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THE COLLECTIVE 2023
CONFERENCE
SCHEDULE

 

Atlanta, GA

April 25 - 27 

BREAKOUT SESSION OVERVIEW

Click on session title to drop down to session details 

Engaging First-Year Students: Campus-wide Initiative Connecting Students with Careers & Vocation

Laura Kestner-Ricketts | Augustana College

 

A Career Plan for Every Student – Made Easy

Gary Boling and Mary Claire Dismukes | Belmont University

 

Preparing C.A.R.L.S. for Life After College: A Developmental Approach for Liberal Arts Career Education

RJ Holmes-Leopold | Carleton College

 

The Importance of Understanding Career Motivation

Maggie Tomas | Carlson School of Management/University of MN, Alumni Career Services

 

Networking for Good - Experiential Interviews

Kristin Williams and Michelle Adkins | Kent State University

 

Restoring The Power

Shayna Smith and Tekeia N.K. Howard | Miami University

 

Making it Possible and Doing it Well: Institutional Responsibilities in Experiential Learning

Emily Carpenter and Dale Leyburn | Nazareth College

 

From Admit to Alum: Envisioning One System that Propels Students Through the Engagement Lifecycle

Chris Harris and Zach Plaza | Santa Clara University

Say it Early, Say it Often

Dave Merry | Suffolk University

 

Career Clinics: Meeting Students Where They Are

Tiffany Cullen | Savannah College of Art and Design

 

Beyond First Destination: Strengthening Campus Systems for Career Learning Assessment

Faith McClellan and Sarah Resnick | Smith College

 

Driving Career Outcomes through Early Student Engagement

Emily McCarthy and Megan Forecki | University of Arizona

 

Leveraging Collaboration and Partnerships to Strengthen Student Exploration and Development

Brett Jones, Melissa Leffin, and Kelly Newbold-Boudreau | University of Wisconsin - School of Business

 

Managing Up from the Middle

Haley Sims | Virginia Commonwealth University

 

Centralization, A Survival Guide

Mandy Devereux | Willamette University

Empowering Marginalized Students in Social Capital Creation

Edward L. Cruz | Tulane University

A New Model for University Career Services and Stakeholder Engagement

Adrian D. Ramirez | Southwestern University

Actualizing "Career as Everyone's Business”: Integrating Career Education into Student Experiences

Jenifer Laird and Adam Helgeson| University of Delaware

Culture is a Shared Responsibility

Karyn McCoy | University of Saint Thomas

The Employer Leadership Summit - Engaging External and Internal Leaders to Elevate Career Everywhere Models
Eileen McGarry | University of Nevada, Las Vegas

 

From Access to Equity: A Conversation About the Future of Our Work

Jennifer M. Neef | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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2023 BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Restoring The Power

Shayna Smith

Associate Director for Diversity Initiatives

Miami University

 

Tekeia N.K. Howard

Director of Career Equity and Access

Miami University

Balancing power relationships is important to any restorative career development practice. Come learn about a framework to balance power, in career centers. ELEVATE: Diversity and Inclusion Career Institute restores power to underrepresented identities through a conference style experience, bringing together Miami University’s Career Community. ELEVATE advances inclusion, equity, and diversity in professional spaces through dialogue with students, faculty, staff, and employers. A cornerstone of ELEVATE is the DEI Reverse Career Fair, a student-empowered approach connecting student groups to employers beyond the traditional career fair. ELEVATE broadens cultural awareness, competency and leadership knowledge in preparation for success in a global workforce.

Making it Possible and Doing it Well: Institutional Responsibilities in Experiential Learning

Emily Carpenter

Associate Vice President for Experiential Impact 

Nazareth College

 

Dale Leyburn

Assistant Director in Internship Program
Center for Life's Work

Nazareth College

Coming from an institution that is twelve years into creating an experiential learning requirement cookbook, we’ve learned that the secret sauce shouldn’t be a performative stat on an institutional brochure or a burdensome box students will check. This session will cover the must-have ingredients if you are building an experiential learning requirement. From student navigation to equitable access to successful outcomes, ensure your experiential learning requirement is a transformational game-changer captured through institutionally-relevant metrics (e.g., retention, graduation rates, and student performance) and earns rave reviews from your key stakeholders.

