Featured Alumnus

Ashley McClellan
'08 B.S., Finance

Working for good grades qualified Ashley McClellan ’08 B.S., for a UNH Public Service Fellowship in her sophomore year. That led to an internship with West Haven Mayor John M. Picard’s office. That, in turn, led to a job.

The backstory to this happy ending is that Ashley, a Finance major with a minor in Accounting, initially demurred when the internship was recommended for her. Marty O’Connor, an associate professor of Fire Science and one of UNH’s internship directors, thought she was just perfect for the position.

But McClellan wanted to work in a Chamber of Commerce office. A move into a chamber, where businesses sought advice and ideas, made more sense for her major and her interests, she believed.

Yet O’Connor, in his inimitable way, pushed her. She caved in.

One week into the job, “my perspective completely changed,” she said recently, as she sat behind a computer in an office in City Hall. The office sits at the end of a long, wide third-floor corridor in City Hall that houses the offices of the mayor, the corporation counsel, and the public works department, among several others.

“This is a public-service job, and I meet all kinds of individuals, from business people to the homeless,” she said. “It’s a terrific launching pad. Plus I get to see where taxpayers’ money goes.”

Working for the mayor in City Hall has made her a jack-of-all-trades. She plans events, works on the city’s about-to-be-launched economic development website, and has recently become involved with the Downtown Merchants’ Association. Merchants are hoping the city’s new streetscaping and the opening of the Metro North train station near Saw Mill Road will bring more customers to downtown. Those hopes are intersecting at McClellan’s desk.

“That’s why I feel that working downtown is so great,” she said. “I can help businesspeople succeed.”

Her education at UNH has helped her in numerous ways, she said. The flexibility she was provided while a student helped her to work and attend school, allowing her to bring the classroom theory she was learning daily directly to her job at City Hall. The University’s focus on experiential learning – learning by doing – helped her land the internship, then helped guide her through it.

“The University of New Haven does a great job of bridging the world of education and real life,” she said. “And the links to West Haven are strong. Mayor Picard, his chief of staff, the police chief, and far more people who work for the city are UNH graduates.”

Her family life is equally linked to the University. Her mother, Carole McClellan, is a secretary in the Math and Physics Department at UNH. Her sister, Catherine, is entering her senior year at the University with a major in English, and another sister, Bridget, is an incoming freshman.

And her bond to the University will grow even stronger once she returns in September to pursue her M.B.A., in the hopes of moving into business consulting in the wealth management or personal investments sector.

“I wanted a small school,” she said. “Once I found out I had been admitted to the University of New Haven, I stopped caring about the other schools I had applied to. I had found the right one for me.”