Stories of Connection: Career services continue to assist students with jobs, grad school
April 27, 2020
Roanoke College strives to prepare students for the modern job market, and that hasn’t changed even as students are spread all around the country.
Those in the Office of Career Services have been booked solid. Amy Foster, assistant director of Career Services, has been conducting senior exit interviews via Zoom with students almost every 30 minutes. She’s been discussing with students their plans after graduation, how the COVID-19 situation may have impacted those plans, and offer our help and suggestions.
Career Services Director Toni McLawhorn has conducted individual resume reviews and interview preparations with students via Zoom. She’s been working on summer and fall Maroon Mentor programs and on internship opportunities. Career Services has also offered online employer information sessions and workshops, and has alerted students to online job and graduate school fairs.
“Students have been extremely responsive, and it appears like they are eager for the interactions,” McLawhorn said. “In one respect, the Zoom meetings have actually allowed us to have deeper conversations with students, mainly because they are not rushing here and there.”
Foster and McLawhorn said students have still been getting jobs, from the career fields of investment to education. Though their start dates are a bit in flux due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, students still are landing good jobs and getting into excellent graduate programs, they said.
In one respect, the Zoom meetings have actually allowed us to have deeper conversations with students, mainly because they are not rushing here and there.
Toni McLawhorn, director of Career Services
One standout example
Erin Walker Reid ‘12, who is the coordinator for gifts management in the College’s Office of Resource Development, was worried about her student assistant.
After students were asked to leave campus on March 11, Reid’s student assistant mentioned to her that she was concerned about losing her paycheck. The student lives in an off-campus apartment, so rent and bills would still continue.
Reid had a project around the house that she needed help with, and offered to pay the student to come help with it. The student agreed, and the project has allowed Reid and the student to stay in touch with each other while also helping the student pay her bills.
“We don’t have access to a large number of students,” Reid said, “but we truly care about the ones that are in our lives.”