Introducing Faculty to Career Resources (feat. Laura Kestner-Ricketts)

Laura Kestner-Ricketts, Executive Director of Career and Professional Development at Augustana College, shares how she introduces faculty to career resources in a super scalable, efficient way.

In this episode, Laura offers a step-by-step overview of a new 45-minute program she launched at Augustana that trains faculty on how to navigate the career center website and use all of the resources. 

After only six months of running this program, Laura says it’s a hit with faculty (and students, as it can easily be adapted for them) due to its interactive, engaging format. Listen to the episode for more details, but here’s a general outline of the program:

1. Laura introduces faculty to the website and briefly highlights each heading and drop-down menu.
2. Then she shows them how to access each of the website’s six signature resources, including identity/affinity communities, labor market insights, Candid Career videos, mentors, and more. 
3. Next, Laura breaks attendees into groups of six.
4. Each member of the group has four minutes to research one of the six signature resources. They’re encouraged to take notes.
5. Next, Laura invites attendees to get into groups with people who researched the same signature resource. 
6. They have four minutes to share what they learned, hear what others have learned, and solidify their knowledge of that resource. 
7. Attendees then get back into their original groups.
8. Each person has two minutes to share what they learned about their resource:
   1. Who could benefit from using it
   2. What the resource is and what it can do
   3. When it might be helpful to suggest or share with a student (advising, in class, individually, group, etc.)
   4. Where to access it
   5. How to navigate it
   6. Why someone might find it helpful
9. After 12 minutes (two minutes for each person), Laura brings everyone together to debrief. 

Resources from the episode:

• Augustana’s career center website (powered by uConnect)
• Outline for the faculty presentations
• Laura’s LinkedIn page
• Laura’s email: [email protected] 

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