Career Center

Unit Annual Report

2002-2003

 

Personnel

 

Gary L. Donovan — Director

Irene Maloney — Principal Administrative Specialist

Amy Blackwelder — Office Assistant

Carol McCannon — 1/4 time Service Learning/Volunteerism

Lori Koshork — 1/4 time Career/Internship Counselor

Amy Cullen — Student Clerk

Tina Didreckson — Student Clerk

Dana Eisfeld — Student Clerk

Amanda Hill — Student Clerk

Kelli Honsey — Peer Career Assistant

Alex Jarvis — Student Clerk

Chassidy Nelson — Peer Career Assistant

Judy Olson — Peer Career Assistant

Rebecca Schlafer — Student Clerk

Khama Sharp — Peer Career Assistant

Clara Voigt — Peer Career Assistant

 

 

Purpose

 

The primary purposes of the Career Center are:

 

         A.    To provide career planning services to students and alumni.

         B.    To coordinate field experience educational opportunities including internships and

                 community service/volunteerism for students.

         C.    To provide job placement and transition services to all students and alumni.

 

 

Function

 

         A.  Career Planning Functions:

 

                1.     To provide individual and/or group career counseling services to primarily junior/senior students and alumni.

                2.     To collect and disseminate full information on careers.

                3.     To consult with campus subgroups on particular career interests of the groups, i.e., student teachers, individual major groups, student clubs/organizations, etc.

                4.     To act as a referral source for students and alumni to make contact with outside agencies, i.e., Department of Rehabilitation Services, Minnesota State Employment Service, Private Industry Councils, County Social Service Agencies, etc.

                5.     To coordinate individual career assessment with the Student Counseling Service.

                6.     To consult with faculty on matters of student career advisement.

                7.     To provide leadership and guidance for the Peer Career Assistance Program (PCA).

                8.     To provide graduate and professional school information.

                9.     To fully participate in professional organizations relevant to career planning and counseling.

 

 

         B.  Field Experience Education Functions:

 

                1.     To coordinate and serve as a liaison for UMM's Interdisciplinary Internship Program and community service/volunteerism.

                2.     To collect and disseminate information on internship opportunities.

                3.     To advise students and faculty about internship opportunities.

                4.     To provide a variety of approaches to student-internship supervisor and student-faculty contacts for internship experiences.

                5.     To assist students in the development of their  internship learning contracts.

                6.     To maintain contact with internship supervisors to help monitor the field placement.

                7.     To fully participate in professional organizations relevant to field experience education.

 

         C.  Placement Functions:

 

                1.     To manage placement personnel, facilities, policies, and budget.

                2.     To collect and disseminate information on jobs and maintain materials on current and future employment conditions, demands, and trends.

                3.     To serve as a liaison to business, government, industry, and schools for the purpose of seeking job and internship placement for students and alumni.

                4.     To provide a variety of approaches to candidate-employer contacts.

                5.     To collect and disseminate information on companies, schools, agencies and organizations which are potential places of employment for new UMM graduates and alumni.

                6.     To prepare and maintain placement credentials for education students and alumni.

                7.     To make placement credentials available to potential employers.

                8.     To schedule on- and off-campus interviews with businesses, schools, etc., for students and alumni.

                9.     To teach students how to communicate effectively with the employing public.

              10.     To conduct job seeking skills workshops.

              11.     To coordinate summer employment information.

              12.     To conduct follow-up and other kinds of research pertinent to placement.

              13.     To fully participate in professional organizations relevant to placement.

              14.     To fully participate on the UMM Administrative Committee and the UMM Campus Assembly.

 

 

Evaluation

 

The "Career Outreach" program was again one of the career planning projects for the 2002-2003 school year.  Presentations were made to elementary education juniors and seniors, and management classes.  In addition, presentations were made at numerous senior meetings. The most common topics of discussion were career planning strategies, placement services, and career opportunities as they related to the particular groups.  Other career planning activities in the past year included consulting with several faculty on career advisement and graduate/professional school, collecting and disseminating information relating to the world of work, and maintaining UMM's Interdisciplinary Internship Program.

