SPOTLIGHT
 

Cooperative Education Career Profile:
Carol Martin Rutgers, Rutgers, The State University of NJ, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences

Carol Martin Rutgers has a long and distinguished career within the field of Cooperative Education. Her significant contributions and impact can be seen on both a state and national level through her work with various cooperative education organizations and at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Carol was appointed the Director of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Cooperative Education Program at Rutgers in 1987 after serving as the Assistant Director and Coordinator for approximately three years each. She received the SEBS Award for Sustained Academic Excellence in April 2007. In addition, she participated in the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Reaccreditation Evaluation Self-Study (2006-2008) and led a curriculum development team for the Life Sciences Innovation Partnership Institute State Higher Education Grant.

Carol is an active member of the New Jersey Cooperative Education and Internship Association (NJCEIA). She established and maintains the NJCEIA membership listserv, so members can easily communicate with one another. In addition, she was elected as President, Vice President of Membership, and Vice President of Programs. Carol says of her experiences with NJCEIA, “I have great memories of the support and knowledge I gained from NJCEIA about the field. There have been lots of changes since I attended my first meeting at Middlesex County College in 1980. NJCEIA meetings used to focus on training like today, but formal business meetings were held with all members at least 3 times a year with committee meetings as a part of the overall meeting. Members worked to lobby the Governor’s Office and actually got a State Department of Education grants program going.”

Carol has been an active member of the national Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) since 1980, presenting many workshops at national conferences and as a member of the Awards Committee for five years. She was elected Vice President of Region II in March 2001 and served on the Board of Directors in that capacity for two terms. In 2005, she was nominated by the President of CEIA to be Vice President of Communications, in part due to her past involvement in editing and compiling the CEIA President’s Newsbriefs and her role as listowner for the CEIA members’ listserv and the CEIA Board listserv. While Vice President of Region II, Carol volunteered as the Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Education and Internship Conference for three years.

Carol has shared and presented her experiences and expertise at multiple workshops throughout her career. She has presented for NJCEIA as well as for CEIA and WACE Conferences on topics including: Ethics, Integrating Computer Data Base Management, Dealing with Difficult People, and Business Cults. In addition, since 1995, Carol has also been the advisor for the Kappa Theta Epsilon Honor Society Nu Chapter on the George H. Cook campus.

Carol will now be working at the Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy as the Manager of their Institute for Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowships (http://pharmafellows.rutgers.edu/). The program provides Doctor of Pharmacy graduates 1- and 2-year post-graduate, industry-based training programs, from coordinating clinical trials to acting as a liaison with regulatory agencies and research organizations, while preparing them for challenging positions within the pharmaceutical industry. NJCEIA wishes Carol well in all her future endeavors and thanks her for her service and contributions to the field.

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NJIT’s Career Awareness Month Promotes Co-op and Internships to Students
By Jo-Ann Raines, Director, NJIT Career Development Services

Cooperative Education practitioners are always on the lookout for creative ways to present the benefits of major-related work experience to students and employers. At NJIT, Career Development Services (CDS) is in its fifth year of promoting co-op through Career Awareness Month, held this year from September 17th to October 23rd. From its kickoff with Craig Treadway, morning news anchor at CW11, to the information session offered by Microsoft, career advisors incorporated the co-op message into many of the 30+ events.

Hosting a variety of activities, high campus visibility, and bringing students and employers together are key to the success of Career Awareness Month and spreading the co-op message. The schedule included civic engagement, information sessions, resume review, program and services information, and raffles. Many of the events such as Career Service Information Day and Instant Approval Day were held in the Campus Center, the hub of student activity on campus. Other events such as Resumania, Company Information Sessions, and Practice Interviews put students and employers together. In past years, students have received job offers for co-ops or internships from recruiters putting them through the paces of an interview. A bonus to such a concentrated series of events is the visibility of CDS to faculty and staff as well as students and employers. Co-op was incorporated through flyers, mini-commercials, promotional materials and giveaways, and including co-op students as panelists.

Three strategies are important to a successful schedule of events. First, like popular shopping malls, having anchors at either end is a must. Beginning with Roadmap to Career Success with Mr. Treadway and concluding with our 16th Annual Collaborative Career Fair with Rutgers-Newark on the penultimate day of Career Awareness Month put brackets around a comprehensive series of events that had something for everyone. Second, co-sponsorship of presentations is an effective way of gaining a good audience. One such presentation, Students in Service to America: Careers in the Federal Government, was co-hosted by the Albert Dorman Honors College. Last, diversify your resources as much as possible. Theresa Clarke of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency in Maryland facilitated the federal government presentation for students. Earlier in the day, she met with NJIT faculty and staff at a luncheon to familiarize them with careers and internships available with the federal government, so that they would be able to share information with students.

In addition to the 1400 students who attended the Career Fair, Career Awareness Month attracted over 900 students, providing forums through which cooperative education was promoted and increasing the number of co-op applicants by 11%. The marketing effort was rewarded by increased awareness of career services as a whole and for co-op in particular.