Dear Members of the Campus Community:

As we prepare to open the academic year, I’m pleased to share exciting news about a major initiative to transform the way Brown provides career exploration and support for students and recent graduates.

After two years of research and development led by members of the President’s Working Group on Career Services, we are launching today the Center for Career Exploration. Aligned with our educational mission to prepare our students for lives of meaning and purpose, the center is anchored in Brown’s signature student-centered learning and builds on our vast network of campus advisers, alumni, parents and family members who support students in exploring potential careers.

Through personalized advising, one-on-one mentoring and an expansive array of experiential learning opportunities, the new center will significantly expand career support for students . With more funding for internship and research experiences, additional staffing, new partnerships and an approach centered on advising tailored to a wider range of defined professional pathways, the center will offer robust programs that equip graduates for the evolving opportunities and challenges of the 21^st-century workforce.

Career services at Brown previously were provided through CareerLAB (the Center for Careers and Life after Brown). The new center marks a shift from approaching career services as generalists, to instead launching knowledge bases around specific industry sectors and professional areas so students can engage in a cycle of exploration. When its expansion is complete, the new center will offer tailored advising, opportunities and resources for career pathways in five areas: technology and tech ventures, finance and consulting, arts and media, science and engineering, and careers in the common good — including nonprofit, government, education, policy and climate change sectors. This is in addition to existing pre-professional advising for careers in health and medicine and law. The new model emerges from aligning our academic strengths and focus on intellectual exploration, community engagement and hands-on learning.

To support students in exploring the new industry pathways, the center will include four teams of staff: a professional pathways team, a career counseling team, a student exploration team, and a mentor and partner engagement team. As part of an in-progress expansion that will double the size of the Center for Career Exploration team, the center will add more than a dozen new staff members — including five new assistant deans to oversee each of the career pathways.

In addition to re-imagined career advising, the new center will spur significant growth in support from our extended Brown community of alumni and families, who play a vital role in contributing both job opportunities and their experiences as mentors. A new team of four in Alumni Relations will bridge alumni and family engagement, working with the center to recruit, train and manage a network of more than 500 alumni and parents to serve as industry experts and mentors. Alumni and family members will help to promote student career preparation through individual and small-group mentoring, interview preparation workshops and mock interviews, and the direct creation of new internship and job opportunities.

The center will enable a number of new initiatives in the years ahead:

• The expanded staff and pathways-driven approach will enable career advisors to provide specialized expertise on career development and recruiting, increase career counseling appointment availability for students and recent alumni, and shorten wait times for students at busy recruiting moments;
• With increased partnerships with local community organizations and others nationwide, the center will create more off-campus job and internship opportunities across industries;
• A partnership between the new center and  the Student Employment team in University Human Resources will create more campus-based work opportunities;
• New shared learning communities will position students to work with peers and industry experts to explore different pathways with planning and intention throughout their educational journey;
• New types of mentoring and support will help prepare students for increasingly structured recruiting processes in today’s shifting employment landscape;
• An even more robust platform will build on the success of BrownConnect to offer curated mentoring experiences between students and alumni and families that can help lead to more career opportunities;

The center’s expansion is being funded with the support of donors through the BrownTogether campaign, and we are deeply grateful for their generosity. The center expects to expand its advising support by nearly 600 students in the 2023-24 academic year alone, providing direct support to more than 4,500 students. The center will provide direct counseling and programming to undergraduates, Ph.D. students and recent Brown graduates, while master’s degree students will continue to be primarily supported through tailored career services in their programs and through the School of Professional Studies and the School of Public Health.

The members of the President’s Working Group on Career Services, staff in CareerLAB and Alumni Relations, and the many students, faculty, staff and alumni who participated in research and stakeholder interviews all played a role in the new center’s launch. I’m especially grateful to Matt Donato, who will lead the new center as its executive director; Dean of the College Rashid Zia; and Zack Langway, vice president for Alumni Relations.

Brown students are ambitious and driven, and this center will provide them with exciting opportunities to grow personally and professionally while they develop their skills and explore career possibilities. Later this morning, we’ll publish a story on the News from Brown website with additional details, and I invite you to read that piece for additional information and to visit the new Center for Career Exploration website.

Sincerely,

Christina H. Paxson
President