The Career Development Center opened a new space in the beginning of August on the first floor of Murray-Herrick Campus Center for students with career exploration questions, and also expanding to include alumni and employer engagement.

The new space, dubbed the Center for Alumni Engagement, Career Development and Corporate and Employer Partnerships, or ACC for short, was prompted by a want for student collaboration and for students to have proper resources and feel supported during their job search.

“What this space allows us to do is to bring alumni and corporate partners into the conversation and so alumni help through mentoring students through networking connections through job shadowing,” Morgan Knutzen, the Program Manager of the ACC, said.

Having alumni helping Tommies allows for students to learn from people who were once in their shoes.

“What Tommie alumni can do is they’ve been where you’ve been before, it might have been a different context, maybe a different decade, but they have already forged ahead on these various career paths in different communities,” Knutzen said.

Associate Vice President of Alumni Engagement, Career Development and Corporate Partnerships Karyn McCoy believes this space allows for student conversation and teamwork.

“The new space can be a collaboration space, it can be a workshop space, it can be a space for students to gather or for us to bring small groups of students together to talk about the job search, or to share questions that students may have,” McCoy said.

The center offers space to have an interview, a place to meet with alumni or employers, and people to help with creating résumés and answering career questions.

“I think there are a lot of different ways that students can use this space and engage with others in the space, and even just come in and find a quiet place to work,” McCoy said.

Knutzen wants this space to be used to help students in their career path search or success in finding an internship or job.

“What this space allows us to do is to bring alumni and corporate partners into the conversation and so alumni help through mentoring students through networking connections through job shadowing,” Knutzen said.

One of the new aspects of this space includes the student position of career peers.

“We know that having career conversations is hard, and so having a career peer who is going through similar things and similar choices who is trained on the best practices for how to do that, you don’t have to have everything together,” Knutzen said.

Career peers are trained to be the front hand side of things like helping students start their résumés and cover letters, search for internships, start a profile on LinkedIn, and answer questions before students go to the career educators.

“Those are students who have had 30 hours of training to have these basic conversations, getting your first résumé ready to go, what assessment can you take to learn about yourself,” Knutzen said.

Senior Newal Mohammed currently works as a career peer in the Career Development Center.

“I think having career peers can help students feel less intimidated, having someone that they know they can relate to help them with their résumés or anything else they need help with,” Mohammed said.

Senior Patrick Connors feels the revamped work space is an open and resourceful place for students to work and hang out, compared to the “doctor’s office feel” from the old office.

There are a variety of resources available to students, and Mohammed and Connors encourage students to take advantage of them at the center.

“Utilizing the Career Development Center services can be intimidating,” Connors said. “But, so many people are in the same boat as them, it is really just about getting in here and putting forth an effort towards that kind of advancement.”

Knutzen wants students to start making connections now.

“The earlier you start networking and building relationships with alumni, the more help you’re going to have when you’re ready to find an internship or a job,” Knutzen said.

Natalie Hoepner can be reached at hoep8497@stthomas.edu.