Brady Vinlove / The Mossy Log
As part of Lewis & Clark’s strategic imperatives addressing the ongoing budget deficit, the college introduced several tools and initiatives this year meant to help students secure a career in the future. Changes at the Career Center and new online resources aim to make this support system more approachable and personalized. There are also more opportunities for hands-on job experience to equip students with skills they can apply in future careers. This includes support finding internships through the Career Accelerator and a cybersecurity clinic funded by Google.
The Career Center introduced the Student Career Portal at the beginning of this school year. In their email to students, they highlighted how the new resource allows students to “explore career opportunities, connect with employers, and easily access career resources.” The Mossy Log interviewed Joe Hewa, the executive director of the Career Accelerator, to better understand the portal and other new career initiatives.
Hewa explained that the portal gives students constant access to career information. He and the developers want to give students an easy place to start exploring future opportunities without having to go to the Career Center. The portal includes resources for resume building, researching interests, information for specific identity groups and more. The resource is meant to give students a “well-rounded picture” of career opportunities and was created based on a need for more personalized, in-depth support, according to Hewa.
“Students probably need more guidance than just what we can provide in conversation. So this gives a series of resources they can access either before or after coming in to see us or someone else across the campus system,” Hewa said.
Hewa explained that the portal includes nine different pathways or industries that students may be interested in, with information about each field as well as available internships and job opportunities. Students can learn more about industry data, projected trends and see what alumni in that field have pursued.
The portal also provides an easy way for students to schedule an appointment with a career consultant. Hewa said that the career consultant is a new position meant to provide students with more individualized support in exploring their career options. There are currently three career consultants, one specializing in arts and humanities, one in the social sciences, and one in the natural sciences and math. Students can find out who their assigned career consultant is on The Dock, the campus portal.
These changes and additions to the Career Center include a more open layout of the space, with the aim of welcoming and encouraging students to use the space to plan their careers. Hewa hopes that students feel overall more comfortable and confident using these resources in planning their future. He connected this to the strategic imperative to “Fuel Lifelong Success,” as it ensures students are interacting with campus resources to aid their career development.
Hewa mentioned an online resource still in development that is scheduled to be released soon. He described it as a “logbook” for students to reflect back on what they have learned and they understand what skills they have gained during their time here and be able to apply that to future jobs. This would include meetings with career consultants, career experiences, skills learned from classes and more. The tool will also be able to suggest to students connections between their skills and future opportunities.
The tool was also developed in part by students. Over the summer, the college hosted a competition for students to develop a tool and picked two that were the best. Now, the student winners are working together with an outside tech company and the LC information technology team to refine the tool to be released to the student body. Hewa emphasized the student-led creation of the tool.
“Part of the reason we put it in students’ hands rather than designing something ourselves is we wanted to see what you would say are the key features and design elements that you would want in an app like this,” he said.
While the Career Accelerator launched last year, it is continuing to add to the opportunities it provides to students. The Career Accelerator works directly with employers to connect students to internships in various fields. This means students will only be in competition with other LC students for some of these opportunities, and they can earn college credit and get paid for their work.
Hewa also explained how these internships help advance the strategic imperatives. In addition to helping students’ future success by providing practical skills, they also align with the imperative to “Enhance Regional Impact.” With help from the Career Accelerator, students will be able to work with the Portland community and build regional connections.
Over the summer and into this fall, the Career Accelerator has offered internships with Albina Music Trust, Wonderfill, Pacific Seafood and more. The Career Accelerator is also able to pay a stipend to students in unpaid roles to help support their financial needs. Hewa noted that they cannot pay for each internship, but hope to find more funding in order to support more students in the future.
Another major development in terms of hands-on experience is the cybersecurity clinic that received $1 million in funding this summer from Google. The funding allows LC to become part of the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics, which pairs students learning about cybersecurity with local businesses and organizations to give them free digital security help. Ken Westin ’99 taught a pilot version of the course last academic year and is currently teaching CS 311 Cybersecurity Clinics. He explained that the course starts with a few weeks of fast-paced instruction on cybersecurity basics and then progresses toward hands-on learning with a real client. Westin emphasized how useful it is for students to demonstrate having prior experience to future employers.
“I think more practical experience than you might get in typical academia where you learn a lot of theory, how encryption works and things like that,” Westin said, in reference to what students can get out of the class. “But how do you actually apply some of these security controls out in the real world?”
He clarified that cybersecurity is not just about technical skills, but also communication and business knowledge. Students do not have to be part of the new cybersecurity minor or a technical major to be in the clinic, and Westin enjoys the variety of students from different disciplines.
“I actually like to have more liberal arts students. We have students that are in psychology and things like that,” Westin said. “You have people that are maybe more technical, then you have people that are better communicators.”
This focus on an interdisciplinary education is still at the heart of career development at LC. As the college continues to focus on career development, students will see more opportunities and support like the initiatives started this year.
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