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A Collaborative Approach to Student Success

April 9, 2021 by 0 Comments

By Courtney Pelfrey, Dina Abu-Jubara, and Jason Dodge, University of Central Florida

Higher education institutions emphasize the importance of academic success as a key milestone to landing a career. However, as we know, classes are not enough to prepare students for what is next. Student Learning and Academic Success (SLAS) at the University of Central Florida helps students select experiences that will give them a competitive edge for their post-graduate goals by blending what is learned in the classroom with real-world experiences. However, students may be overwhelmed by the abundant, and oftentimes disconnected, resources that universities offer. The UCF Downtown Campus is working to dismantle this challenge by bringing a holistic and collaborative approach to their student services team.

An interdivisional network was created at the downtown campus with the purpose of connecting students to high-impact practices across six departments through a one-stop model. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) recognizes the positive impact that High-Impact Educational Practices (HIPs) have on a student’s academics, including a positive influence on student retention, academic performance, and faculty and peer interaction (Kuh, 2008). This interdivisional network seeks to reduce barriers and create continuity by connecting departments that are mutually committed to supporting student well-being and success. Within this one-stop shop, students learn about ways in which each of the six departments can enhance their UCF experience by incorporating HIPs and other opportunities into their educational pathway. These opportunities include academic support and enhancement for students who are planning next steps at and beyond UCF, such as internships, undergraduate research, study abroad, and graduate school preparations. The newly developed HIP Coach position works closely with other offices, such as Career Services, to ensure that students are able to blend what they’re learning in the classroom with real-world experiences and translate their skills to resumes and interviews. The goal of this coordinated care network is to increase undergraduate student participation in HIPs with the understanding that increased participation “is a significant predictor of future career plans and early job attainment” (Miller et al. 2018). To facilitate this network, UCF Downtown hired and trained its first HIP Coach to support this work in the Fall 2020 semester.

Graduate student, Dina Abu-Jubara, formally worked for Career Services and is therefore equipped to coach students on a variety of career mapping needs, including resume gap analysis and subsequent planning for HIPs that could improve a student’s career outcomes based on their specific goals. For example, a Legal Studies student meeting with Dina to learn more about getting involved outside of the classroom, may learn that they can apply for a legal internship in the local community to bolster their communication and critical thinking skills. A Human Communication student may meet with Dina to better understand the impact that participating in a study abroad trip may have on their ability to explain their intercultural fluency during their job search. These HIP opportunities are able to take standard resume critiques one step further.

One initiative that other institutions could easily employ is the development of a HIP sample resume. Dina partnered with UCF Downtown’s Assistant Director of Career Services to create a sample resume incorporating several examples of HIPs and their ability to showcase transferable skills and experience to potential future employers. The resume, also used as marketing collateral, points students in the direction of Dina’s appointment availability to further the conversation. Additionally, the pair partnered to host a “Career Mapping” workshop for UCF Downtown students that put an innovative spin on the classic resume workshop. Students learned about the appropriate content and formatting for their resume, but also gained valuable insights about where they could begin adding the necessary skills and experience that employers seek – a perfect plug for Dina’s work and a showcase of the value of HIPs.

Citations:
Kuh, George D. 2008. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access To Them, and Why They Matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Miller, A.L., Rocconi, L.M. & Dumford, A.D. Focus on the finish line: does high-impact practice participation influence career plans and early job attainment?. High Educ 75, 489–506 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0151-z

 

About the authors:

Courtney Pelfrey – Assistant Director for Downtown Career Services at the University of Central Florida, courtney.pelfrey@ucf.edu 

Dina Abu-Jubara – Graduate Assistant for Student Learning and Academic Success at the University of Central Florida, Downtown Campus

Jason Dodge – Director of Student Success for the University of Central Florida, Downtown Campus

Best Practices

Establishing Effective Partnerships between Employer Partners and Career Centers Webinar Recap

July 19, 2019 by 0 Comments

by Alison Hogue, University of South Carolina, Darla Moore School of Business

I have had the pleasure of working in career services at the University of South Carolina for nearly eight years.  During that time, I have been an experiential education coordinator for liberal arts majors, a career coach for arts & sciences majors, an employer relationship manager in the fields of engineering and computing, and a senior manager in employer relations for the Darla Moore School of Business.  Each one of these roles has offered unique challenges and opportunities to find new and innovative ways to prepare and connect students to the world of work both during their matriculation and post-graduation.

