CEPD ramps up to serve students, alumni

The Career Center was renamed the Office for Center for Career Education and Professional Development (CEPD) last year, and has a new scope. It also is more tightly integrated with our General Education program and with the five schools.

According to a document shared with Hi5 by Dr. Thomas Horejes, Associate Provost for Student Success and Academic Quality, this transformation comes with a new mission to educate and empower students to reach their career goals as they navigate the career ecosystem, discover new career paths, engage in experiential learning, and build connections within and beyond the signing and deaf community. 

CEPD intentionally aligns its career education efforts with the new General Education curriculum as a foundation and springboard to early declaration of majors for students through the five Schools. The General Education curriculum includes mastery of career readiness as a part of its eight student learning outcomes, as well as a broader engagement strategy to partner with faculty and employers through the newly established Career Ecosystem. 

This ecosystem includes three key working groups: 

1. Career Success Partners Network, 
2. Experiential learning and internship success, and 
3. Employer and Alumni Engagement Council. 

Collectively, the Career Ecosystem will strengthen academic and career pathways by integrating career readiness more fully into our curriculum, developing best practices for experiential learning internships across campus, and focusing on multifaceted value propositions and strategic relationship engagement with key external partners such as our employers and alumni.

Dr. Julie Tibbitt, EdS ’18 & PhD ’20, has been appointed as the inaugural director of the Office of Career Education and Professional Development within the Office for Student Success and Academic Quality (SSAQ)CEPD). In this role, Dr. Tibbitt will be responsible for leading CEPD in integrating career readiness more fully into Gallaudet’s curriculum, developing best practices for experiential learning internships across campus, and focusing on multifaceted value propositions and strategic relationship engagement with key external partners such as our employers and alumni. Read more about Dr. Tibbitt at this link.