About Us
We provide a full range of career-related services and opportunities, responsive to the needs of Pacific University students, alumni, employers, and other constituents. A major part of our work consists of individualized sessions with students and alumni seeking full-time employment opportunities, part-time and temporary work, internships, summer jobs, fellowships, and opportunities for post-graduate education. We also coordinate all on-campus and community service work-study employment through the Pacific University Work-Study Program. In addition to individualized work, we offer a broad array of workshops and programs throughout the year, working in collaboration with faculty and staff, alumni, and members of various professional communities.
Vision:
Our work is motivated most fundamentally by a vision of students and graduates who demonstrate the following:
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Sufficient self-awareness with respect to intellectual skills, knowledge, interests, strengths, ambitions, and growth opportunities, as well as the capability of acting effectively on this awareness to make productive use of their education.
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An understanding of the important choices, freedoms, responsibilities, and opportunities associated with being broadly educated in the liberal arts—and the ability to couple this understanding with appropriate actions.
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An ability to invest their learning experiences in and out of the classroom in the service of significant and meaningful life activities, including public service, global citizenship, professional engagement, creative expression, communication, and interpersonal relationships.
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An ability to articulate the personal and social value of a Pacific experience and a liberal arts education.
Mission:
Our mission is to collaborate with fellow educators and community members to provide a transformative blend of liberal arts, experiential, and career education that is so well integrated, empowering, and responsive to student needs that it emboldens them to pursue pathways to personal, professional, and community engagement that might otherwise have remained hidden or unattainable. Our promise to students who join us in this effort is that they will launch meaningful careers before they graduate.
Values:
As members of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, our staff subscribes to the NACE Principals for Career Development Professionals ( www.naceweb.org/principles). The following values are also central in our philosophy of career education and preparation:
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Student empowerment, liberation through education.
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Liberal arts education.
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Teamwork.
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Student-directed, student-centered learning.
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Holistic, integrative service and education, responsive to the whole student.
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Individualized service and education.
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Theory-based practice, and practice-based theory: theory-practice-theory.
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Career preparation, community development, global citizenship, and leadership via internships, service-learning, intercultural experience, research, liberal arts education, and self-analysis.
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Advocacy of curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular learning.
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Responsiveness to students’ academic, professional, and personal goals.
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Responsiveness to students’ interests, motivations, psychology, learning styles, strengths, and other facets of their unique selves.