After almost two years of preparation, the former Career Development Center will implement a new service plan this semester as the Office of Alumni and Career Services with increased assistance for students, alumni and employers.
These changes resulted from the merging of the Career Development Center and Alumni Relations office in 2010 and extensive research into all materials previously used at the CDC, said Diana Burkett, communications manager of the Office of Alumni and Career Services.
"It is more than just a cosmetic name change," said Leslie Stevenson, director of Career Services at the Office of Alumni and Career Services. "We are still offering all of the great services that students have had access to, from peer advising to daily walk-in appointments to the nearly 300 programs that we put on each year. The benefit of our rebranding is that we have more resources to tap into beyond those that we already offered."
Students will now have more access to alumni, Stevenson said. The Office of Alumni and Career Services has launched a new LinkedIn group for this purpose called the University of Richmond Career Connections. The staff will also host an alumni lunch series offering small, intimate sessions with prominent professionals who students would not typically have the opportunity to meet, she said.
"Our long-term goal is to build Spider pride," Stevenson said. "We want to know if people are using our office, what are they getting from our office and if they still feel connected after graduation."
The Office of Alumni and Career Services has also transformed the periodic student distribution lists into weekly career and event notifications for 18 different industries: accounting; advertising and public relations; arts; consulting; diversity matters; education; environmental; finance; gap year; government; healthcare; international; journalism, publishing and media; marketing and sales; social impact and common good; public policy and law; science and research, Stevenson said.
Students can also find new resources online at the Office of Alumni and Career services web site and Facebook page, on a page called Going Global for students interested in working abroad, and, in the future, on a new blog on The Collegian web platform called "The Spider Way: Weaving a Web of Possibilities," Burkett said. The office will use the blog to post career tips on Tuesdays, as well as advice from students and alumni on Thursdays, she said.
"I will also be working on staying plugged in with students by meeting with student leaders and organizations on campus to hear from them about what they know about our office and what they need," Burkett said.
An employer development team has also been added to the Office of Alumni and Career Services staff in order to focus on finding on attracting employers to campus to recruit students, keeping existing partnerships and organizing on-campus job postings and interviews. This team has recently launched a new website called Hire Spiders specifically for employers, Stevenson said.
Three career advisers have also joined the office staff: Frank Allen, a new associate director covering the finance, marketing and communications industries, Jesse Wingate to work with students in healthcare and science, and Anna Todaro to service students interested in social impact and arts management education, Stevenson said.
Visit the Office of Alumni and Career Services website at www.careerservices.richmond.edu .
Contact staff writer Erin Moyer at erin.moyer@richmond.edu
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