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Barbara Lunsford will be graduating from Saint Xavier University in May. She knows now is the best time to prepare for her future career.
Navigating the transition from college to career can be daunting, but SXU made the journey easier with its Advising and Career Success Day for students just like Lunsford. The day was designed to help students prepare for their futures, connect students with advisors, mentors, and potential employers while offering valuable resources for academic and professional growth.
“This is really beneficial because it is giving me the opportunity to connect with those actively working in the education field,” said Lunsford, 23, of Joliet, who is studying secondary education.
Throughout the day, Lunsford and her fellow classmates engaged in professional and personal development sessions, networked with alumni and mentors, and explored internship and job opportunities at the College-to-Career Expo.
“The Student Advising Center, in collaboration with the Career Development Center, was thrilled to host Advising and Career Success Day,” said Tatiana Alaraj, director of the Student Advising Center at SXU. “This year, we designed the sessions to help students engage more deeply with campus life while highlighting the valuable resources available to support their academic and career journeys.”
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The Advising and Career Success Day is a commitment by the university to students’ future success, Alaraj said.
Instead of attending their normally scheduled classes, students were encouraged to participate in advising and career events throughout the morning before meeting with local and national employers and counselors, discussing their future plans and also receiving information about course registration to ensure they remained on track with their degree progress.
Attendees explored advising services, prepared for registration, and learned about study-abroad opportunities. The experience fostered connection, guidance, and success, ensuring every student felt like a valued member of the SXU community.
The Advising and Career Success Day was inspired by a desire to prepare and connect students with the tools and resources they need to succeed after graduation, according to James Miller, associate director of Employer Engagement and Internships at SXU.
“We are blessed to have the buy-in of university leadership, faculty, and student groups who promote the event alongside our Advising and Career Development teams,” Miller said. “We want to ensure that our students understand their program curriculum well to remain on track with their degree requirements during their time at SXU. Teaching career competencies along with coaching professionalism and best practices in and out of the classroom, we better prepare our student base to become valuable and productive members of their future employment teams.”
The event, itself, was a university-wide initiative. From the Office of the Provost to the Student Advising and Career Development Centers, the university worked to build a cohesive, high-energy day of events focused on post-graduation readiness, and served as a valuable resource for students looking to take the next step in their academic and professional journeys.
With approximately 90 employers in attendance, students were encouraged to bring printed copies of their resumes and collect business cards for networking on LinkedIn. Employers who were open to engaging with first-year students displayed “First-Year Friendly” table tents. Advisors from the Student Advising Center partnered with faculty members to meet with students throughout the event.
“It is our desire to see SXU students entering their respective fields in the local community and beyond in a dynamic way, building skills and career competencies in the classroom, in advising sessions, and in career consultations,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, we want to see our students leading in their community and beyond, living meaningful lives and taking on successful careers with character and competency that they’ve developed in the halls of Saint Xavier University.”
By fostering meaningful connections and providing access to career-building opportunities, the event reinforced the university’s commitment to student success, said SXU student, Alex Art.
“The expo was great because it introduced us to a lot of options,” Art, 21, of Fox Lake, said. “There were a variety of employers that came out for this event, ranging from small and local businesses to big and national ones.”
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