“What do you want to be when you finish college?”

What seems like an innocuous question to many often fills college students – especially seniors – with a sense of dread. After all, it’s a reminder that many of us have no clue where we see ourselves in five years, especially when we’re focused on the essay that’s due in five hours. However, Catawba took note of this need for career preparation and their response was the C2C program.

I was able to sit down with Ms. Kimberly Smith, the director of the C2C program, and ask her a few questions about how she became involved with the program, how it started, and what she wants people to know about it.

As we spoke, I discovered that Ms. Smith is a Catawba College veteran. “The [role of] C2C director is my third role over the span of twelve years at Catawba. I worked in the provost’s office for eight years prior to this role and, during that time, went back to school for a Masters in Higher Education Administration. Shortly after I completed the degree requirements, a committee began the search process for a C2C director and I applied.”

The Catawba to Career (C2C) program is “a result of the college’s current Quality Enhancement Plan,” also known as the QEP. This program is part a five-year plan, of which we are on the second year, and the C2C program aims to help students figure out what career they might want to pursue, what major they might want to declare in order to pursue said career, and how to start identifying skills needed to support future career choices. As Ms. Smith put it, “You can think of it as sort of a supplement to Catawba’s Career Services.” While Career Services sets up events like the Mock Interviews and informs students of job offerings in the area, the C2C program helps students find out what kinds of jobs they might like in the first place and how they might go about pursuing those jobs.

There are two branches of this program; the first is the Focus 2 Career Guidance System, a service that is available online through the Catawba website. There are four assessments available through Focus 2: “Work Interests,” “Values,” “Skills,” and “Leisure Interests.” After completing these short assessments, the results are then used to produce a list of a number of careers that the test taker might find interesting and/or meaningful. Not only does Focus 2 provide a list of potential careers, but it also provides crucial information about said careers, such as average salary, trends in the job market, and what majors typically lead to success in those careers.

The second branch of the program helps students prepare a “career awareness transitional résumé, or “CAT-R.”  This exercise helps students to recognize important career “soft” skills and to examine their progress toward attaining these skills while in college.  The CAT-R will later transition into an employer-ready résumé. Even the most successful students will have trouble getting jobs if they are unable to write résumés; after all, few employers ask to see their applicants’ transcripts. Knowing how to write these critical documents, while focusing on important soft skills such as leadership and initiative, is an essential part of entering the workforce; the C2C program allows Catawba students to get a few steps ahead in that process.

As we spoke, she talked about how she has loved being a part of the Catawba community and serving in a number of different roles on campus; she also mentioned how excited she’s been to take on this new challenge in particular. “I…want to help them maneuver their college education and experiences so that they make the most out of their time here.”

However, it was what Ms. Smith said about those who have completed “their time here” that surprised me the most: while the transitional résumé services are limited to current Catawba students, the Focus 2 Career Guidance System is not. While the program focuses on sophomores, Focus 2 is open to anyone who is a part of the Catawba Community. Therefore, any alumni who might be searching for a change in career are welcome to utilize these services.

Lastly, I asked her what she wanted current and former Catawba students to know about this program and her response was this: “I want students to know about and take advantage of all the many programs, including the C2C, and academic support resources Catawba offers.” The C2C program is a truly excellent element of the Catawba community, so if you haven’t checked out all that this program has to offer, do so soon. You’ll be glad that you did.

[This article is featured in the Fall 2016 Print Edition of the Catawba Pioneer.]