For students majoring in fields such as architecture or education, future job options may seem obvious. But for students majoring in various fields offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, career objectives may not be so clear.
Three new career liaison positions have been created to help arts and sciences students answer a simple question: What can I do with my major?
The positions have been filled by University graduates Liz White, Jennifer Sowins and Jessica Best. Each liaison has a separate focus modeled after the three subject divisions within the College of Arts and Sciences: science, social science and humanities.
The liaisons help students to explore future career paths within their majors.
“The College of Arts and Sciences has one of the biggest student populations, but it was one of the most underutilized,” Best said.
According to Sowins, the new positions are a response to student input regarding counseling within the College of Arts and Sciences.
To ensure that arts and sciences students receive resources similar to other majors, the College of Arts and Sciences faculty and the Career Center came together to coordinate this year’s new positions.
“It’s a very innovative program,” said Clarice Wilsey, assistant director of the Career Center. In addition to answering students’ major or career questions, she said, the liaisons also provide a place where students can go for resumé questions, to get help with career development or to get referral information.
“One of my main focuses is to raise the awareness of how many opportunities and different things you can do with a social science degree,” Sowins said. “I want to help students find a career that matches their interests, values and skills.”
In addition to meeting with students at the Career Center during drop-in hours Monday through Friday, the liaisons also have offices in various buildings across campus in order to be more accessible to students.
Students can make individual appointments with a specific liaisons or stop by the center from 11 a.m. to noon, and 1:30 to 4 p.m.
“When I was a student, it would have been nice to have this outreach,” Best said. “We want to help students realize we are concerned about the issues that they are concerned with.”
Since the program is so new, one of the tasks the liaisons are currently undergoing is letting people know that the resource exists.
“So far, we are trying to get the word out to faculty and within different departments,” Sowins said. “We have also been in contact with peer advisor groups.”
The liaisons will have an information table in the EMU from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to answer any questions about the program.