Throughout the year, DePaul’s Career Center hosts workshops, lectures and tutorials to prepare students for the big, dark and scary world of employment. Often, students hear reports of the booming unemployment rate and, in turn, view adulthood as a kind of looming, unmerciful transition from the comfort of college life. This week, the Career Center presents Liberal Arts Week, an initiative to address the real issues that graduates face when stepping off campus and into the working world.
Liberal Arts Week is the Career Center’s first week-long series of events for students. While there have been day-long workshops and lectures specific to the other colleges on campus, liberal studies students have the luxury of choosing from 16 different events spread throughout this week.
Have you ever stared at the computer screen and wondered whether your resume has been tweaked enough; fretted over what exactly you should wear to that interview while surrounded by a pile of clothes; or scrolled through DePaul’s list of majors and minors, trying to match your passion with what your parents think is practical? The events featured in DePaul Liberal Arts Week exist because Career Center staff and advisors, student workers and graduate advising interns have experienced these dilemmas themselves.
Current students from the College of Science and Health (CSH) and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (LAS) were consulted by the Career Center Student Advisory Board, who provided feedback for the types and schedule of events to best benefit their peers this week.
“The Career Center is focused on helping students succeed in their transition from college to career – and in helping them prepare along the way,” said Amanda Powers Snowden, associate director of communications for the Career Center. “Each year, we survey DePaul’s graduating classes and publish Career Outcomes reports detailing the employment and graduate school outcomes for our graduates. We know from that data that LAS students in particular face challenges when pursuing post-graduate employment, so we wanted to do something to connect with the Liberal Arts and Social Sciences audience and provide resources specific to their needs.”
The 2011 Career Outcomes report cites that 83 percent of LAS bachelor’s degree recipients were employed or in graduate school six months after graduation, the highest undergraduate rate amongst all the colleges. LAS students with master’s degrees had an 86 percent employment rate, and 56 percent had a new or better job. About 90 percent of master’s degree students were working in a job related to their field.
Dean of the College of LAS, Charles Suchar, expects Liberal Arts Week to be a valuable resource for students and an overall success.
“(Liberal Arts Week) is a great value,” said Suchar. “(Especially) for students who are still at that point now, not having decided completely what they want to do after they graduate. Liberal arts students have a very broad-based education – whether they’re regarding critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills or ways of applying knowledge-base areas to various careers.”
For Suchar, Liberal Arts Week will “give students an insight into life after DePaul. The possibilities of bettering themselves by way either of career opportunities or furthering their education by thinking of graduate or professional programs … and how to best go about the process.”
Guest speakers, including DePaul alumni, will host events such as “Beyond 9-5: Do What You Love” and “Superpower Conversations: True Stories from LAS Alumni.” Macy’s is also sponsoring a fashion show and interview preparation event titled “Macy’s Presents: What Not To Wear: Interviewing Basics and Workplace Essentials” to decipher the business dress code.
For more information, visit the Career Center website at http://careercenter.depaul.edu/liberalartsweek.