 

Approximately 80 students registered for credited internships through the UMM Interdisciplinary Internship Program in 2002-2003.  The Career Center also helped numerous other students locate and obtain educational field placements for credited Directed Studies and non-credited career development experiences.  Approximately 45 students attended one of three different internship information meetings held during the year.  Numerous individual contact hours were made by office professionals to explain and support student internships and other experiential learning.  A video-tape describing the UMM Interdisciplinary Internship Program continues to be used to assist in the dissemination of information on the program.  A digitized version of the video will be incorporated into the Internship Web site.  The Site Supervisor, Student, and Faculty Internship Guides were updated and placed on the Internship Web site as well.

 

All appropriate internship opportunities continue to be entered onto the computer so information can be more readily accessible via the internet.  The Internship Web pages were accessed over 1461 times during the year.  Over 2500 internship opportunities can be sorted using key word searches.  All paper internship binders located in the Career Library were reviewed for old items, cleaned out, and alphabetized for easier reference.

 

In addition to putting all internship opportunities on the internet, the Career Center continued to develop electronic information to make career planning and placement information more readily available to students and faculty.  The Career Center homepage continues to be revised by student worker Alex Jarvis.  The Web site was rewritten to easily make future changes.  The job/internship database was finally converted to MySQL from CGI.  The homepage contains information on Career Center Services, Information for Employers, Career Planning and Decision Making, Career Search/Research, Job Search Skills, Job Postings, Internship, and Graduate/Professional Schools.  The Career Center continues to identify a number of electronic job search resources using the internet.  The Career Center homepage was accessed over 300,000 times during the year.  Job vacancy lists, job posting links, internship searches, job search resources, and weekly announcements were accessed the most during the year.  Other electronic career planning, job search, and internship tools continue to be developed.

 

Resume writing, job search strategies, and interviewing workshops were conducted each semester.  The resume writing workshops were conducted prior to the career fairs in the fall and winter.  Much of the workshop information is being accessed on the Career Center homepage.  Those materials accessed the most include sample resumes, classified advertisement resources, employment interviewing, career planning/decision making, career search/research, "what can I do with a major in . . . ", job search strategies, and graduate/professional school information.

 

Realizing that students may not be able to attend workshops because of scheduling conflicts, the Career Center continues to make career planning, job hunting, and employer information available on video tapes in the Career Library and conducted evening information sessions.  Office staff also participated in senior meetings, orientation, Senior Salute Day, and other general campus activities to meet students.

 

Due to time and budget constraints, the Career Center did not add any new Peer Career Assistants (PCAs) in 2002-2003.  However, the remaining five PCAs were very active in 2002-2003.  The PCAs assisted with career fairs, held regular hours in the Career Library to assist students find career (internship, job, graduate school, etc.) information, critiqued students resumes, conducted mock interviews, tabled at various campus locations to distribute career and educational information, and completed individual career projects.  Projects included collating career Web site information for biology/biochemistry majors, researching career opportunities for political science majors, preparing flyers/brochures for Career Center, researching ways to pursue the Architecture field at UMM, researching the pros and cons of joint degrees, and creating posters for tabling and career fairs.

 

Career advising materials were updated during the past year.  Career information advising sheets were updated using data from the annual and longitudinal follow-up research activities.  Due to budget constraints, no Career Advising Information Manuals were created for new faculty advisors.  The faculty Career Advising Information manuals were placed on the Career Center Web site for easy access by advisors.  However, the Career Advising Information Manuals for RA/RDs were collected at the end of last year and recycled back to this years RA/RDs.

 

In 2000, the Career Center and Counseling added a PC computer and DISCOVER, a computerized career guidance and information program, through the Student Technology Fee Program.  The lease on the software expired in 2002.  Since the offices are not funded for this activity and the software is fairly expensive, the career decision-making software was not replaced.

 

The Career Center has continued to assist the Alumni Relations Office in the development of the UMM Alumni Network, a part of which is focused on internship and job search activities.  Office staff continue to use a paper copy of Alumni Network Directory to refer students to alumni to receive assistance in obtaining internships, summer jobs, career information, and full time employment.

 

The Directors of the Career Center and Alumni Relations have met to discuss ways to better connect alumni with current students and other alumni.  The Career Center technology work-study student is continuing to research ways to convert or redesign the alumni career network to a Web-based medium to provide more timely and efficient access to career resources.  The directors also have been discussing other alumni-student career programming.

