"Andy Chan" Archive

Chan to discuss college to career transition on 'Diane Rehm'

April 13, 2016

Andy Chan, vice president of personal and career development, will participate in a live discussion on “The Diane Rehm Show” on navigating the transition from school to the workplace. The show will air Thursday, April 14, from 11 a.m. to noon. Listeners can join the live program on “The Diane Rehm Show” website. The discussion will also be archived and available to listeners after the program.

Local and regional listeners can tune in to the program on 88.5 WFDD, the Public Radio Station for the Piedmont, located on the Wake Forest University campus, at 11 a.m. WFDD is providing studio space and technical support for the interview.

With graduation season just around the corner, students throughout the country are preparing to transition into the workplace. Chan will join a panel of experts who will be looking at the challenges new grads face and how to address them.

Other guests include:

• Jeffrey Selingo, regular contributor on higher education, the Washington Post; author, “There is Life After College: What Parents And Students Should Know About Navigating School To Prepare For The Jobs Of Tomorrow”
• Anthony Carnevale, director and research professor, Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University
• Kristen Hamilton, CEO and co-founder, Koru — a company offering immersive training programs to get college graduates job ready

As a national leader in rethinking the college to career experience, Wake Forest has been at the forefront of transforming the traditional, outdated concept of “career services” into a holistic, four-year approach to personal and career development. Ever since Wake Forest convened Rethinking Success, a 2012 conference that highlighted the value of a liberal arts education for 21st Century careers, the University – as well as its career and mentoring experts – have been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Today, Money, Business Insider, Fast Company, Forbes, CNN and USA Today as well as higher education publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.

“The Diane Rehm Show” is a National Public Radio call-in-show based in the United States. In October 2007, “The Diane Rehm Show” was named to the Audience Research Analysis list of the top ten most powerful national programs in public radio, the only talk show on the list. The show, produced by WAMU, and hosted by Diane Rehm, is estimated to have more than 2 million listeners.

“Navigating the Transition from School to the Workplace” is archive online on “The Diane Rehm Show” website.

OPCD staff share thought leadership with industry peers

June 24, 2015

Several members of the Office of Personal and Career Development presented at industry conferences, recently, on such topics as marketing strategies to engage students and how to build a college campus around mentoring. In addition to sharing successful ideas that Wake Forest has implemented, staff members received recognition for their work and assumed leadership positions within organizations.

Presentations:

The International Mentoring Conference occurred on April 22-24. The theme of the conference centered on practical strategies around mentoring.

• Lauren Beam, assistant director of mentoring and alumni personal and professional development, presented “Building Your Toolkit: Engaging Your (Campus) Community around Mentoring.” The presentation focused on ways in which the Wake Forest mentoring department uses National Mentoring Month to engage the campus community with creative marketing materials.
• Allison McWilliams, director of mentoring and alumni personal and professional development, served as this year’s conference chair.

Read more

Brooks named Executive Director for Personal and Career Development

June 28, 2013

Katharine Brooks has joined Wake Forest as Executive Director for Personal and Career Development.

Brooks, a nationally recognized career specialist with more than 20 years experience in higher education, was most recently the liberal arts career services director at The University of Texas at Austin where she managed a career center serving more than 10,000 liberal arts undergraduate and graduate students.

“As a liberal arts grad myself, with undergraduate degrees in sociology and anthropology, I believe in the value of viewing workplace challenges from the many perspectives that a liberal arts education provides,” Brooks said. “In my new role, I look forward to working in partnership with faculty, staff and students and building on Wake Forest’s nationally recognized leadership in the area of college to career counseling.”

Vice President for Personal and Career Development Andy Chan describes Kate Brooks as having been an innovator and thought leader in the career development field throughout her career. “Kate’s work with liberal arts faculty and contemporary coaching methods will enable us to educate and equip every Wake Forest student for the world of work. Kate will be instrumental in supporting our efforts to radically transform the college-to-career experience and provide comprehensive personal, career and professional development for every student.”

