Over the past semester, Career Services rebranded to the Career Center. According to the Career Center, the change aims to help students with career-related goals and issues holistically.

“The Career Center is now, but always has been, committed to the idea of care and community, and care for the whole person, in terms of creating meaningful experiences and connections for all of Fordham’s students,” said Thomas Nolan, FCRH ’21, GSB MS ’22, who works as Assistant Director of Marketing & Digital Communications at the Career Center at Rose Hill.

Nolan said that the Career Center aims to foster a community. He said that the hope is that the new Career Center isn’t seen as a place to fill one specific need, but rather as a place where students can learn.

“I think as opposed from being a service where you come in and get one service then leave, we want it to be a center where we can help the student,” said Nolan.

The switch has involved creating events that address the needs of students. The Career Center often holds career fairs and events related to professional development, however, Nolan said they are trying to implement more events that cater to getting to know students better.

“We’ve been trying to incorporate some more casual events, like drop-in sessions. We had a Halloween party where we were giving out quick facts about our office and had a little ‘trick-or-treating’ station … we’re trying to make our office a hub for students to come in, chat with us, get to know us, I think through our events we’ve been trying to convey that message,” said Nolan.

According to Nolan, the switch has proved to be successful so far. He said that events seem to be more popular and student engagement is increasing.

“We have seen a lot of students attending our events. We had a launch party earlier this semester and we had over 300 students attend, and we were really excited about that,” said Nolan.

The decision to switch to the Career Center was made in spring 2022, and while Nolan joined the staff after the decision was made, he said that the McShane Campus Center renovations influenced the decision.

“From what I’ve heard, we knew we were getting this new space and wanted to see how we could evolve our office with this new area, and I think from there we decided to take a more care of the whole person, cura-personalis focus. New space, new us and we wanted to hit the ground running with that,” said Nolan.

Nolan said that he wants students to understand that the Career Center is available to students, regardless of where they are in their college education.

He said that the services that the center provides grows with students and matches where they are in their education.

“I think it’s important for students to know we are here for any step in their career process, whether you’re a freshman and you’re still trying to figure out what you want to get involved in,” said Nolan.

“Our job is really to help you figure out what your career goals may be and help explore different avenues and as you go through the process our services evolve and change with that. Then we start doing interview prep, resume work, cover letter and then start to work on negotiations with salary or offers or stuff of that nature.”

Looking forward, the Career Center has multiple events coming up. During the spring semester, they will hold various large and “micro” career fairs where students can meet with employers in their desired fields.

The Career Center gives undergraduate students a chance to plan for their goals and future while utilizing cura personalis. With its new rebrand, it will be able to provide a wider variety of assistance to all students, and it will give them a support system.