A Community installation made from blue thread that's located in Studio 259.

We are a resource that empowers faculty and staff to make career readiness tools, training and opportunities accessible to the 30,000 UB students preparing for future success. We partner with our university colleagues to bridge the gap between students’ on-campus learning and the incredible impact their careers will have on their families, companies and communities.

We are all part of the UB ecosystem

We believe that preparing our graduates to succeed in the world is a collective responsibility shared by faculty, staff, alumni and employer partners—an ecosystem of support for every student on campus. UB offers a combination of theories, skill-building and out-of-the-classroom learning. It also means making sure tomorrow’s professionals are equipped to enter rewarding careers that harness the value of their UB education, benefit their communities, and reflect UB’s academic excellence.

The value of exploration is priceless

As professionals, we know that a career path is rarely linear, perfectly planned, or identical to anyone else’s. Instead, it’s iterative, experimental, and sometimes accidental—and this reality influences our approach to student career exploration. With the strong network provided by the UB ecosystem, students have flexibility, creativity, and encouragement to try new experiences to see what sparks lifelong passions. Our job is more than helping students find jobs, and we, collectively, are here to help students design their lives.

UB Named Work + Collaborative Partner

The Career Design Center hosts a pop-up event in April 2023 to help first-generation students practice networking skills and make connections with UB faculty and staff that are also first-generation alums. Photographer: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki.

In partnership with Arizona State University Strada Education Foundation’s Beyond Completion Challenge and the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity, UB has been named as a Work+ Collaborative partner to reimagine student employment nationally.

UB was invited, along with Georgia State University, the University of Maine, University of Connecticut, University of Central Florida, University of Illinois-Chicago, the University of Michigan-Dearborn, University of Minnesota and Virginia Commonwealth University to participate in the Work+ Institute after hosting the Arizona State University in September 2023 to explore addressing barriers to student employment at UB.

A cross-campus group representing Financial Aid, Orientation, Transition and Parent Programs, Campus Living, Athletics, Center for the Arts, International Student services, the Libraries, Parking and Transportation, student engagement and student life human resources identified barriers and solutions to explore as part of the transition of the Here to Career program to the Career Design Center. Arizona State University has also awarded the Career Design Center $10,000 in seed money to address one barrier identified by the cross-campus group. 

Faculty Champion Network

The Career Design Center recognizes the faculty that have integrated us into their students' success.

Career Design Center @ Studio 259

Studio 259 (located at 259 Capen Hall) is more than just an office for the Career Design Center. Instead, it’s a welcoming, active-learning design studio featuring self-guided public art installations focused on career and life design, professional selfie stations, a practice interview PoppinPod, the latest in mobile screens and flexible furniture to triple the amount of usable space. Faculty and staff are invited to visit Studio 259 to facilitate career conversations with students, conduct interviews, introduce career exploration resources to classes, and anything else you can dream up!

Let’s work together

We’re here to help you bridge the gap between curriculum and career excellence for the students you’re interacting with every day. There are so many ways faculty and staff can partner with our team at the Career Design Center to enhance the impact of career planning conversations you’re having with students, to develop an opportunity for service extension/scalability, and to make sure students are hearing consistent messaging regarding employability. Some activities take just minutes, while others present opportunities to really become a career champion on behalf of our students.

Get started

  • Invite us to lead classroom presentations
  • Request a career-building skillshop
  • Plan a career pop-up/event with us
  • Tour Studio 259 with classes, clubs, organizations, and your staff
  • Have us share an overview of the Career Design Center during a staff or department meeting
  • Include career design content in newsletters
  • Use our on-demand content during class or with student employees
  • Meet with a Career Design Center staff member that has been assigned to your department

Dig deeper

  • Become a guest blogger in the Career Design Studio
  • Host office hours or a small gathering in Studio 259
  • Participate in programming/events by becoming a guest speaker or panelist 
  • Add career content to your website
  • Post an on-campus job & internship in Bullseye powered by Handshake
  • Demo technology tools
  • Attend a listening session with the Director of the Career Design Center to discuss how we can partner with you
  • Use Virtual Vic to help field common career-related questions you’re hearing from students 

Become the ultimate career champion

  • Integrate career readiness competencies and career education into your syllabus, on-campus job, or internship
  • Collaborate to build programming/events together to meet your class, club, organization, office or department goals
  • Create an interactive career installation in your space
  • Bring students off-campus and into the Buffalo community
  • Collaborate with on a conference presentation
  • Propose a collaborative research project on career development
Ready to jump in?

Let’s collaborate to build a custom plan that can help you and your department prepare students to excel beyond their time at UB.

Partner with us >>

Partnerships are a driving force 🌱

Career opportunities in sustainability are growing exponentially, but the path into them isn’t clear cut, and UB Sustainability is all about partnerships. It’s not up to one unit, or a few individuals, especially within the context of higher education.

Learn how UB Sustainability collaborates with us >>

Teaming up with UB Sustainability with a series of events, including a branded Hired pop-up in the Student Union.

On-demand resources for faculty & staff

Post a job or internship

Hiring students made easy. Just post on-campus opportunities on Bullseye powered by Handshake using an on-campus employer account.

Plug-n-play learning

We’ve curated a library of webinars that can be easily woven into your curriculum or work-study to advance students’ career development & discovery.

Blogs

Helpful posts on a range of career topics provide insights, instructions, and helpful tips; there are some for faculty and others for students.

Activities & templates

A collection of self-guided tools, activities & templates to guide students in getting started, and help faculty & staff write syllabus statements or reference letters.

Partner with us

Serve as a staff career mentor, invite Career Design Center consultants to speak to your class, or let’s explore countless other ways to pool expertise to advance student career readiness.

Get in touch with us >>

Career champions

A career champion is a faculty or staff member who includes career exploration and readiness into their core mission as a higher education professional. At UB, we foster a culture of career champions advocating for our students’ future success as they grow and learn throughout their UB experience.

🏆 Champion Spotlight: David Gray

“I went to see what they were up to over there,” Gray remembers. “Doing that, I was like, ‘Oh wow. OK. This is cool.” Impressed, Gray added several professional development tasks to the course. His students had to dress in “semi-professional attire,” go to the “PoppinPod” to practice their interview skills at the center, take a photo at the selfie station and make that their profile photo in UB Learns.

Read how faculty partnerships are critical to the Career Design Center >>

Forward sign inside the UB Career Design Center.

Meet your consultants

Our team at the Career Design Center is full of energetic individuals who love collaborating with our faculty and staff colleagues to come up with career readiness plans that benefit everyone. Meet your consultants below.

Ed Brodka

Career Design Consultant

Brandi Banks-Richardson

Employer Partner for Internships

Alissa Drag

Employer + Alumni Partner Consultant

Jasmine Foster

Career Design Consultant

Jenna Hubbard

Associate Director, Operations and Special Events

Lauren Johnson

Associate Director, Career Education and Academic Initiatives

Holly Justice

Career Design Consultant

Lauren Khoury

Headshot of Cara Morse.

Student Operations Coordinator

Cara Morse

Headshot of Cara Morse.

Relationship Manager

Wayne Porterfield

Career Design Consultant

Carl Remmes

Career Design Consultant

Partner with us!

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