields, Loyola faculty members are keenly aware of career opportunities for students and the space for their talents in that world. Loyola students are uniquely poised for the world, says Ferentz. “There is a global appetite for design that did not exist in the past,” she notes. “Loyola students have an invaluable global perspective and are the best and brightest.” An impressive group to send off into the world, indeed.