Akin-Tunde Akintewe '15 (Visual Arts) will be part of the April 6 panel.
Navigating the college-to-career-to-career-to-college-to-career maze can be challenging even for PEL students, most of whom already have, to some extent, established themselves in the working world. Never fear! Check out these panel discussions, workshops, and other opportunities sponsored by Eckerd College's Career Services, a program of the Center for Career Planning and Applied Learning:
Wednesday, April 6, 7-9 p.m.in Fox Hall (CPS) "Think Outside the Major," hosted by Associate Dean and Executive Director of the Center for Career Planning & Applied Learning Andrew Black and PEL Executive Director Amanda Hagood, is part of the College Program Series. This term's panel will be moderated by Jacob Kent '18, a current residential student majoring in Communication and features:
Akin-Tunde Akintewe '15 (PEL/Visual Arts), Regional Narrowband Technical Manager with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command,
Kaiya Waddell '06, Industry Manager for Democratic Politics at Facebook.
Mentors from the Eckerd community, including Diplomat in Residence Donna Oglesby and Dean of Students James Annarelli, also will be on hand to answer questions and offer insight into how to transition from classroom to career. This panel discussion is part of the College Program Series (CPS).
Thursday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. (CPS) "Coming out in the Workplace" in Miller AuditoriumFox Hall. Please note the venue has changed! [Updated 04/04/16 at 4:02 p.m.]
Saturday, April 8 at 10 a.m. Dress to Impress Field Trip to International Mall in Tampa. Meet at the mailboxes at 10 a.m. Email Krystal Fogarty at fogartkm@eckerd.edu to reserve your spot.
Monday, April 11, Noon to 4 p.m. First Impression, Fashion, Elevator Pitch, Networking resources, and Professional Photos for LinkedIn. Look for tables to be set up on campus.
Employers filled Fox Hall at a 2015 Career Services Fair.
Wednesday, April 13, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Eckerd College Career & Internship Fair, held in Fox Hall, features more than 50 area businesses representing a variety of
fields. Director of Career Services Grant Bailey said, in an email, the
companies attending
represent a variety of fields including finance, marine science,
research, technology, and sports.
Employers attend the Eckerd College Fair because they value Eckerd's
reputation for fostering skills such as "collaborative leadership,
innovation, analysis and critical thinking, problem solving, research,
oral and written communication skills, and a commitment to service,"
according to the information sent to interested employers.
PEL students are welcomed, and students do not need to register for the event.
"Simply show-up in professional attire, as if you were going to an
interview," Bailey wrote. He also suggested students bring copies of
their resume, preferably in a nice folder.
The 2015 PEL Reception at Lewis House on the main campus.
PEL Alumni Reception is Saturday, March 5
Scrumptious food, live music, and a waterfront setting make the 2016 PEL Alumni Reception a not-to-be-missed event. Tickets for the PEL Alumni Reception (Sat. March 5, 6 - 7:30 p.m.) include the Reunion Celebration Dinner and Party at 7:30 -- plus free child care is provided in Franklin Templeton!
Live music!
Child Care Note: Please scroll to the bottom of the registration form to list children who are coming. The registration form says child care begins at 7, but PEL alumni can bring children beginning at 6 p.m. If you have any question about child care or other PEL alumni events, please also email Donna Littell at litteldj@eckerd.edu
Other Alumni Weekend events
Free boat rides and campus tours plus a live-screened MET Opera, Puccini's Manon Lescaut, (not free) in Miller Auditorium and more are scheduled for March 4 through 6. Go to the 2016 Alumni Reunion Weekend website for a full listing of events. See you there!
PEL students gather around Professor Catherine Griggs and Eric Deggans, NPR TV critic, during a course session in January.
Professor Catherine Griggs welcomed Eric Deggans, NPR's first full-time TV critic and former Media/TV critic for the Tampa Bay Times, to her Spring 1 course "Television and American Life." Griggs and Deggans developed and team-taught a similar course during the Spring Term in 2002 and 2003.
Deggans led the class in a discussion of diversity on TV. He is the author of Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation (St. Martin's Press, 2012).
Current
residential and PEL students, faculty, alumni, and other Eckerd friends
who are part of the disabled community are invited to submit poems,
short stories, art, and other work about their experience with their
disability to a zine that will be published by the Disability Advocacy
and Education club, according to Nikki Ryan, Eckerd residential student
and head of the residential student's DEA club.
Ryan explained in an email that a zine is a small, self-published book or paper that is motivated by expression, not profit.
"The
purpose of our upcoming zine is to give a forum for disabled people in
our community to express how their disability affects them in their own
terms and to make their voices heard through media and art," Ryan wrote.
For the
first issue, which will be published later this semester, submissions
are open only to people with a disability, Ryan wrote. A later issue may
solicit work from people who experience disability secondhand.
However,
Ryan also noted,"Disability is defined differently depending on where
you look. But for this zine . . . your identity as disabled is yours
alone. If you identify as disabled you can submit to this zine,
regardless of whether your disability been diagnosed or otherwise noted
by some official."