From Admit to Alum: Envisioning One System that Propels Students Through the Engagement Lifecycle

Chris Harris
Career Development Specialist - Creative, Public & Human Sectors + Identity

Santa Clara University

 

Zach Plaza

Sr. Assistant Director, Community Engagement

Santa Clara University

How do colleges connect with their network? With initiatives that vary by user profile, department & vendor, managing outreach on many campuses can be overwhelming. In this session, we will examine how one university designed a lifecycle engagement strategy that touches everyone in their community. Learning Outcomes: Identify three strategic campus departments/partners to assist in building an engagement pipeline Articulate your north star: a common theme and initiative, within the values of your institution that everyone can engage with, that guide your hubs List five departments/teams along your campus roadshow to advocate and align with your pipeline

Say it Early, Say it Often

Dave Merry

Associate Provost and Executive Director of the Center for Career Education and Professional Development

Suffolk University

Identifying career readiness learning objectives for students at our institutions is key, both as a guide for developing our own initiatives and as a tool for students and colleagues to understand the scope of the career education journey. The leadership team at Suffolk University’s Center for Career Equity, Development & Success partnered with the Career Leadership Collective to identify six core learning goals (aka our “Everys”) for our students and alumni, and have worked for the past two years to make these goals clear and memorable for students, faculty, staff, and employers. From pre-admission and orientation, through curriculum design partnerships with faculty; integrated into program evaluations, office décor, and throughout the alumni experience, come discuss how you can elevate the visibility of your center’s goals to all stakeholders to strengthens partnerships and improve outcomes.

Career Clinics: Meeting Students Where They Are

Tiffany Cullen

Assistant Director, Career and Alumni Success

Savannah College of Art and Design

Students starting their collegiate careers often focus on their future careers in industry. As more companies expand their internship application levels to sophomores, students of all levels want to be ready for those employment opportunities. To meet students where they are, I developed a series of workshops called Career Clinics to focus on specific areas and materials needed for a professional image. Starting in the fall quarter, each Career Clinic builds on the next. No matter where a student preparation level is, they can bring their materials to be perfected on the spot.

Engaging First-Year Students: Campus-wide Initiative Connecting Students with Careers & Vocation

Laura Kestner-Ricketts

Executive Director of Career and Professional Development
Augustana College

Career Development continues to be an essential part of the college experience as students and families identify career success as a primary reason for attending. Simultaneously, this remains an optional part of the college experience. Leaders from Career Development & Vocation have been working to change that. This session will guide attendees through steps taken to collaborate with First Year Experience gatekeepers, strategies for implementing a required, campus-wide introduction to career development & vocation, and data outlining the impact on students’ understanding of interests, strengths, work & lifestyle values, and needs of community which are essential to designing a life of meaning & purpose.

A Career Plan for Every Student – Made Easy

Gary Boling
Associate Director, Office of Career & Professional Development
Belmont University

Mary Claire Dismukes

Director, Office of Career & Professional Development
Belmont University

Taking from the High Impact Career Practices, the Career Development Team at Belmont University decided to take on the audacious 2030 goal of every student graduating with a career plan. Where to begin scaling such an endeavor much less measuring it? Defining “Career Plan” and coming up with action steps that apply to every student is harder than it sounds. Using data, technology, existing systems, and campus partnerships, we’re piloting our plan this semester and will show you how our students are able to track their progress toward a strategy for discovering their purpose and achieving their desired career outcomes.

Preparing C.A.R.L.S. for Life After College: A Developmental Approach for Liberal Arts Career Education

RJ Holmes-Leopold | Director of the Career Center
Carleton College

Liberal arts colleges are often criticized for failing to adequately prepare students for the world of work. Faculty members are concerned about “career” creeping too far into the curriculum and career educators are wary of how courses lack connections to the “real world.” The C.A.R.L.S. model is an intentional effort to create a comprehensive, integrated program that blends academics with career education. This presentation outlines the Carleton Career Center’s strategic process in shifting the campus conversation to serve students holistically for life after college.

The Importance of Understanding Career Motivation

Maggie Tomas

Director - Graduate Business Career Center 

Carlson School of Management/University of MN, Alumni Career Services

When the University of Minnesota's business school, the Carlson School of Management, opened its career services support to all alumni, the center’s director, Maggie Tomas, noticed several trends with the alumni career questions and needs. The biggest trend she noticed was a misalignment in motivation. In this session, attendees will learn the 5 motivational preferences alumni tend to fall in, ways to help alumni identify motivational type, and tools to help empower students and alumni to align motivation and ask for what they need. This is a framework that can help all career services practitioners have insightful conversations with students and alumni.

