The Schroeder Career Center, Wabash’s headquarters for Career Services, has empowered hundreds of Wabash students with the ability to write effective resumes, gain helpful internships, and secure successful careers. After a successful year, they are in the process of updating events for the upcoming school year and planning many new and exciting programs available for students.
Career Services also takes opinion polls of students at the end of each year. Scott Crawford, Director of Career Services, has recently submitted a survey to Blackboard, questioning incoming sophomores, juniors, and seniors about their likes and dislikes of the Schroeder Center; a separate survey is distributed to seniors, asking for their final critique. Out of the surveys submitted, a random drawing will be held, and the winner will receive a one hundred dollar prize.
“We take the students’ input over the summer and try to make a schedule of new events,” Mr. Crawford said.
Also, the familiar job search boot camp, which will be hosted on May 8, was originally hosted in the fall. The date was moved, so that students will have the summer vacation period to prepare for new jobs and internships.
“We have also had our trip to New York funded for the next years,” added Mr. Crawford. “Students going on this trip will have to attend the job boot camp and, because they attended it, will also be allowed to participate in the alumni golf tournament on May 9, which traditionally has been reserved for seniors.”
A third new addition is the resume book, which will be distributed to employers and graduate schools across the nation. “It will showcase our students, it will help get resumes out there, and it will promote the College,” said Mr. Crawford. The deadline for submissions to the resume book is April 30.
Assitant Director of Career Services Betsy Knott has organized a pilot program located in Chicago, known as the externship program. “This is a form of job shadowing that students can do where they will follow alums around for a few days and see what the job is like,” Mrs. Knott said.
Unlike an internship, an externship lasts only a few days, and a student need not spend his entire summer working on something that he does not particularly enjoy. Four externships will be available: one for an advertising agency, one for an investment firm, one for a global consulting firm, and one for an education corporation.
“If this works,” said Mr. Crawford, “then we will take externships nationally and perhaps internationally.”
The deadline is April 18, 2008, and a resume and cover letter will be required. Another opportunity this summer is a program with the Lafayette Journal and Courier. The New Product Development Committee, directed by Courier reporter Meranda Watling, does not come directly from Career Services, but still offers students a chance to gain professional skills. Essentially an online forum for restaurant reviews, photo galleries, and blogs, the program is a gathering place for college students in North Central Indiana to collaborate and form ideas.
“This would be a great opportunity for students to get professional experience,” said Mrs. Watling, “especially in new media, which is really the future of journalism.”
The last Career Services sponsored event of the school year is the upcoming job fair at Purdue, which will be hosted April 16. “Students need to come to this one,” said Mr. Crawford. “There will be unusually good employers for a fair such as this one.” Students must RSVP for this event via WabashWorks!”
Mr. Crawford and Mrs. Knott are pleased with their program and its impact on students, but the one thing they stress above all others is personal relationships with students. “One thing students need to do is come in and see us and talk for at least five minutes,” said Mrs. Knott. “If you see us on campus, in Sparks, in the library, just come and have a chat. Wabash is a campus with relationships like that.”