The Career Education Office, more commonly known as the CEO here at Goucher, has started a program titled “The Goucher Advantage,” which began with this year’s first-years. The Goucher Advantage “makes career education a central element of each student’s experience, through the curriculum, mentoring, and professional experience.” This begins when first-years come to Goucher, and continues throughout their four years here.
After talking to Julie Elliott, Associate Director of Internships in the Career Education Office, it was made clear that the first step for the class of 2022 was “self-knowledge and personal branding.” This is shown when a member of the CEO joins a Writing 181 and First Year Seminar class and presents to the class how to create a resume that is at college level, as well as how important it is to set it up in a way to target their intended audience. The Career Education Office realized that their involvement in First Year Seminar and Writing 181 was a better first step for first-years to realize the kind of helpful opportunities they could receive from the CEO, making it less intimidating for them to set up their own individual meetings in following years at the CEO.
Now, many of our upper-class and transfer student readers may be wondering, “How does the Goucher Advantage impact my career at Goucher?”. Not to fear, the Career Education Office still provides support to upperclass-students via their programming and outreach activities. Over J-Term, they offered a “non-credit, self-paced” online internship seminar on Canvas, having 100% of survey respondents say that they would definitely recommend the seminar to their peers. Students also have the opportunity to take a part in a “Take a Gopher to Work” day, which is a program where students can shadow alumnae/i, or even parents, in a specific field of work that interests them. This gives them the chance to “learn more about careers and industries,” Elliott said. This program during J-Term gives students the chance to do some career searching while still taking time to relax over break.
When thinking about all of the “career stuff” that students will need to face once their senior year approaches, they can get overwhelmed, stated Elliott. Elliott says that the Career Education Office’s hope for the Goucher Advantage Program is to “provide structure for career exploration and education that will enable all students to engage in this work early and often, to normalize and strategize, with a community of support, and gives students the tools and information needed to reach their goals.” This will help students have a successful career after Goucher, leading them to do great things.
Please stop by the Career Education Office if you have any further questions either regarding the Goucher Advantage program, Take a Gopher to Work Day, or anything else that a career counselor could help you with. Do not leave anything until two weeks before graduation! Set up those mock interviews, perfect your cover letter and/or resume, and find opportunities for this coming summer.
