Posted November 2, 2020 by Wheaton College
Tags:
Adventurous Thinking
Center for Vocation and Career
James Graham '22 - Canvassing My Professional Horizons
As I navigate the summer midway through my college experience, with everyone’s plans littered with new obstacles and amplified by a global pandemic, I cannot help but wonder if I’d be where I am today without Wheaton College’s Center for Vocation and Career (CVC). This summer I missed out on a potentially great internship experience. Instead, I’m working freight at Home Depot. My first response could be “Thanks Covid!” But however miffed I feel about the lost opportunity, I will enter my next summer with outstanding confidence and newfound skills, and the CVC has played an important role in that. Through its programs, I learned the proper way to write and format a resume, cultivated networking skills through various alumni and internship recruiting events, and scheduled numerous one-on-one meetings with career coaches who offered wise counsel whenever I asked. Not only that, but the two most important events for my professional growth were both hosted by the CVC during my sophomore year: The Canvas Series and Externship Day. Canvas is a series of four events set up by the CVC offering coaching on everything from professional LinkedIn site work, to branding, to roundtable talks with upperclassmen who have just come back from their junior year internships, capped off by a class dinner with Alumni representing every undergraduate major offered at Wheaton. Externship Day is like a field trip for internships. Students travel to Chicago to shadow an alumni for a day in a field of the student’s choosing. The alumni host a day of learning the ins and outs of their company and industry, meet with various coworkers, and learn the pathway alums travelled to get their position. I came away from a year chock full of value from the Center for Vocation and Career, and, with the better half of my Wheaton experience still in front of me, know that the value add of the CVC will only grow with time.
Want to learn more about Wheaton's CVC? Here's more info for you!
/prod02/channel_1/media/IMG_0708-920X613.jpg)
/prod02/channel_1/media/IMG_0760-920X613.jpg)
/prod02/channel_1/media/Laurel-Bacote-920X613.jpg)