The Career Center coordinates career development programs and recruitment services for all undergraduate and graduate programs at William & Mary except the Law School and School of Business MBA programs. The Career Center will be moving to the Sherman and Gloria H. Cohen Career Center in 2010. It is currently (2009) under construction.
Directors
Incomplete
John C. Bright was the Director of Work Study Planning and Placement Bureau, 1948-1959. He was also Director of Student Aid, 1958-1962, and Director of Veteran's Affairs, 1973-1978, Assistant of Vice President for Student Affairs, 1971-(?), and Assistant Professor of History, 1948-1954. He was on a leave of absence in 1953-1954. His office was in the Brafferton Kitchen. A resolution from the Board of Visitors upon his retirement is available in his Faculty-Alumni File in the Special Collections Research Center.
Deore J. Cannon was Director of Counseling and Associate Professor of Education in 1958-1963. Her office was located in Washington 213.
Mary Schilling, 1999-Present
1959-1960 Catalog Excerpt
The following was transcribed from the 1959-1960 College of William & Mary Catalog:
The Counseling Office
The Counseling Office offers guidance and counseling in three main areas: Educational counseling-help in selecting the proper courses of student and in establishing effective study habits; vocational counseling-aid in determining the profession or position for which the student is best fitted, or help in choosing the field of study in which the student intends to major; and personal adjustment-assistance in overcoming difficulties in social adjustment, difficulties caused by uncertainties of aims and purposes and other personal problems.
In vocational counseling a testing and information service is provided. Vocational interest and aptitude tests are available to all students who desire help in choosing their major field, or their life work. A file of information on all vocations in which college men and women are interested is maintained.
In addition, the Counseling Office is the center for those tests supervised by the Educational Testing Service, such as the Graduate Record Examination and the Law School Admissions Test, and for the Miller Analogies Test.
Bureau of Senior and Alumni Placement
The College maintains a Placement Bureau for seniors and alumni through which non-teaching placements are made. This faculty-sponsored organization helps seniors to obtain employment with business and industrial organizations. At the same time it assists business and industry in obtaining a trained body of men and women. The Placement Office also offers its services to the alumni who are seeking job transfers after they have been out of college a number of years. Frequent requests come from industrial and business concerns for men who are available for employment and who have had experience.
Personnel records of seniors and alumni are made available to professional, governmental and business organizations interested in employing men and women from the College. The Placement Bureau maintains cordial relationships with many employers and devotes considerable effort each year to placing in permanent positions those students who seek employment. Company representatives are invited to the campus to confer with students and to discuss not only the qualifications necessary for success in their special fields but to explain business opportunities and to make job offers to graduates. In recent times representatives of nationally recognized business concerns have been visiting the campus at the rate of about one hundred per year. These representatives are given every assistance in their recruiting programs. Free services of the Bureau include vocational counsel and specific aid in securing satisfactory positions.
Teacher Placement
In addition to the services listed above which are primarily designed to assist seniors and alumni in finding positions in business and industry, the College maintains a teacher placement service. All students and graduates desiring teaching positions may use the specialized services of the Bureau of Recommendations operated by the Department of Education. Prospective teachers are encouraged to register in this Bureau and are given organized help in entering the teaching profession.
Background History of the Career Center
From the 1950s to August 1977, the place on campus where students would seek advice about careers was the Counseling Office. In August 1977, the office changed its name to the Office of Career Planning. From 1974 to 1980, the Office of Corporate Relations and Placement was the place on campus to help students search for jobs. By the Spring of 1981, the Career Planning office split to form the Office of Career Planning and a separate Placement Office. The two offices merged together in 1989 to form the Office of Career Services and the office continued to exist until 2004 when they changed their name to the current Career Center.
Material in the Special Collections Research Center
- Folders: Career Center, Career Counseling, Career Choices, Venture Programs in the University Archives Subject File Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
- Career Center Records, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
- John C. Bright in the Faculty-Alumni File Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
- The Flat Hat.
References
- SCRC File.
- Catalog, 1959-1960.
- Directories 1959-1960, 1979-1980, 1989-1990, 2004-2005.
- Folders: Career Center, Career Counseling, Career Choices, Venture Programs in the University Archives Subject File Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
- Career Center Records, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
- John C. Bright in the Faculty-Alumni File Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
- The Flat Hat.
External Links