Meruelo Family Center for Career Development at the University of Notre Dame

Black History Month has become even more meaningful lately... As a student in 2003, campus leadership recognized me for becoming the First Black Student Government President at Union College in Kentucky at that time. Now, I am humbled and honored to accept the call again, and serve as the First Black President at Union College more than 20 years later. Appointed earlier this month by our board of trustees, I look forward to serving as interim for my alma mater and continue breaking barriers for generations to come. Thank you to the entire Union Family for being incredibly supportive and open-minded. I look forward to working with our students, staff, and faculty while partnering closely with our trustees, alumni, and local community to lead Union into the future. I am forever grateful for my colleagues at the University of Notre Dame for instilling such rich values and tradition in higher Ed. The remarkable relationships & partnerships cultivated at one of the most beautiful and sacred places on the planet will never be forgotten, and always valued. Thank you for all that you do to support black history in your own way! https://lnkd.in/gm8Cw86e

We often reflect as a team in the Meruelo Family Center for Career Development at the University of Notre Dame about how we can advance our strategic priorities. With the start of a new year, we commit to new year’s resolutions by taking action. These resolutions are informed by data. This week, we launch our annual Career Development Check-In, a detailed questionnaire that about 75% of our 9,000 undergraduates complete. This Check-In helps us learn about students’ needs and interests. The Check-In also helps us identify gaps and find new ways to better serve students from all majors and backgrounds. Our goal is to ensure every Notre Dame student is prepared to compete for top positions. One of the ways we do this is to give students advice and tips for how to build a professional brand and learn how to network. Through last year’s check-in, we learned that about 79% of sophomores and juniors had LinkedIn profiles. As we looked through their profiles, we noticed that an area where we can make a difference is to help get our students better-quality headshots. We’ve had some success providing headshots in different ways over the past several years, from student photographers to hired professionals at events. Over time, we noticed two themes of feedback: the length of turnaround time took too long and the quality varied. After researching options over the last year, we were inspired by career center colleagues at other universities and the successes they have found with the Iris Booth technology, a self-serve digital headshot system. In an effort to advance our strategic priorities, we are excited to offer free digital headshots for the entire University of Notre Dame community (that includes you!). If you have not seen the booth in action, this technology takes professional-quality headshots and delivers 3 digital images directly to your email in less than 5 minutes. The editing features that Iris offers are quite impressive - not only cropping and lighting, but also teeth whitening and blemish correction. To help launch this new resource, we couldn't think of a better person than Leprechaun Kylee to show you where to find it on the 5th floor of Duncan Student Center. https://lnkd.in/gvGsAUrD If you’re a Domer returning to your alma mater, a parent of an ND student visiting campus, or a recruiter interviewing our talented students, we invite you to stop by for a complimentary professional headshot. Learn more at: https://lnkd.in/gJYnDScG We wish you all the best for a year of innovation and success. Go Irish! --- Many thanks to Leprechaun Kylee (also known as Kylee Kazenski), Tre' Marquise from DreamStory Films, and Shawn Freehling (our talented comms manager in the CCD) for a great video. Special thanks to Victor Fisher, Daniel Gervais, and the rest of the Iris Booth team for creating such a great resource. And a final thanks to Sam Sanchez and the ND Band for the use of Rakes of Mallow. Teamwork!