Appendix Q: Hiatt Career Center
Nov. 10, 2020
The Hiatt Career Center supports Brandeis undergraduate students and alumni of all affiliations, backgrounds, identities and preferences in considering how intersecting identities might impact work and professional development. Hiatt is committed to building a space for students, alumni, employers, colleagues, parents and families that is welcoming, and free from bias and discrimination.
We appreciate the continued support of Mark Brimhall-Vargas and Raymond Lu Ming Ou in initiating a first conversation with DeBorah Ault and Sonali Anderson to discuss the Black Action Plan.
Data on Student Internship and Career Attainment
It was very helpful to hear more about students’ desire for increased information on student internship experiences. Hiatt Data on Student Internship & Career Attainment summarizes currently available information. Hiatt’s annual Beyond Brandeis survey provides insight into the employment and continuing education status of Brandeis undergraduates within six months of graduation. Brandeis does not have a centralized place to collect data on student internships.
Next Steps: Hiatt is exploring additional ways to fill in the gaps about student internship experiences using existing technology in Handshake. The Undergraduate Research and Creative Collaborations office, with the support of a grant from The Davis Educational Foundation, is starting to undertake research on undergraduate student internships at Brandeis.
Make Career Advisors’ Professional Expertise More Known to Students
Hiatt professional staff members have unique backgrounds and career trajectories of their own, with diverse training, education, and experience in areas ranging from career development, consulting, counseling, education, law, marketing, multicultural affairs, outplacement services and psychology.
Our student-facing staff includes career counselors as well as trained undergraduate Hiatt Advisors representing diverse and intersecting identities. In fall 2020, this included 27% identifying as staff of Color as well as 18% first-generation college students. Over 70% have experience living in a foreign country and 63% are multilingual. 18% of student-facing staff identify with the LGBTQIA+ community. Staff work with all students and alumni in all areas of interest and majors, but staff have areas of specialty and interest.
Next Steps: Hiatt has drafted and shared mock-ups of additional ways to present our staff pages to better draw attention to staff’s areas of specialty and interest as well as included details on how to better direct students who are new to Hiatt.
Partner With More Local Organizations to Provide a Diverse Array of Hands-on Learning Opportunities for Black and Students of Color
The Hiatt Employer Relations team builds on-going relationships with employers to bring them to campus for educational, networking and recruiting events. Hiatt also acts as a consultant for employers to help them develop and create recruiting initiatives. For example, the team just worked with the Broad Institute to create a new post-bac diversity fellowship being promoted for Brandeis students and a new Virtual Career Trek to the Broad targeting first-generation, BIPOC and students with disabilities.
Employers are interested in attracting diverse candidates and actively promote themselves and seek out qualified students. Over half of the Fortune 100 Best Workplaces for Diversity have engaged with Brandeis since 2017. Also available to students via Handshake is a list of 50+ Black-owned or Black-led (Black CEO) companies across diverse industries that have hired students who are on the Handshake network.
Next Steps: In Spring 2021 Hiatt will be conducting additional surveys and focus groups with students to learn more about organizations students are interested in and identify any gaps in opportunities. We would also like to continue conversations with members of the Black Action Plan to discuss ways for Hiatt to better highlight opportunities.
Provide More Networking, Mentoring, Internship, and Professional Development Opportunities Specifically Welcoming to Black Students and Students of Color.
We recognize the importance of a strong network in helping students get connected to professionals for career and networking opportunities. The professional world is an ever-evolving landscape and choosing a “career” is not about finding one job or making one decision. As a result, Hiatt collaborates with students on personalized strategies and connections to resources throughout their time at Brandeis.
Next Steps: The most exciting recent development will be the launch of a brand-new networking platform to help students connect with alumni. Rise Together is a university-wide initiative to activate and engage the entire Brandeis alumni network. Supported by a 3-year grant, we’ll be able to establish an alumni-to-student networking platform where alumni and students connect independently based on shared interests or identities. Planned groups to be launched this spring include Industries: “Healthcare Industry,” “Business, Consulting and Finance Industry,” “Science & Research Industry,” Location: “China” and Affinity group: “Alumni of Color Network.” Hiatt and alumni relations have been working for many years to establish this system and we hope that it will fill many students' desires to engage more actively with alumni.
Hiatt also creates educational and networking opportunities throughout the year. In December 2020, building on a successful event last year, we’ll be creating 3 targeted programs bringing together employers and alumni with students discussing issues of race, gender, and orientation in the workplace. Hiatt also works with student, cultural, academic organizations, and departments to collaborate on events and programs. We find these collaborations are often more successful than Hiatt-initiated events and we work throughout the year to connect and collaborate with these groups. We would also like to continue conversations with members of the Black Action Plan to discuss ways for Hiatt to better highlight opportunities.
Additional Student Resources
Resources for Success
A greater connection to student clubs, the ICC, and other groups around campus with a BIPOC focus would Hiatt help collaborate and share information. Hiatt does continual outreach but with student group leadership changes engagement can vary year to year.
Tailored targeted messages about upcoming events and greater analysis of student engagement by ethnicity requires student ethnicity data from the registrar connected to student Handshake accounts.