Networking for Good - Experiential Interviews

Kristin Williams

Director of Career Services

Kent State University

 

Michelle Adkins

Associate Director, Career Services | College of Business Administration

Kent State University

"Networking for Good" is an opportunity for students and employer partners to meet employers and grow their network, while supporting community service activity with our 4-5 partnering employers. Our learning outcomes for the students include – gaining a better understanding of the roles available with the attending partner employers, making 3 new employer/recruiter connections, sharing the importance of community connections/volunteer/service. With two full cycles of fall/spring events completed, we are proud to share that more than 90% of attending students have indicated meeting all of the learning outcomes. Additionally, employers value this innovative way of connecting with talent.

Engaging First-Year Students: Campus-wide Initiative Connecting Students with Careers & Vocation
A Career Plan for Every Student – Made Easy
Preparing C.A.R.L.S.
The Importance of Understanding Career Motivation
Say it Early, Say it Often
Beyond First Destination: Strengthening Campus Systems for Career Learning Assessment
Leveraging Collaboration and Partnerships to Strengthen Student Exploration and Development
Managing Up from the Middle
From Admit to Alum
Centralization, A Survival Guide
Networking for Good - Experiential Interviews
Restoring The Power
Making it Possible and Doing it Well
Career Clinics: Meeting Students Where They Are
Driving Career Outcomes through Early Student Engagement
Empowering Marginalized Students in Social Capital Creation
A New Model for University Career Services
Actualizing
Culture is a Shared

Beyond First Destination: Strengthening Campus Systems for Career Learning Assessment

Faith McClellan

Dean of Career Development

Smith College

 

Sarah Resnick

Data Analyst

Lazarus Center 

Smith College

Now more than ever, career centers need to be able to provide evidence-based answers to diverse questions about their work, ranging across equity, resource utilization, and learning outcomes. This presentation explores the realities of building those systems for data collection and analysis, including potential challenges, stories of successful cross-campus partnerships, and how this work can almost immediately yield positive impacts. Along the way we will provide concrete examples of how career development professionals at all levels of data literacy (and time constraints!) can begin to incorporate meaningful measurement into their work.

Driving Career Outcomes through Early Student Engagement

Emily McCarthy

Senior Director, Career Development

University of Arizona

 

Megan Forecki

Program Manager, Assessment and Research

University of Arizona

University of Arizona Student Engagement & Career Development (SECD) leverages our unique organizational structure to enroll students in early engagement opportunities, often within our own department! Learn how: - SECD’s unique structure integrates career education, employer connections, leadership development, research, and experiential learning - Our innovative LifeLab triages student needs and enrolls them in their next step - We utilize cross-functional expertise to deliver transformational experiences such as our Design Projects Micro-Internships and Summer Internship Stipend program - We assess and refine our practices regularly through our 4-pronged assessment strategy evaluating not only Reach but Reputation, Outcomes, and Engagement

Leveraging Collaboration and Partnerships to Strengthen Student Exploration and Development

Brett Jones

Director of Employer Engagement

University of Wisconsin - School of Business

 

Melissa Leffin

Director of Career Engagement and Director of Career Studio and Student Coaching

University of Wisconsin - School of Business

Kelly Newbold-Boudreau

Marketing Program Director

University of Wisconsin - School of Business

In Fall 2021, the UW-Madison School of Business launched Career Forward, a new initiative designed to improve student access to tools and resources to support career exploration and development along business career pathways. Career Forward was built to create equitable and accessible career preparation through clear and consistent resources, new experiential programs and pathway-specific internal and external partnerships. In this presentation, we’ll talk about the development of this initiative, and share key learnings about building flexible networks of student career support with academic departments, faculty members and industry partners, as we’ve navigated the early successes and challenges of the program.

Managing Up from the Middle

Haley Sims
Senior Associate Director, Career & Industry Advising

Virginia Commonwealth University

We know managing up is important, but what is it and how do we do it? Some middle managers get caught in an endless game of trying to please everyone and end up burning out or thinking the grass is greener at another institution/organization. In this session, we’ll discuss metrics for success and collaborate to know how and when to deliver feedback as we lead from the middle. Participants will be able to list resources to identify their supervisor’s style, recognize tactics in communicating with their supervisor, and gain experience in applying strategies for managing up through case studies.

Centralization, A Survival Guide

Mandy Devereux

Director of Career Development 
Willamette University

For several universities, career offices are elevating under centralized leadership models. A year after leading Willamette University through two career team mergers, Executive Director of Career Initiatives, Mandy Devereux would love to share tips for other institutions moving towards centralized models. This session will incorporate concepts of change management, navigating institutional complexity, building internal advocates and creating a shared vision to create forward momentum for your teams and your institution. Part visionary leadership part operational management, this conversation will be geared towards small to mid-sized career offices where leaders are often in positions of wearing many hats.

