The Career Center held a grand opening to celebrate its new location on the second floor of the Davis Center Sept. 7.
The space was formerly located in Living/Learning on Athletic campus.
Pamela Gardner, director of the Career Center, said one of the reasons for the move was to bring more students into the center.
“One of the things that happened when we got into the Hub was our exposure exploded,” Gardner said. “If we want every student to graduate and get a job, we have to get involved once they’re in the door.”
The Hub, an office of the Career Center that helps students find job experience at UVM moved into the Davis Center in 2013.
Since then, student attendance at Career Center workshops and events increased by 64 percent, and student attendance at career fairs has increased 87 percent, according to a study by the Career Center.
Having now settled into their new space, the Career Center is starting some new initiatives to take advantage of its new location.
“We’re expanding a number of the programs we had before,” Gardner said.
One of the new goals is to get student involved in activities during their first year, she said.
“The really sad thing I see is a senior come in to do a resume and they’ve done nothing,” Gardner said.
This year the Career Center is focusing on engaging more students sooner and collaborate with departments, she said.
“We’ve gone out to departments, some deans’ meetings, all of the department heads, fraternities, sororities and residence halls,” Gardner said.
Some faculty members have agreed to incorporate the Career Center into their curriculum, she said.
“We have faculty members assigning pieces ,” Gardner said.
Additionally, the Hub has been working with student peer mentors to help other students improve their networking skills.
Junior Erika Paulan works as a peer mentor in the Hub and answers questions students may have about networking.
“It’s a lot less intimidating from their perspective because I’m a student and not a big scary adult from the real world,” Paulan said.
“Each week I help 30 to 50 students, but it can be anything from a single question to sitting down with someone and looking at a resume,” she said.
Senior Sarah Shaffer is also a peer mentor and has been working at the Hub for three years.
Shaffer said the experience can be rewarding when students come into the Hub multiple times.
“I’ve helped students who later come back and say, ‘I got the internship,’ and that’s really cool to see that my help gave them to tools to achieve something that they may not have been able to do,” she said.
Some students come in having only worked at a grocery store and are recommends clubs or organizations they can get involved in to apply other skills they have, Shaffer said.
