April 9, 2026
“Having a History major has opened up doors for me. I act as an Account Manager for a Third Party Administrator firm, a somewhat niche field in the retirement industry space and one that ‘no one goes to college for.’ My role involves acting as an advisor to clients of the firm, managing project timelines, and maintaining knowledge of IRS and DOL regulations regarding retirement plans. While the content of the lessons I learned at UH might not apply to my field, the way I learned them certainly does. The projects and resources I had access to—including the Mellon Research Scholars program and working with Dr. N. L. A. Gharala on the “Slavery in Early Mexico” dataset—shaped my ability to research and communicate information effectively. The variety of courses available through the undergraduate history program taught me to be adaptive to new information.”
Jaden Urdiales (BA ’22) is an accomplished researcher who transferred skills acquired through History undergraduate research mentorship into a growing field of 401k management. While at UH, Jaden was a paid research intern on a digital project called, “Slavery in Early Mexico: A Dataset Identifying the Enslaved Persons on the Estates of Hernando Cortés,” and is credited as a co-author on the resulting dataset and codebook.