One of the things that struck me when I started in this field was that my assumptions about the role of career services professionals when I was a student were wrong – our office was designed to act as a resource and a conduit for students and employers to connect, and it was not intended to serve as a placement office.  Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for getting students to utilize these resources.  I have attended numerous events centered on internships and co-ops, career development, HR and recruiting, and university and employer relations.  Each one has provided new insights on emerging trends, programming ideas, or suggestions for improving assessments and interpreting data, but there was a common underlying question that seemed to plague both schools and employers –  what does an effective partnership between an employer and a university look like, and how do you build one?

In the May 16th SoACE webinar entitled Establishing Effective Partnerships between Employer Partners and Career Centers, GM Financial Talent Acquisition Managers, Roderick Hooker and Lori Bambauer, explored this topic in greater detail along with Alicia Smyth, Executive Director of Career Services at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, who shared her insights from a university perspective.

GM Financial’s University Relations team was established in 2015 with an eye toward internship recruiting and building a talent pipeline.  The program later expanded to include recruiting for full-time positions and strengthening involvement in the community.  Roderick provided the example of a successful partnership that he formed with the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), which was close in proximity to one of their Texas locations.  The end goal in this case was to build the sort of relationship where students were actively seeking out and excited about opportunities at GM Financial.  Roderick offered several tips for establishing a new relationship:

  • Sit down with the career services office and map out a strategy.  In this case, UTA suggested that GM Financial would need to attend several events per semester in order to build brand awareness.  Setting this type of meeting early in the year or during the summertime will provide the maximum number of opportunities for employers to engage with students.
  • Start small and build out. In addition to career fairs, Roderick and his team volunteered for existing events where employer assistance was needed.  This included career events such as resume reviews and mock interviews, as well as classroom presentations and student organization engagement.
  • Understand all of the opportunities on campus.  If you are going to a school where career services are decentralized, it helps to understand the relationships that already exist between departments on campus.  In this case, general GM Financial internships were available to many majors, but Roderick also had a particular interest in business students and began attending events for both career services and the business school.
  • Differentiate yourself.  Laurie added that it’s vital for the organization to speak to students about culture and community and purpose.  Why is your organization different and amazing compared to others that recruit on campus?
  • Be patient!  GM Financial’s partnership with UTA was nearly two years in the making.  This is an important point to make when setting expectations – return on investment is not automatic, and it takes time and active involvement in order to build brand recognition on campus.

Alicia Smyth echoed Roderick’s advice in her discussion of a successful partnership she established with Boeing, the #1 private employer for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  In Alicia’s example, her office already had an existing relationship to Boeing, but it had a lot of room to grow.  Her goal was to get Embry-Riddle included in the top tier of target schools as a part of Boeing’s Engineering Accelerated Hiring Initiative (EAHI) – something which she and others worked closely with Boeing to ultimately accomplish.  Here are some of her tips for strengthening an existing relationship:

  • Get school administration on board with your plans. Help them understand how the employer has contributed the success of students and graduates.
  • Tap into existing alumni at that company you are targeting. In this case, a Boeing Bridge Mentoring Program was instituted in 2015 as a way for Embry-Riddle graduates working at Boeing to mentor students who had an interest in working for the company. This program, now known as the Boeing Co-Pilot Program, is still going strong.
  • Utilize existing interns.  Boeing interns return to campus and serve as brand ambassadors to heighten awareness of opportunities among their peers.
  • Include alumni on industry advisory boards throughout the university.  Involvement in areas outside of career services is key in moving the relationship forward.
  • Host a dedicated day for your employer to connect with students.  In Embry-Riddle’s case, Boeing held a summit in Seattle once per year to include highly engaged Embry-Riddle alumni who work at Boeing, Career Services, Philanthropy, select faculty, and University Administration for many years. This was recently increased to twice per year. Boeing comes to campus to attend the Career Expo in the fall and holds an information session in the spring. This is in addition to scholars and incoming intern luncheons that they host for students, and their involvement with student organizations. They conduct these activities on both the Daytona Beach, FL and Prescott, AZ campuses.

