• About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
      Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
    • First-Year Students Reflect on Their Expectations for College, One Semester In
      First-Year Students Reflect on Their Expectations for College, One Semester In
    • “We Want to Fundamentally Change the Culture,” International Student Union says
      “We Want to Fundamentally Change the Culture,” International Student Union says
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
      Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
    • The block system is a joke
      The block system is a joke
    • Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
      Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • Harry Styles de-typifies masculinity in Vogue’s December Issue, but is this enough? (spoiler: it’s not)
      Harry Styles de-typifies masculinity in Vogue’s December Issue, but is this enough? (spoiler: it’s not)
    • Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
      Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
    • Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
      Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
  • Health and Wellness
    • No image
      Athletic impacts of Covid-19
    • No image
      A new kind of PE
    • No image
      Maintaining wellness as the cold sets in
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • Miscellanea
    • No image
      Remote students experience existential crises; change class years in email signatures
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
      Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
    • The Artichoke
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Ruth Jiang News, News and FeaturesMarch 2, 2016

The Center for Work and Service reacts to student feedback in new initiatives

Students meet advisors at the Center for Work and Service for career and internship advice.

It was recently announced that the Center for Work & Service (CWS) would be making drastic changes in the coming year. The CWS is Wellesley College’s career service for both current students and alumni. Beyond a variety of career resources, workshops, and events that the CWS offers for students and alumni, the CWS also aims to help students and alumnae obtain useful skills for lifelong career development.

As Christine Yip Cruzvergara, the Executive Director and Associate Provost for Career Education announced, the CWS will change how it distributes resources to fortify a greater connection between Wellesley alumnae and current students as well as a redesign of the website. To further highlight just how drastic these changes will be, a new name will also be given to CWS.

Cruzvergara is looking forward to these changes, saying “This is an exciting time for Wellesley and our students as we reimagine what career education could look like at our institution. I believe we can design a career education model for the liberal arts that focuses on connections and communities.”

She continues, “Our students will proactively engage in a process to explore the intersection between self and society, engage and test their curiosities, and make meaningful connections within newly formed career communities that cover a broad array of industries and career fields.”

In order to gain more input on these changes with CWS, Cruzvergara embarked on a “listening tour”. She commented that the listening tour was important as it has “allowed me to develop important relationships with students, alumnae, faculty, Trustees, employers, and campus partners.”

Recently hired in the past year, Cruzvergara believes that “there is great value in listening and learning the culture.” Through her listening tour, she has gained a greater understanding of people’s current and past experiences and seen what gaps and needs the community has.  She said, “By looking for patterns and pulling out common themes from all stakeholder groups, we will be able to design a new model for career education that is uniquely Wellesley.”

Cruzvergara also wants to receive direct feedback from students as well, and will begin holding office hours on March 10 for students to ask questions and give input. Cruzvergara wants students to share their experiences and suggestions for the future, and hopes these office hours will “be the start of a conversation and relationship that will only grow stronger with time.”

As to what students are saying about this new movement with CWS, the responses appear consistent and directly relate to how the students feel their experiences with CWS has been.

Xueying Chen ’16 also brought up the fact that the CWS lacks the ability to give strong cover letter and resume advice, which has not been as helpful as “some of the advice I’ve gotten from alums.” Chen particularly emphasized the relationship-building that the CWS should strengthen between alumnae and students, and says she definitely thinks that the CWS needs to “make it easier for students to find and reach out to alums”. Chen suggests that the CWS “organize events where alums who have succeeded in their fields come back and lead workshops on how to tailor cover letters for their specific fields and such.”

Some students believe that although the CWS is already a helpful resource at Wellesley, it could be even better with the announced new changes it would be going through. Judy Zhang ’17 believes that “the CWS is a great resource for internships and job search, but its website can definitely be more user friendly and efficient”.

Grace Williams ’16 really enjoys engaging in service projects and alternative breaks, and has had a very positive experience with CWS, which has helped her several times with finding alternative break opportunities and internships. As she explained, “I’ve interned at a non-profit in Boston through Lumpkin Institute for Summer Learning, participated in two Alternative Breaks trip (one of which I served as a site leader) and am participating in my third Alternative Break trip this spring break.”

Williams approves of the idea of having a stronger connection between alumnae and students, as she has seen what the results of such a connection could bring. Interning last summer through Wellesley in Washington, Williams was matched up with an alumna and also met other alumnae as well. She “found their advice very helpful as far as job searching goes” and thinks that “the CWS would definitely benefit from this type of relationship and it would help strengthen their career services.”

Much can be speculated upon about what these changes will be like, but rest assured, Wellesley students will be experiencing these changes very soon.

Photo by Natalia Marques ‘ 19, Photography Editor

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articlePresident’s Corner : 3/2
Next articleStudent Labor Action Project encourages discussions of financial accessibility

You may also like

Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg

First-Year Students Reflect on Their Expectations for College, One Semester In

“We Want to Fundamentally Change the Culture,” International Student Union says

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

  • Harry Styles de-typifies masculinity in Vogue’s December Iss...
  • Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top