Empowering Marginalized Students in Social Capital Creation

Edward Cruz
Assistant Dean & Executive Director, Career Services 

Tulane University

Career professionals understand the impactful outcome of creating social capital. We also know marginalized students may not run the same race and begin at differing points, making it difficult to access the hidden job market and impactful professional networks and opportunities. Moving away from passively teaching networking and tightening career and social capital mobility will provide students with the tools to engage effectively and build meaningful professional relationships. In turn, confidence in social capital creation will have a long-lasting career impact.

A New Model for University Career Services and Stakeholder Engagement

Adrian D. Ramirez

Director of the Center for Career & Professional Development

Southwestern University

Determining new channels for stakeholder engagement is an evolving priority in higher education. In 2021, Southwestern University moved its Center for Career & Professional Development from Student Life to University Relations, a team whose work focuses on stakeholder management and associated contributions to the university community. The move was made with the goal of increasing opportunities for student professional development. This session will address the genesis of this new model, its current impact, and future plans.

Actualizing “Career as Everyone’s Business”: Integrating Career Education into Student Experiences

Jenifer Laird

Associate Director, Academic & Career Integration 

University of Delaware

Adam Helgeson
Associate Director, 
Career Access and Equity

University of Delaware

The University of Delaware Career Center continues to expand undergraduate student access to career and professional development by integrating career information into the academic and co-curricular settings. In this session we will discuss the design and implementation of career curriculum integration and associated learning outcomes, our expansion beyond the traditional 1:1 and class by class model to scaled efforts, and how we will strategize our efforts using thoughtful data and tracking. You may be interested in this session if you are looking to move from a model of synchronous instruction toward a model of self-paced, individual competency building on a broad scale.

Culture is a Shared Responsibility

Karyn McCoy

Associate VP, Alumni, Career & Corporate Engagement

University Advancement

University of Saint Thomas

Organizational culture impacts employee engagement, retention, performance, advocacy and burnout. Contrary to the top-down culture-building model that still exists in many organizations, today’s workplace requires that we all play a role in establishing, impacting and/or stewarding our culture. This session will focus on why culture matters (see the first sentence), the key components of culture, and the actions each of us can take to uphold it.

The Employer Leadership Summit - Engaging External and Internal Leaders to Elevate Career Everywhere Models

Eileen McGarry

Executive Director of Career Services

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

UNLV Career Services and Workforce Development elevated the traditional employer roundtable to a new level! In the interest of advancing a “career everywhere” model at its diverse Minority Serving Institution (MSI), Career Services leaders partnered with top administration to create a unique Talent-Pipeline Summit that brought together 225 university leaders, economic development leaders, employers from all 7 key Nevada industries, student leaders, alumni, and multiple government officials. The Summit, facilitated by Jeremy Podany, CEO of the Career Leadership Collective, resulted in an illuminating and impactful dialogue and planning session that is shaping the campus career readiness ecosystem today.  The UNLV Leadership Summit has become a signature university president’s event and has been instrumental in pivoting the campus culture to embrace career readiness through the student lifecycle.

 

Presenter Eileen McGarry, Executive Director of UNLV Career Services will share insights on the visioning, planning and implementation behind creating a successful high profile campus-wide engagement event with key external and internal stakeholders.  Learn about how career leaders can position career readiness as a top leadership priority and  create engagement experiences that serve the needs of the greater campus and community while elevating and advancing our work on behalf of students.

From Access to Equity: A Conversation About the Future of Our Work

Jennifer M. Neef

Director of The Career Center

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In the last decade, the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign has worked to enhance access by implementing strategies that mitigate financial barriers, offering paths with differentiated modalities for degree completion or other post-secondary credentials, and creating academic support services that impact retention and completion. Within career services, we have created and/or broaden channels to scale career development support services and resources, and like many others implemented Handshake, which exponentially increased access to internships and other experiential learning opportunities hosted by employers, professional connections, and jobs. Yet, gaps in post-graduation outcomes persist for our Black, Latinx, and 1st generation students relative to their peers.  

 

With great strides toward access, attention turns toward equity. What new strategies, tools, and resources are needed to support career development and post-graduation success that will close the gap in post-graduation outcomes? Join us for a conversation about the next frontier of our work – one that leverages gains in access to move toward equity. 

UNLV
Urbana
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