Whether you are starting a new relationship or building on an existing one, it’s important to note that one size does not fit all.  Communication and feedback are key when it comes to creating successful partnerships between universities and employers.  Strategies should be reviewed yearly to refine plans and modify or eliminate the engagements that are not working.

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Alison Hogue serves as the senior manager of employer relations at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre, her Master of Arts degree in Teaching and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration — all from UofSC.

In her spare time, Hogue has held leadership positions for the Provost’s Advisory Committee for Women’s Issues, the Southeastern Cooperative Education Conference, and the South Carolina Association of Colleges and Employers. She is a certified Global Career Development Facilitator and has taught career readiness courses and public speaking classes for both UofSC and Limestone College.

Award Recipients - Best Practices

Lynn Chisholm and Peter Thorsett, 2018 Innovative Spirit Award Recipients

July 12, 2019 by 0 Comments
Peter Thorsett
Lynn Chisholm

The SoACE Imaginative Spirit Award is presented to either an individual, team, or office in recognition of their contributions toward the implementation of a unique and creative approach relevant to student/alumni programming, advising, employer/university relations, recruiting and/or training.  This award upholds the high standards of excellence in support of student/alumni/employer/university engagement and serves to encourage creativity in our profession.

At the 2018 Annual Conference in Atlanta, the SoACE Innovative Spirit Award was presented to Lynn Chisholm and Peter Thorsett from the University of South Florida. Lynn and Peter were recognized for innovation and creativity in developing the USF Career Readiness Badging Program. This program has provided a creative and scalable “career readiness” solution for the more than 50,000 University of South Florida students across all three campuses.  Utilizing the university’s on-line learning platform, a framework was built using the NACE Career Readiness Competencies, organized by Learn It, Do It, and Show It components.

Utilization of this badging program has helped students build stronger resumes, become fully connected with job search tools, and iteratively practice and receive feedback on their performance in behavioral interviews.  Furthermore, the badges they earn are made fully visible to employers and portable for students through the utilization of verifiable credentials based on the Open Badges standard through Badgr.

In support of student success beyond the University of South Florida, this team has been asked to share their program with higher education institutions across the country, as well as with high schools and communities, and have given many presentations and webinars, including at the SoACE Annual Conference.

As Director of Internships and Career Readiness, Lynn Chisholm is responsible for the overall administration and supervision of the Office of Internships and Career Readiness to develop, support, and manage student career-relevant experiential learning opportunities and programming. This office collaborates with Employer Relations and the Office of Professional and Career Development to offer internship opportunities for both on-campus and off-campus experiential learning including co-op, as part of a student’s progress toward graduation and obtaining full-time professional employment. Previously, Lynn was the Internship and Prior Learning Assessment Coordinator at Polk State College, Human Resources Specialist with the City of Lakeland in workforce and organization development, Clinic Director at the University of Georgia Speech and Hearing Clinic, and Speech and Language Clinic Coordinator at Florida State University in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department. Lynn earned a Certified Public Manager Master’s Certificate through Florida State University, a master’s degree at Boston University, and a bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Florida.

Peter Thorsett works within the Community Engagement and Career Readiness (CECR) unit at the University of South Florida. In his role, Peter directly supports the efforts of the Associate Vice President in strategic planning, evaluation and assessment, and programmatic integration across the unit’s individual teams to ensure that student career outcomes are linked to student and career success. Peter is also responsible for managing the team that provides marketing, outreach, and operations support to all of the teams in CECR. Peter has more than 20 years of experience in a variety of strategy, marketing, and technology related roles in both higher education and private industry, including work for Turner Broadcasting, Johnson Controls, Miami University (Ohio), UNC Charlotte, and Georgia State University. Peter holds an MBA from Georgia State University and a BSBA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.