Career Center partners with Senior Class Council to hold Senior Launch

The Senior Class Council (SCC), in collaboration with the Tufts Career Center, will be holding "Senior Launch: Professional Skills for Career Success"on Feb. 27 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm in order to assist graduating seniors in their career advancement and job search.

According to Senior Class Council Co-president Grace Michaels, this event is relevant and timely for students preparing to graduate.

“We are really excited that this event applies to all seniors," she said. "It is relevant to seniors that have jobs and don’t have jobs, who are interested in corporate jobs or more adventure … traveling jobs, and those going straight to grad school. It is designed to give us tools for the real world that will help us adjust to our new lives without the comfort of the Tufts community.”

According to SCC Finance Chair and senior Mark Bernardo, the event teaches certain skills that can't necessarily be learned in the classroom.

“Seniors can expect a lot of valuable real-life advice ... like how to manage your finances, how to interview and how to brand yourself," he said.

The event will last all day and will feature a slew of activities and presentations. For a ticket price of $10, students will hear a keynote address by author and founder of Why Millennials Matter Joan Snyder Kuhl, attend breakout sessions focusing on various career-building and job-seeking topics, be served breakfast and lunch and receive a gift, according to Senior Class Council Co-president Julia Stein.

Bernardo added that this year's event also features an alumni panel.

"Recent graduates from the liberal arts and engineering departments are giving out advice on how they dealt with the pressures of their first jobs out of college, and how they succeeded,” he said.

Furthermore, Stuart Paap, a financial advisor who will be delivering one of the presentations, will give a year of free consultation to attendees as an incentive to participate in the day, Stein said.

The day will be very helpful in getting seniors ready for next year, SCC Marketing Chair Adiel Pollydore said.

“Personally, I think it'll be a great way to get some of my burning questions answered and feel more confident in my preparation for next year," she said. "Particularly in terms of moving to a new city and managing my finances."

Planning for the event has been a collaborative effort between Tufts Career Center and the Senior Class Council. In past years, the Career Center has single-handedly offered Senior Launch, but this year the two groups decided to work together.

“Career Services is responsible for spearheading the event … [Assistant Director of Career Development] Shannon Seaver, to be exact,” Stein said. “I was meeting with her last semester about career related things, and she told me about the Launch and asked my opinion on something, and I said that this would be a great collaboration. So together we planned out the speakers, the schedule, operations, etc.”

The SCC is hopeful that seniors will take this opportunity to gain post-graduation advice, according to Michaels.

“We are very thankful to Career Services, all of the speakers and alumni who will be bestowing all of their valuable advice and tips on us," Michaels said. "We know that everyone will walk away feeling just a little bit more comfortable getting into those adult shoes as we walk into our next steps.”