February 24, 2021
More than 400 students connect with alumni through award-winning ‘Find a Friar’ virtual career series
UPDATE: The National Association of Colleges and Employers has awarded the Center for Career Education & Professional Development its NACE Career Services Excellence Award for the Find a Friar Series. Across the course of eight days and twenty-one events, the Find a Friar Series connected students with 100+ alumni to learn about their industries and career paths – all from the comfort of their own room during winter break.
By Charles C. Joyce
A recent week-plus deluge of virtual career programming involving Providence College alumni, students, staff, and faculty defied the notion of Zoom fatigue during the pandemic.
The Find a Friar Series featured 21 virtual programs over eight days. It attracted more than 100 alumni professionals and more than 400 unique students, whose combined participation in all of the events surpassed 800 total attendees — including one student who went to all but one session. In addition to the entire Center for Career Education and Professional Development team, faculty and staff members participated, and several of the College’s regional alumni clubs lent support in multiple ways.
“I am still pinching myself that it came together as well as it did,” said Eileen Wisnewski, director of the career center, which coordinated the series with the Office of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations. “We have such a strong collaboration with those team members, and they immediately offered to connect us with both regional clubs and alumni in our target industries.”
Devised in less than three months at the close of the fall 2020 semester, the Find a Friar Series offered students the opportunity to hear from and interact with alumni in dozens of career fields. Each Zoom session generally was an hour, and as many as four sessions were offered in one day, in the afternoon and the evening, to accommodate schedules.
The series, held over winter break, kicked off with “The Do’s and Don’t’s of Networking,” sponsored by the Providence College Club of New York. It was the most highly attended session with 111 participants. Wisnewski said the popularity of the opener proved that students liked the subject matter, and it encouraged them to tune in to other programs.
More than 400 students from all four class years and majors attended at least one session, with 40% participating in more than one session.
“The students liked the opportunity to do this over winter break,” said Wisnewski. Since there were no classes to conflict with programming, students had an incentive to explore. They were alerted to the offerings by email and through the career center’s weekly newsletter.
Some 60 students responded to a survey after the fact, with 100% indicating the series was a valuable experience, 96% saying they felt the sessions they attended were a good use of their time, and 91 percent reporting they learned more about the industry from attending a session.
Wisnewski said the participation and feedback convinced staff that virtual programming is a worthwhile component to the center’s permanent communications resources. “One advantage we have found during the pandemic is that we have learned to utilize technology in ways we had not done before. For example, we were able to attract a broader alumni participant base, with 53% living outside New England. Some lived as far away as California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, and Virginia,” she said.
When the pandemic struck last March, the career center staff was forced to be creative and consider all options in interacting with students seeking career assistance. Not long after the center’s Virtual Career Fair in October, they began examining ways to amplify networking from a virtual standpoint and decided upon kicking off 2021 with a 21-events theme in the new year.
“We all said ‘Yes’ and started planning the multiple events. We stepped into the water, not knowing if the students would engage.” said Wisnewski.
The response from alumni to the idea of a virtual career series was heartening, she said. Early in the process, she reached out to three graduates after finding their expertise and contact information on LinkedIn. All three accepted her offer to participate “within a matter of hours,” and she ended up moderating two panels featuring the trio.
I didn’t have any idea it would be anything like this. … I didn’t think PC would be able to put on something like this, at this high a level.
Greg Assad ’24
Nine alumni participated in each of three sessions: “Entrepreneurship & Sales,” “Real Estate, Construction, & Design,” and “Working in the Digital Space.” One session, “Careers in Law & Government,” attracted a series-high 10 alumni panelists. Alumni class years represented during the series ranged from 1977-2020.
In a follow-up survey, more than two-dozen alumni thanked the College for inviting them. Katie Allen ’11, who participated in the “Healthcare Administration & Policy” session, said she appreciated the creative approach the center took in facilitating alumni-student networking.
“Not living in the Providence area makes it tough to attend the typical in-person events to share with students. This virtual platform was a great way to share and connect with Friars. I was impressed with the turnout as well as how many students were on camera,” said Allen, who is the project and operations manager for nursing and patient care services at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
The strong alumni response was boosted by members of alumni regional clubs and by faculty, who personally made appeals to both alumni and students to join one or more of the virtual programs. Some regional clubs hosted individual programs, while some faculty also moderated panels. The career center, along with the Office of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations, expressed their gratitude for the support of the following regional alumni clubs: Providence College Club of New York (PCCNY); New Jersey; Hartford; Capital Area; South Coast, Mass.; and the Mal Brown Club of Greater Providence.
“This became a campus-wide project,” said Wisnewski. “We even had parents encouraging their students to participate.”
The student who attended 20 sessions, Greg Assad ’24 (Medway, Mass.), said when he saw the emails advertising the series, he knew it was a unique opportunity to learn about a variety of careers in a timeframe conducive to his schedule.
“It’s something I knew I wanted to get involved in from the start, to stay in the loop. ‘How can I not do this?’” said Assad, a marketing major.
He didn’t mind a tight schedule on some days, including two days when he attended four sessions. “It gave me more opportunities to learn. I wanted to be a sponge. Marketing is involved in all of these fields. I wanted to take advantage,” he said.
Not long after he began tuning in, Assad found himself writing down questions in advance and taking notes during the sessions. The fluid nature of the format was appealing and kept him interested.
“It wasn’t just lectures, a forum, or looking at PowerPoint slides. You were able to ask questions, listen to other peoples’ questions, and interact with the alumni,” he said, adding that the panelists “spoke with authority and were very caring” about their messaging. He said one aspect of many of the presentations that impressed him was how proud graduates were of their PC education.
“It’s evident they are still a part of the Friar family. They care so much about the students,” said Assad, who is a member of PC Pals, an organization in which PC students spend time in individual and group activities with local schoolchildren in after-school programs.
When he began college in the fall in the midst of the pandemic, he was not expecting such an early opportunity to engage in career exploration with alumni.
“I didn’t have any idea it would be anything like this,” said Assad. “I knew about PC’s community service reputation. I didn’t think PC would be able to put on something like this, at this high a level. It was right at our fingertips.”
