September 13, 2012
On Saturday, September 8, the Career Center hosted the second annual Sophomore JumpStart! program at the Radisson Hotel in Utica. The program, attended by 50 sophomores, was designed to help second-year students familiarize themselves with the tools and resources offered by the Career Center and to inspire the students to begin thinking about their career paths. Addressing the short-comings of last year’s program, the Career Career Center launched an entirely redesigned JumpStart!, aiming to improve its pace and focus on interactive participant engagement.
Revisions to last year’s program included the removal of both planned breaks and peer résumé workshops. The Career Center chose to replace the large résumé workshop with a more personal approach to career mentoring.
Participants were divided into groups of four to five students and assigned a Peer Advisor who helped guide students through the day’s programing. These peer advisor are student staff members at the Career Center, and anyone may approach them for cover letter or résumé help throughout the year.
These changes were implemented to help keep the programing dynamic and engaging, giving students the resources and confidence needed to carry the momentum for career exploration beyond the one-day session.
Other sections of the program included a keynote address from recent Hamilton alum Julie Wieber ’11 on the intersection of career and passion, a skills and interest assessment workshop using the online FOCUS tool, a talk from professors Martin and Franklin of the Government and Philosophy Departments and a lecture aimed at explaining the process of obtaining career-related experience, such as internships, fellowships and research positions.
JumpStart! programming emphasized the idea of exploring career paths that best align with a person’s personality and passions. Wieber’s keynote address detailed how her passion for Fair Trade led her around the world as a recipient of a Watson Fellowship.
Professors Franklin and Martin also reiterated this message in their talk, telling students not to think that their major will decide their future and to be more open to what could happen. Caroline D’Ambro ’15 expressed her relief about this saying “It was comforting that we don’t have to decide our major right now.”
The theme of passion carried through individual programming, such as the interest assessment quizzes from FOCUS, an online tool run through the career center that suggests possible career fields base on interest. Ashlie Flood ’15 said the program was good for “exposing people to career options they never would’ve thought of.”
Building on the skills and ideas introduced throughout the day, the program concluded with a symposium on Career Related Experience. Each peer advisor offered a tip on the process of obtaining a CRE. The most important message was to continue to explore many different careers.
Several advisors shared experiences of shadowing or interning at certain companies and realizing that field wasn’t for them. The Career Center then announced the launch of the 3rd annual Hamilton Explore, the career-shadowing program run through Hamilton that caters specifically to sophomores.
Mary Evans ’82, director of the Career Center, explained that JumpStart! is intended “to be step one in a year long process.” Evans believes that engaging students in the career building process as second-year students allows them greater time for career exploration.
As a first step, the program was focused more on explaining possibilities and processes than forcing any one student to decide on their career path. Fulfilling the Career Center’s goal to meet students wherever they are in their career building process, the day was focused more on engaging in that starting phase of exploration
Emphasizing sophomore year as the beginning of the career development process, JumpStart! taught students how to use Career Center resources to the best of their advantage
The program’s redesign effort helped communicate a succinct message: “if you start engaging, shadowing, and networking…then senior year you’re going to go into the world doing what you want to do, not just getting a job.”