Title: Cultivating Career Resilience: Strategies to Adapt and Elevate Student Services
Presenter(s):
Rebecca Ryan (she/her)
Kate Juhl (she/her)
Casey Miller (she/her)
Kevin Kenneally (he/him)
Jodi Hammer (she/her)
Room: Charles Carroll 2203K
Session Block(s): Session IV
Time: 2:55 p.m. to 3:55 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
Program Abstract:
Let’s face it: the current job market is a rollercoaster. This session features a panel of University Career Center program directors serving colleges across the sciences and humanities sharing best practices for helping students handle the ride—from navigating search fatigue to reframing rejection. We will explore specific strategies for fostering resilience amongst students, such as alumni "winding road" exposure panels and mental health-focused workshops, leaving you with scalable suggestions to pivot your own existing initiatives to better foster student resilience.
Program Description:
Students today are planning their careers in a landscape defined by uncertainty. For them, "career resilience"—the ability to handle rejection and pivot when Plan A falls apart—is just as vital as a college degree itself. But here is the good news: fostering resilience doesn't have to mean building new programs from scratch or completely changing the way you serve students. This session highlights the practical, on-the-ground work being done by a team of embedded career services professionals who are finding creative ways to modify existing program frameworks & services to help students navigate uncertain times.
We will pull back the curtain on specific initiatives led by University Career Center program directors, showcasing best practices for fostering resilience and belonging through group learning models. Topics covered in our programs this year included navigating the search for internships outside the local DMV bubble, strategies for prioritizing mental health alongside the job hunt, creating a space that normalizes and explicitly names students’ struggles, and facilitating alumni panels that offer a look at how our graduates have successfully overcome the hurdles that come with rejection in the job search. Rather than presenting a single monolithic program, this session functions as a panel-style showcase of creativity, demonstrating how standard programming can be pivoted to address anxiety and build grit amongst students from a variety of disciplines. Representing a diverse cross-section of the university, our panelists manage University Career Center initiatives for AGNR, ARHU, CMNS, INFO, and SPH, showing that these strategies resonate whether the student is in the sciences or humanities.
Panelists will share their specific designs, engagement metrics, and lessons learned, offering a transparent view of what is working now. By examining these diverse approaches, participants will leave with scalable suggestions on how to modify their current programs to meet students where they are, ultimately helping them persist toward their professional goals.