We're thrilled to share that Oberlin's May Day Switchboard Celebration won a Gold CASE Circle of Excellence Award for student-alumni initiatives.
NACE 2016 Preview: “We’re All Technologists: Successfully Realizing the Power of Your Team’s New Technology"
Platforms and software hold a lot of promise for career centers, but implementing them is seldom as easy as we want it to be. Launching a new piece of technology isn't just a technical project, but also a human one. Every new tool requires training, feedback, and consensus building to work smoothly.
Fortunately for us, Shannon Conklin, Associate Director of Assessment and Technology at the Temple University Career Center, and Kevin Grubb, Associate Director of Digital Media and Assessment at the Villanova University Career Center, are presenting on the subject at this year's NACE conference in Chicago.
We asked them to give us a preview of their session, “We’re All Technologists: Successfully Realizing the Power of Your Team’s New Technology." Find details on their session here.
Inputs vs. Outcomes: Are You Using the Right Data to Measure ROI?
Higher ed professionals face increasing pressure to collect data on the performance of our work, and to use that data to calculate their return on investment. Our directive these days seems to be "All data are good data."
That may be true. But not all data are the right data.
We discussed the topic with some of our customer schools last week at a roundtable hosted by Andy Shaindlin, founder of Alumni Futures and Vice President at GG&A. Andy raised the issue as a cautionary note about our growing obsession with performance metrics.
How Binghamton's Fleishman Center Works with Alumni to Bolster Career Services
At Switchboard, we believe that alumni are career services' biggest allies, and we're not alone. Thousands of career services offices collaborate with their colleagues in alumni relations and connect students with alumni to further their careers.
Binghamton University has made that interdisciplinary approach one of its specialties. Binghamton's Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development works with the Office of Alumni Engagement to hold dozens of events with alumni speakers every year. Their Cool Alumni, Hot Connections speaker series provides career advice and connections for hundreds of students.
We asked Dr. Kelli Smith, Director of the Fleishman Center, to tell us about the event series.
Heather Tranen Explains How UPenn Career Services Mastered Student Outreach
Sometimes the most difficult part of helping students with career development is getting them in the door. Career Services offices have to compete for students' time and attention, and many students are intimidated by the false notion that they have to know exactly what they want to do with their lives before they can ask for help.
The University of Pennsylvania's Office of Career Services launched its recent #myPennPath campaign to solve these problems. With a combination of social media and in-person outreach, they were able to deliver help to students who wouldn't have otherwise received it and assuage their fears about career planning.
Heather Tranen is an Associate Director on UPenn Career Services' College of Arts & Sciences team. We asked her to talk to us about the #myPennPath campaign, the importance of alumni outreach, and the future of career services.
Switchboard's Summer Conference Schedule
We'll be attending three conferences this summer:
NACE Conference & Expo | Chicago | June 7–10
ACSN Conference | Fort Worth | July 10–13
CASE Summit for Leaders in Advancement | NYC | July 17–19
If you'll be at one of these conferences and want to set up a time to talk about Switchboard or for a demo, drop me a line at kieran@switchboardhq.com.
We're excited to see you all there!