Tuesday, July 25 Break-Out Sessions

2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Break-Out Session Tracks:

College

Employer

Both, College and Employer

Break-Out Session Levels:

Level 1: New Professionals (less than 5 years)

Level 2: Mid-Career Professionals (5-10 years)

Level 3: Directors (10+ years)

Level 4: All levels will benefit

Recruit, Engage and Develop a Career Culture using the

Career Services Annual Report

Track: College Level: 4

Presenter:

• Stephen Patchin, Director, Career Services 
  Michigan Technological University

The Gallup/Purdue survey found that students that had positive engagements with their career services programs were 6x more likely to see value in their collegiate educational experience. Career Services departments, collaborating with partners across campus have the ability to be the catalyst in helping graduates and organizational critics realize the true value of their educational experience, benefitting the whole organization. Michigan Technological University's Career Services team has developed unique, innovative, and engaging partner-based programming focusing on developing NACE's career competencies in each student. They key to success, engage students early and often. Michigan Tech's Career Services has designed a unique and engaging annual report that is not just placement rates and starting salaries, the end game. It tells the story of the collegiate journey and how students develop these career competencies in and out of the labs/lectures/research facilities. This Annual Report illustrates the elements of this career culture, charting the experiences in each student's collegiate journey from industry days, to co-ops/internships, to building a cardboard boat at Homecoming. The Report documents not only the results, but the depth of purposeful experiences that produced those results. You will walk out of this session ready to build an annual report to tell your own story with the tools to complete it.

Employer Relations:

Something's Gotta Change! 

Track: Both Level: 4

Presenter:

• Corey Watt, Assistant Director for Employer Relations
  Miami University

With an ever-changing and increasingly competitive world, how do we remain relevant? Is it flashy presentations or giant displays; networking events or outings? How do you gain the attention of qualified people to your company or attract the best companies to campus? We will explore the changing landscape of recruiting and employer relations from a variety of viewpoints to find common patterns and ideas. Our discussion will include emerging trends, resources, and proven methods, as well as a deep dive into navigating the variables we cannot control. This presentation is designed to be informative and interactive, allowing participants to get an inside look at the expectations and limitations that we all face.
 

The Diverse Student's Career & Internship Search (Student Panel)

Track: Both Level: 4

Presenter:

• Laura Kestner-Ricketts, Director Career Services
  Marquette University

We all know that culture and background affects our students' experiences in the classroom and in the workplace but have we thought about how it might affect their search for jobs and internships? Learn first-hand what a panel of diverse college students and alumni experienced as they maneuvered through one step in the career development process: the search. These students and alumni will share their take on what employers and career centers are doing well and where they need some improvements. Join us for this informative and interactive session. 

*Connecting the Dots to Student Professional Development

Track: Both Level: 4

Click here to access a PDF of the presentation

Presenter:

• Darrell Sawyer, Assistant Vice President for Student Development
  South Dakota School of Mines & Technology

This presentation will describe an innovative program designed to help students "connect the dots" to their professional development by reflecting on a series of curricular and co-curricular experiences focused on career preparation, communication, cultural/global diversity, leadership/teamwork, personal development, and community involvement. The session will include employer feedback, assessment of student learning outcomes, partnerships with faculty, and incentives for student engagement.

*Revitalize Transitions for Transfer Students

Track: College Level: 4

Click here to access a PDF of the presentation

Presenters:

• Geralyn Heystek, Director Zhang Career Center
  Western Michigan University
• Jennifer Palmatier, Employer Relations Specialist
  Western Michigan University;
• Robert Stewart, Career Development Specialist
  Western Michigan University

The Zhang Career Center connects transfer students with career preparation through a one credit course designed to help transfers, including international students, with their transition into the college. The Haworth College of Business has a specific culture and specific professional expectations for its students. Previously, transfer students received little guidance other than academic advice and rarely sought help. Since transfer students were not new to college, an assumption is that the transition is not as difficult as a first year student's. The data says otherwise. Many transfer students are unsuccessful in their first semester for many reasons: too many distractions, difficulty finding and utilizing resources, including financial resources, not making new connections, adjusting to different workload expectations, poor time management, poor or undeveloped study skills, homesickness, no experience with e-learning, and roommate issues to name a few. Our course was designed to help students get quickly up to speed, in multiple areas, beginning the first week of class. Students get resume feedback, have a brief appointment with a professional staff member, create a profile in the job portal, reflect about professionalism, learn about co-curricular requirements, create a video of their professional introduction, take the FOCUS assessment and meet at least two other students in class all in the first two weeks of class. This course is engaging, requires commitment and is REQUIRED for our transfer students. Join us to learn more results from the first year of this program and its impact on students.

Careers: A Community Effort

Presenters:

• Lauren Little, Career Advisor, The Media School
  Indiana University Walter Center for Career Achievement;
• Chris Klein, Career Advisor-Social & Historical Sciences
  Indiana University
• Rachel Landis, Career Advisor-Arts & Humanities
  Indiana University

Renew & Revitalize your Faculty Collaborations to

Increase Student Engagement with your Career Center

Presenters:

• Brandon Bute, Associate Director for Career Development
  Ball State University Career Center
• Jeff Eads, Senior Assistant Director for Connecting Activities
  Ball State University Career Center

Faculty collaborations are critical to the success of a career center. The more one on one faculty engagements career center staff can have, the more student engagement that career center will see. In this session we will share the unique model that the Ball State Career Center has been created for engaging our academic community on our campus as well as share the numerous faculty engagement programs that have resulted from this model. We then hope to have others share their unique activities that have been implemented on their campus as well. At the Career Center, our model for coordinating liaisonship responsibilities is organized more around industry groups rather than assigning an entire academic college to one coach. We break down our liaisonship assignments to the department level, and group departments together with an individual coach based on industry pursuits of those majors. This allows for a coach to have more consistent and cohesive conversations amongst their faculty liaisonship assignments. It provides more opportunity for the coach to become a knowledge in a more focused area. Many of these faculty have inter-departmental relationships across the campus, leading to a greater campus awareness and opportunities for cross collaboration coordinated by the coach serving their areas. The Career Center at Ball State University, also implemented a stated responsibility in the Coaches job assignments regarding building faculty relationships. Now that it is a stated job responsibility and not just an assumed function, we have seen are coaches create a higher expectation for themselves to focus on outreach not only to students, but to individual faculty as well. This new prioritization has led to a number of unique faculty engagements that we will be sharing during this session. These simple changes have directly led to an continual increase of student referrals to our office from faculty, incorporation of career center programs into curriculum expectations, as well as classroom presentation invitations.