Submit
your work to Nikki Ryan at nmryan@eckerd.edu. No deadline as been set,
but the group plans to publish the zine before the end of the semester.
PEL people think OUTSIDE the obvious! And PEL people obviously think outside and inside. Check out these photos from recent events and everyday activities.
Student Appreciation Day
About 30 PEL students and alumni braved the elements along with a number of PEL faculty and staff members for the 2016 Student Appreciation Day on Saturday, January 23. Bundled in winter clothes, the group ate barbeque, played games, and sought sunny spots in which to gather.
PEL student Mayra Franco brought her husband, Marcelo, and her two sons, JP and Andre.
"I wanted them to know where I study and also to meet some of my professors and classmates," Franco wrote in an email later. She also said her sons were hoping to play some tennis with Professor Sergei Novikov, who had offered a tennis clinic that day.
They hadn't counted on gusty winds.
"There were tennis players, but no tennis,"
Novikov said later. "The wind would just blow the balls away."
Ball-toss and other games were staffed by Student Activities volunteers and Campus Activities staff served what Professor Tom Krzesinski called "really good" barbecue, macaroni and cheese, beans, and cake. The barbecue, supplied by Deuces BBQ on 22nd Street S. and 9th Avenue, was termed "world's best" by some, and others raved about the mac and cheese.
"The big Eckerd PEL cake was delicious," Krzesinski wrote. He noted that the two-in-one cake meant attendees had their choice of white cake with frosting, chocolate cake with frosting, or a piece of both, suggesting, perhaps, that he had enjoyed the final option.
Bernard LiLavois '10 said his wife, Diahan, "agreed to accompany me on that cold, blustery day . . . because she knows that Eckerd College will always be to me the 'Garden of Knowledge.'" LiLavois said he frequently visits the library and enjoys the natural beauty of the grounds.
"I love that school," he wrote.
If you have other pictures or thoughts to share, feel free to email Amanda Hagood at hagoodca@eckerd.edu or Anne Anderson at andersaw@eckerd.edu.
Creative Writing & Literature Gathering
About 30 PEL alumni who majored, minored, or completed a concentration in creative writing or literature gathered before the opening night of Writers in Paradise, an internationally recognized writing conference hosted by Eckerd College. PEL creative writing professor Helen Pruitt Wallace, who also is Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, noted that, in the revising of our writing, we often revise ourselves as well.
"But we must give ourselves permission to do so," Wallace said.
Donna Littell, PEL's alumni coordinator, and Anne Anderson '07, PEL's director of blended and online learning and a creative writing alumna, organized this year's event. Alumni were invited to display works they had produced since graduating from the program.
Attendees also were asked to share a six-word memoir of their time in the PEL program. A few people who could not attend emailed in their thoughts.
Following the gathering, the group adjourned to the Miller Auditorium to listen to the keynote speaker, Pulitzer Prize winning author Gilbert King.
Worlds of words; universes of ideas. Anne Anderson '07
Leib's class . . . awe and terror combined. Mary Ann Ellis '07
PEL gave myself to me. Wendy Buffington, PEL student
Doors opened to help me understand. Rich Hayward '12
Around the Office & Welcome Back Week
And the winners were Stacy Sansoucie and Michell Cox!
Valerie Bendt '09 (Creative Writing) earned her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in children's literature from Pennsylvania State University. For her thesis/project she wrote a bilingual children's book (Lucinda the Goose and the Yard Sale) and developed several related activities parents and children could complete together. She also earned a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate from the University of Toronto.
Todd DeLozier '09 (Humanities) has opened his own business, Meridian Security, and he was featured on #ThatBusinessShow, a radio program on 1250whnz.
Mike Domke '14 (Business Management) recently was promoted to coordinator of Central Printing Services for Pinellas County Schools. As such, he oversees the school district's interoffice mail systems and production of all the printed materials for the district.
Bernard LiLavois '10 (Business Management) subsequently earned an M.B.A. in Healthcare Administration from South University in Tampa. He currently is the director of the respiratory and EKG services at HealthSouth Rehab Hospital in Largo.
Note: An alumni class includes all students who graduated between June of one year and May of the next year. For example, students who graduated in August 2015 are considered part of the Class of 2016. What's new with you? Share your good news two ways:
Share your personal and professional updates by emailing us at pelsuccess@eckerd.edu. We reserve the right to format announcements to fit style and other considerations.
Anne Anderson '07, PEL's director of blended and online learning, co-authored a chapter, "The World is Flat, Stanley! Globalization, Ethnocentricity, and Absurdity," which recently was published in The Early Reader in Children's Literature and Culture(Routledge, 2016). The chapter discusses the Flat Stanley series of books for their contributions to increasing globalization, for their insight into ethnocentric thinking and actions, and for the ways in which their absurd premises complicate the reading.
Catherine Griggs, PEL coordinator of Humanities and Associate Professor of American Studies, recently was featured in a WTSP 10News article, which included a Studio 10 televised interview. Griggs and Nathan Andersen, also an Eckerd professor, organized the Environmental Film Festival held this past month.