 

The Career Center assumed supervisory responsibility in 1994-95 for the Campus Compact (office for Service Learning and Volunteerism) program.  Primarily through the efforts of Carol McCannon, the Office for Service Learning and Volunteerism helped sponsor and coordinate over 1500 student volunteers who provided over 3000 service hours to the greater Morris community (including the Freshman Orientation Service Day - a coat drive with the Salvation Army that collected over 400 items of winter outer apparel), met regularly with the RA/RDs to schedule students for volunteer programs in the Residence Halls (project collected over 3000 pounds of food), wrote a regular column for the student newspaper, integrated service learning/volunteerism into on-campus career fairs, maintained a campus service learning library, met with faculty and staff to promote the integration of service learning into the curriculum, reviewed existing course syllabi for applicability to UMM, helped facilitate the 'Tutoring, Reading, Enabling Children' program (TREC), sponsored the annual 'Ice Cream and Lollipops' program, and coordinated Random Acts of Kindness Day, Toys for Tots, Parade of Lights Tree Decorating, among other activities.  Thirteen (13) agencies from the community participated in the second "Volunteer Fair" by providing information to UMM students about volunteer opportunities.  A great deal continues to be accomplished in spite of minimal staffing and funding.

 

Placement activities for the 2002-2003 school year were varied.  The Career Center invited all of the major employers in the immediate region to interview graduating liberal arts seniors and participate in on-campus career fairs.  All of the school districts in Minnesota and the larger districts of North and South Dakota were invited to interview UMM graduates who majored in education.  Other activities included the collection and dissemination of resource lists containing names, addresses, and telephone numbers of potential employers; participation in professional associations dealing with college recruitment and placement; and teaching students how to communicate effectively with the employing public.

 

The Career Center continues to provide cost effective and timely credentialing services to education seniors and alumni.  The request for placement credentials was 8% higher in 2002-2003 than in the previous year.  A total of 914 sets were sent for new graduates and 384 were sent for alumni.  Career and job placement services (counseling/advising, networking, etc.) for seniors and alumni continues to increase.

 

The Career Center sponsored the twelfth annual on-campus Graduate/Professional School Fair and Business/Liberal Arts Career Fair in 2002.  Thirty-two (32) graduate/professional schools/programs and approximately 309 students and 11 faculty participated in this fair.  Twenty-six (26) employers representing business, industry, and government participated in the Business/Liberal Arts Career Fair.  Over 257 students and ten (10) faculty attended this fair.  Evaluations by students and employer/school representatives were extremely positive.  Plans are being made for the 2003 fairs.

 

The Career Center sponsored the ninth annual Summer Camp/Job Fair in February, 2003.  Thirty-two (32) employers participated in this fair while 384 students and nine (9) faculty attended the fair.  In addition, the Career Center continues to collect, maintain, and catalog summer employment opportunities for students.  We have also expanded the listing of summer job opportunities on the Career Center Web site.

 

UMM participated in the 17th annual Minnesota Education Career Fair held on April 28, 2003, at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, MN.  Thirty-four (34) UMM education seniors and alumni met with school personnel representatives from 153 districts to gather employment information and interview for teaching jobs.

 

The Career Center facilitated UMM student participation in University-wide and other career planning and placement activities including the Graduate and Professional School Days sponsored by various U of M collegiate units, all held on the Minneapolis campus.  The Career Center also facilitated participation for UMM students in other career and job fairs including the Graduate Management Career Fair; Minority Career Fairs; South Dakota Teacher Job Fair; South Texas Teacher Job Fair; various summer job fairs; Technology Job Fair; Tri-College Job Fair (Fargo-Moorhead); South Dakota Business, Industry, and Government Job Fair; and various education career fairs, among others.

 

Due to budgetary retrenchment, the Career Center did not conduct the annual follow-up research on the 2002 UMM graduates.  At this time, it is uncertain whether the office will resume this research.

 

The office provided graduate follow-up data from previous research studies to various faculty, Alumni Relations, Admissions, Division of Education, and other outside constituents including parents of prospective students.

 

The Career Center assisted the UMM Admissions office by meeting individually with prospective students and parents.  The director made numerous other contacts with prospective students (via telephone, letter, email, and individual appointments) at the request of admission counselors, athletic coaches, and prospective parents.  The Career Center Director assisted Athletics in recruiting student-athletes by calling selected students to discuss career/academic planning and placement issues.

