Nearly 100 graduating seniors have grants from ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ's career office that are designed to serve as springboards into a tough job market.
When it became clear that this year's senior class would face challenges finding jobs after graduation, ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ's Career Exploration and Development (CXD) quickly put together the funding, with help from donors, to launch a new grant program.
The Employment Accelerator Awards, ranging between $250 and $2,000, support short-term projects or internships this summer that offer members of the Class of 2020 tangible skills and professional experiences.
In the end, every student who applied for an award in May received one. Together, the ninety-six proposals that were submitted demonstrate the breadth of interests and expertise cultivated by a liberal arts education, as well as a resourceful, can-do attitude, and in many cases, a spirit of public service.
One student, for instance, is partnering with the public library in Portland, Maine, to make a science video library for teachers. Another is helping develop orthopaedic devices at Clemson University. Others are writing articles, building art portfolios, publishing podcasts, earning health care credentials, contributing to online marketing campaigns, or working for research labs, town offices, land trusts, virtual camps, and more.
The diversity of ideas proposed by applicants did not take Kristin Brennan by surprise. What did impress the executive director of CXD was the quickness with which students responded. "I was surprised at the speed at which people put together high-quality proposals, but I wasn’t surprised at the quality of proposals," she said.
Of the ninety-six students who received grants, thirty-seven enrolled in Harvard Business School’s online business certificate for liberal arts students, which the university offered to ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ students at a discount. The remainder put together plans for independent projects, other skill-based credentials, and internships.
Eleven of the projects originated as short-term jobs that ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ alumni posted for the new graduates. One was Kyle Hegarty ’99, who sought ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ students to help him publicize his new book, The Accidental Nomad: A Survival Guide for Working Across a Shrinking Planet.
Itza Bonilla Hernandez ’20 received an accelerator award to work on Hegarty's book campaign. "It all happened super quickly," she said, referring to connecting with Hegarty and applying for a grant. "And I’ve already had job interviews and talked about what I am doing. It's awesome that I have this experience now."
Before the pandemic wreaked havoc everywhere, Martens had lined up a job to teach English in Morocco starting in the fall. When that position was canceled, she decided to use her free time to finish a research project she began last summer.
With a funded internship grant in the summer of 2019, Martens traveled to Mexico, Portland, Maine, New York City, Vancouver, Haiti, and Denver to interview and observe music instructors teaching classical music to students in underserved populations. She compiled many pages of notes and transcripts, but ran out of time to complete a written report on her findings.
Now she is finishing that article, with the goal of publishing it. In it, she examines the music instructors' motives for teaching classical music associated with the Western world and what they hope the outcome will be.
Martens said that having a published article could help her find a job in the education or nonprofit field, as well as give her a product to share with the organizations she researched. "I'm happy, employment-wise and personally, because I've had this stuff sitting in my head for a while, and now I get to think through it again," she said.
The small Vermont preschool Warren attended as a toddler, Quarry Hill School, is planning to reopen this fall with new protocols for social distancing and other safety measures. The school has five teachers and about thirty-five students, not all of whom attend full-time.
To help the administrators and teachers hammer out the details of their plan and ensure it will be financially viable, Warren is using his economics background and data analysis experience to come up with recommendations for group sizes and weekly schedules.
"It is a way to be a help in the COVID effort," he said. "And, from a personal standpoint, as I move toward furthering my career in economics, having more experience with data collection and analysis—and applying that information to real-world problems—will be valuable for me."