Brooks is the author of “You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career” (Viking Press, 2009). She created the “Career Coaching Intensive” training program for the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), and is a blogger for Psychology Today. Author of numerous articles related to career coaching, counseling and marketing liberal arts, Brooks is also a regular presenter at regional and national conferences.

In June, Brooks received the Kauffman Award, which honors tangible contributions to NACE that significantly improve the association and the field of college recruiting and career services. She was recognized for career coaching programming and writing.

Brooks holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Gettysburg College, and a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling and a doctorate in educational psychology from West Virginia University.

OPCD efforts receive more national attention

June 7, 2013

Andy Chan

How well colleges and universities prepare students for life and work after college is always a timely topic this time of year given the many commencement-related stories in May and June.

Widely recognized as a national leader in helping students make the transition from college to careers, Wake Forest has been a driving force in the national movement to transform personal and career development at colleges and universities.

Recent accomplishments include:

• Inclusion in Jeff Selingo’s new book, College (Un)Bound. Selingo, editor-at-large at the Chronicle of Higher Education, interviewed Vice President for Personal and Career Development Andy Chan and highlighted Wake Forest’s unique approach to developing a “College-to-Career Community.” He also featured the quotes and examples from panelists appearing at Wake Forest’s 2012 Rethinking Success conference.
• A roadmap for success. The Office of Personal and Career Development recently released “A Roadmap for Transforming the College-To-Career Experience,” which outlines a seven-step process to help colleges and universities of all sizes and resources rethink the way they prepare students for the world of work. Edited by Chan and Wake Forest Fellow Tommy Derry, this crowdsourced paper includes input from 20 innovators in higher education and business – including Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives and Professor of Law Jennifer Collins and Professor of Religion and Director of the Humanities Institute Mary Foskett. It also profiles and shares insights from some of the country’s leading personal and career development models in higher education, building upon ideas shared at Rethinking Success.
• Most visionary leader. CSO Research Inc. named Chan “the most visionary and forward-thinking leader in career services and recruiting” last week. No. 6 on the list was Katharine (Kate) Brooks, who will join the OPCD staff from the University of Texas at Austin this summer.
• More media coverage. Inside Higher Ed, the Triad Business Journal, and the Greensboro News & Record were among news outlets that immediately covered the roadmap. Chan also appeared on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC to discuss the job outlook for 2013 grads. This week, he noted faculty involvement and early student engagement as key to Wake Forest’s success in personal and career development in a Wall Street Journal story. Meanwhile, Executive Director for Employer Relations Mercy Eyadiel appeared on several local news outlets during commencement weekend, including News 14 Carolina and WFMY News 2. Instructor of Counseling Heidi Robinson and several 2013 graduates also participated in live commencement day interviews.
• TEDx circuit. Chan recently delivered a TEDx talk titled “‘Career Services’ Must Die” at Lawrence University. Watch it here. Jeff Selingo also spoke at the same TEDx.

VP for Campus Life to be introduced

February 15, 2013

The following is a message from President Nathan Hatch and Provost Rogan Kersh:

We are pleased to announce that the search for a Vice President for Campus Life has been successfully concluded and we will be able to introduce to you this individual on Monday, Feb. 18, at 9 a.m. at a welcome event to take place in the Green Room, Reynolda Hall. We hope you will be able to stop by and be part of this announcement and welcome.

As co-chairs of the Vice President for Campus Life Search Advisory Committee, we know we speak for all of the members of the committee in saying how excited we are about this important appointment. The advice and input from the committee members were critical throughout the process. Members of the search advisory committee were:  Wake Forest Student Affairs Fellow Kristen Bryant, Vice President for Career Development Andy Chan, Associate Provost Jennifer Collins, Dean Jacque Fetrow, Professor and Faculty Senate Representative Sam Gladding, Special Projects Administrator Meghan Haenn, Professor Katy Harriger, Professor Jed Macosko, Director of Multi-Cultural Affairs Alta Mauro, Student Trustee Jim O’Connell, and Professor David Yamane.

We hope you can join us on Monday morning to meet and welcome our new Vice President for Campus Life.