 

The Career Center Director served on a number of committees.  Donovan served on the Minority Student Director Search Committee, the UMM Survey Working Group, Disabilities Issues Task Force, the Cougar "Hall of Fame" Athletic Selection Committee, Administrative Committee, Campus Assembly, and, also attended numerous Student Affairs Directors meetings.  He also served as a mentor to a graduate student (a UMM alum) in the counseling and student affairs graduate program from South Dakota State University.

 

At the Chancellor's request, the Career Center Director served as UMM's liaison to the Stevens County Economic Improvement Commission (SCEIC).  Donovan attended approximately 16 SCEIC meetings in the last year.  He continues to serve on the SCEIC Finance Committee.

 

 

 

 

Narrative and/or Statistical

 

         A.  Career Planning

 

               About 99 students participated in the Career Center's thirteen (13) job search workshops during the last year.  In addition, about 45 students participated in three (3) different internship information meetings.

 

         B.  Placement

 

               Student and Alumni Placement Registration:

               A total of 97 UMM education seniors and alumni registered for placement services between July 1, 2002, and June 30, 2003.  A breakdown of registrants by categories indicates:

 

               Elementary Education             29

               Secondary Education              33

               Alumni                                   35

 

               TOTAL                                  97

 

               Recruitment Days on Campus:

               Most employers (26), graduate/professional schools (32), and summer employers (32) came to campus for the scheduled career fairs.  In addition, fourteen (14) others scheduled sixteen (16) on campus recruiting days in 2002-2003.  One employer canceled a visit due to lack of interest by students.  Three days were scheduled for summer employment, eleven (11) days for post baccalaureate employment, and one each for internships and graduate school.  Other visits to campus may have been scheduled by other campus units and/or student organizations.

 

               On Campus Student Contacts:

               A total of 257 students attended the Business/Liberal Arts Career Fair.  Graduate/Professional School program representatives reported talking to approximately 309 students at the Graduate/Professional School Career Fair.  Summer Camps/employers talked with over 384 students.  Approximately 273 interviews were conducted among the other on-campus recruiters (135 for summer employment, 15 for graduate school, and 123 for full-time postbaccaleaureate employment or internships).

 

               In addition, many interviews were scheduled for students and alumni at various employer offices.

 

               Placement Credential Files

               The Career Center provides a placement credentials service for UMM education seniors and alumni.  Last year, the Career Center mailed 1298 sets of credentials, an 8% increase from the previous year.  A total of 914 sets were sent out for new graduates and 384 were sent for alumni.

 

 

Plans for 2003-2004:

 

         1.      Complete update of electronic career advising sheets with data from most recent longitudinal follow-up study.

         2.      Market/promote Career Center Web site links on faculty homepages.

         3.      Research E-recruiting, NACElink, MonsterTrak, and Intervision software for UMM.

         4.      Organize/reorganize/clean information on office computers (applications, documents, communications).

         5.      Reformat individual Web pages to be consistent with how students process information

         6.      A dedicated facsimile machine is immediately needed.

         7.      More graduate/professional schools and employers need to be attracted to UMM to create more graduate/professional school, internship, service learning, and full-time employment opportunities for students and alumni.

         8.      Materials in the Career Center Library need to be updated and expanded.

         9.      More students should be encouraged to participate in the Interdisciplinary Internship Program.

         10.    More minority students should participate in Career Center programs.

         11.    International career opportunities need to be developed for UMM students and alumni.

 

 

Major changes recommended:

 

         A.     Transition out of an institutionally managed credential file service to a "self-managed" credential system.

         B.     One to two additional staff need to be added to career services to assist in the delivery of career/academic counseling/advising services for students (especially freshmen and sophomores) and to advance/enhance the internship program.

         C.     A part-time clerical staff needs to be moved to a 12-month, 100% time appointment to help meet the overwhelming demand for career/academic advising services and to assist with the increased demand for follow-up research and information on the outcomes of a UMM education.

         D.     The Career Center budget needs to be increased by at least $20,000 to support programming needed to retain students, advance/enhance the internship program, market UMM students and alumni to employers and graduate/professional programs, and expand/enhance typical career services that have never been or have been historically underfunded.

         E.      Adequate office space (i.e. total space and configuration) in a high student traffic area needs to be located to better position the Career Center and career library space to meet the needs of students and faculty.

         F.      Develop e-mentoring/electronic alumni career network.

         G.     Redesign Web site based on students "Frequently Asked Questions."

         H.     Work with academic advising on creating an "academic/career advising" folder for students.



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