An Emphasis on
SUCCESS
WVU's Career Success Academy
Connects Alumni with the Future
by Tony Cook
The author is university editor at
WVU and editor of this magazine.Way back when, many undergraduates experienced their four years of university life as a whirlwind of new encounters with people, ideas, and possibilities. Amidst all the spinning, some shining thing would be flung away and would fall to earth, where it could be examined, tested, put to good use. Quite often that thing--be it a nurturing relationship, a body of knowledge, a flash of self-awareness --would direct the student along a particular path to the future. Thus, through accident of fate, serendipity, whatever it may have been, the student found himself oriented to his life's work.
In 1998, the undergraduate whirlwinds still spin around. But in an era when possession of a college degree and abundant enthusiasm no longer guarantee success in life and work, students cannot be so passive. They cannot wait for their shining thing, their direction in life, to be delivered to them. Instead, they must reach out, grab hold, and pull it in.
At West Virginia University, a brand-new approach to the age-old dilemma of what to do with oneself after college is helping undergraduates find their answers.
An innovative partnership between the Alumni Association and the Career Services Center, it is a relationship-building program that connects students with successful alumni who can be mentors for them, who can help them along and show them the way. With a nod to the traditions of mentoring in academe, it is called the Career Success Academy.
The Career Success Academy's underlying premises are, first, that students should begin to plan their careers early in the freshman year. Second, that a focus by students on skill development and career interests can enhance their academic achievement. Third, that WVU's many thousands of alumni, faculty, and friends will recognize the benefits of mentoring to individual students and join CSA's network of career development contacts.
Students who participate in WVU's Career Success Academy tend to be more focused on their future careers than many of their peers. While there is still much room for maneuvering during the program experience, Career Success Academy students generally want to establish their long-term goals before they reach the critical latter years of their undergraduate studies.
There are five components, called "learning clusters," of the four-year Career Success Academy experience at WVU. The first begins during the freshman year, when participants explore their career options through a guided process of self-reflection, study of academic and career alternatives, and contact with potential career role models.
In the sophomore and junior years, CSA participants move through two more learning clusters, the first designed to help them assess personal strengths and weaknesses, and the second to help them gain workplace experience in internships and other temporary job opportunities. Throughout both of these components students are assisted by CSA counselors to formulate a plan of action, to develop an effective résumé and interviewing skills, and to locate appropriate workplace opportunities and evaluate the temporary job experience.
During the senior year, CSA participants draw from their knowledge and experience with career planning to locate and secure a first post-college job. They also learn from CSA counselors how to get off to a good start in their new positions and how to begin personal financial planning. The assistance of WVU alumni can be essential to making the job search a fruitful one. By serving as mentors and by providing students information on job opportunities these alumni volunteers can help WVU graduates compete more effectively for better jobs, thereby increasing the potential for lifelong career success.
Though very young, the WVU Career Success Academy is already making a difference in the lives of students and their alumni mentors. A notice about CSA in the Summer 1997 issue of West Virginia University Alumni Magazine elicited nearly 300 responses. Among those alumni who have volunteered to help are: Terry Wimmer '76, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter in California; Sallie J. Russell '65, a writer and entrepreneur in Illinois; Ray Brace '67, a vice president of Hershey Foods in Pennsylvania; Carol DeBerry '79, a senior vice president of One Valley Bank in West Virginia; Keith DeVault '66, a senior vice president of Lever Brothers Company in New York; Don Parkinson '65, a senior vice president of KFC in Kentucky; and Phyllis Huff Arnold '70, president and CEO of One Valley Bank in West Virginia.
The number of WVU students benefiting from CSA's assistance continues to grow. Jaime Potts is a senior from Cameron, West Virginia, who spent last summer employed by a management consulting firm that opened its doors to her after CSA staff members contacted a partner who is a WVU graduate. In one summer's employment she earned more than the total of her tuition and fee payments in four years as a student at WVU.
Another CSA participant, John Dotson '97 from Beckley, West Virginia, is working as a manufacturing engineer in his hometown after his employer met John with the assistance of Career Success Academy staff members. Not only was John hired, his company saved more than $12,000 by working with CSA instead of a corporate placement agency.
In addition to its many campus-based activities, the Career Success Academy is establishing an Internet service that will make WVU one of the first universities in the nation to connect its alumni to current students and faculty members on-line. And along with supporting the career goals of current WVU students, CSA will offer help to alumni who need career counseling or job referrals. The work of the Career Success Academy will help present, future, and past graduates of West Virginia University to connect their academic studies with their aspirations for a lifetime of learning and career opportunity.
CSA Works. The Proof's in the Payoff.
Previous Article
Next Article
Back to Contents