About the Career Development Center

Our Vision

Our work is motivated most fundamentally by a vision of students and graduates who demonstrate the following:

  • 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 
  • 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
  • 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
  • An ability to articulate the personal and social value of a Pacific experience and a liberal arts education

Our Values

As members of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, our staff subscribes to the NACE Principles for Career Development Professionals. The following values are also central in our philosophy of career education and preparation.

  • Student empowerment; liberation through education
  • Liberal arts education
  • Teamwork
  • Student-directed, student-centered learning
  • Holistic, integrative service and education that is responsive to the whole student
  • Individualized service and education
  • Theory-based practice, and practice-based theory: theory-practice-theory
  • Career preparation, community development, global citizenship and leadership via internships, service-learning, intercultural experience, research, liberal arts education and self-analysis
  • Advocacy of curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular learning
  • Responsiveness to students’ academic, professional and personal goals
  • Responsiveness to students’ interests, motivations, psychology, learning styles, strengths and other facets of their unique selves