Gregory Padgett, Associate Professor of History at Eckerd College who teaches African-American History and other courses in the PEL program, recently was featured in an article in The Weekly Challenger. The article focuses on a civil rights course titled "What’s Past is Prologue: The Civil Rights Movement In the United States" that Padgett taught through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), another Eckerd program. The class met at the Midtown campus of St. Petersburg college.
Jim Schnur, PEL professor of Florida history and USF-SP Special Collections librarian, recently had a book published and a day designated in his honor. Seminole, part of the Images of America series (Arcadia Publishing, 2016), tells in words and images the story of Pinellas County's youngest municipality. The City of Seminole designated January 12, 2016, the official date of publication, as "Jim Schnur Day."
[January 18, 2017] Editor's Note: This post was supposed to have been published on February 29, 2016, as part of the March PEL Connector, but it was just discovered sitting in our drafts. However, we included it in our EMMA email, and we usually check all the links before sending it. Was it published and then pulled for further editing? Was it kidnapped by cyber-gremlins or lost in a cyberspace time warp? We cannot say for certain, but we are posting it in it's proper slot of February 29, 2016, and are noting that the actual publication date is only about a year off.
Employers filled Fox Hall at a 2015 Career Services fair.
by Anne W. Anderson Lunch & Learn photos by Craig Anderson
Looking for new career opportunities? More than 30 area businesses already have reserved space at the Eckerd College Career & Internship Fair to be held Wednesday, April 13, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Fox Hall.
Director of Career Services Grant Bailey said in an email he anticipates another 20 or so employers also will register. The companies attending represent a variety of fields including finance, marine science, research, technology, and sports.
"Currently registered employers include the Tampa Bay Rays, Tech Data, Northwestern Mutual, The Florida Aquarium, Statistics Solutions, and Mote Marine Aquarium," Bailey wrote.
Employers attend the Eckerd College Fair because they value Eckerd's reputation for fostering skills such as "collaborative leadership, innovation, analysis and critical thinking, problem solving, research, oral and written communication skills, and a commitment to service," according to the information sent to interested employers.
PEL students are welcomed, and students do not need to register for the event.
"Simply show-up in professional attire, as if you were going to an interview," Bailey wrote. He also suggested students bring copies of their resume, preferably in a nice folder.
Finding the right path to long-lasting career satisfaction
Kathy McDonald welcomes people to the Lunch & Learn.
Finding a job is only the first step to building a career. And there are different paths to building a satisfying career.
Not
everyone is an Organizational Climber who needs to become CEO of their
company to achieve career success and fulfillment, according to Kathy
McDonald, PEL's director of admissions and recruitment, and Mary E.
Anderson, career specialist with Eckerd College's Center for Career Planning and Applied Learning.
Two other career paths, McDonald explained, are those of the Continuous
Learner and the Master Craftsman (see condensed slide presentation
below).
McDonald and Anderson spoke to almost 30 PEL
students, alumni, and interested community friends who filled a
conference room at the PEL Tampa campus on Westshore Blvd. this past
month.
"Some people are organizational climbers,"
McDonald told the group as they lunched on a variety of wraps. "But
there's only so much room at the top. Plus, not everyone enjoys being in
management."
McDonald
noted that most of us follow more than one path depending on the
setting and on where we are in life. A person may be an organizational
climber as a community advocate but find success as a continuous learner
at work. Someone who begins a career as a continuous learner may
discover a particular area of focus and become a master craftsman in
that area.
Mary Anderson explains how to develop a personal brand.
"There's
no line in the sand that says we must be one or the other," McDonald
said in a follow-up interview. "What's important is that we consider the
question of what is right for me at this stage of my career."
Anderson
agreed. "In today's age of global living and learning, everyone has to
have traits of the continuous learner," she said. As jobs and fields
become obsolete and as what defines a career changes, we need to retool
ourselves to meet new conditions."
Anderson explained
how to develop a personal brand based on the particular path one is
following and then how to use that brand in a focused networking
strategy.
Tampa campus office manager Craig Anderson
(no relation to Mary) observed the free, Thursday noon session and found
the information about networking particularly useful. "It wasn't just
about career paths but also about how to work those paths into things
like using social media effectively," he said.
PEL students and alumni have access to career help
Both current PEL students and PEL alumni can access the services provided through Eckerd College's Center for Career Planning and Applied Learning, Mary Anderson noted.
"We help students and alumni connect what they are
learning or have learned in the classroom with how it applies in developing career
strategies," Anderson said.
Both Anderson and McDonald, who identify themselves as continuous learners, maintain close
connections with the business community and bring an immediacy to their
presentations. McDonald, for instance, presented a
similar workshop at the SuncoastHR chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) later in January.
"And I am continually monitoring emerging trends to spot new best practices in developing resumes and CVs," Anderson added.
To learn more about Eckerd's career planning services, contact Mary Anderson at
727-864-7832 (andersme1@eckerd.edu).
