Faculty and Staff Have the Opportunity to Create Further Impact with Funding Support

With the spring semester fast approaching, students have much to look forward to as Career Development & Exploration launches yet another exciting and impactful program.

Created by Career Development and Exploration (CDE), the Career Innovations Fund is part of the overall vision and mission to become the premier career support center by providing relevant and forward-thinking programs and services to best serve the students at Cleveland State. The application, which opened on January 8, allows faculty and staff to create meaningful opportunities to advance students’ understanding of career goals, explore the workforce, acquire unique skills or address specific needs hindering their progress. Using Student Career Fee dollars ($4 per credit for every undergraduate and graduate student), up to $100,000 is being allocated for the innovations fund.

“I feel passionately that we have created the best team of professionals to support our mission and vision, but also know that many people are invested in the career success outcomes of our students beyond our small team; our faculty and staff across campus are our best allies,” said Wampler. “Creating this fund expands our reach and extends our diversity of thought beyond our team alone.”

This initiative includes four sub-objectives, including enhancing career tools and services, facilitating internship and experiential learning opportunities, promoting professional development workshops and events, and supporting industry collaborations and partnerships. Wampler stated that in the new Division of Student Belonging and Success, they have been challenged to focus more on measurable metrics by the new Vice President for Student Belonging and Success, Dr. Tachelle Banks.

“In creating the goals specifically for Career Development & Exploration, we wanted to set a goal to execute the spending for the Career Fee dollars in a more focused way,” said Wampler. “If we view the team of people that are impacting career development with a wider lens, the campus – administration, faculty, and staff – is all in it together. Collectively, we can do so much more together.”

Examples of funding ideas include providing headshots for music or theatre students requiring more than what the free CSU Headshot Photobooth offers, supporting field trips for student organizations or class/employer site visits for larger student groups and covering the costs for a portfolio software system for students needing online portfolios for job applications, integrating them into course content.

“At CSU, we are making so many strides toward supporting barriers that students experience on their track towards the workforce, and this innovations fund will seek out faculty and staff that want to advance even further, not just in idea generation, but in idea generation and funding to make ideas move,” said Wampler. “I am personally looking forward to seeing how far we can advance embedding career into the curriculum; I’ve been involved in early conversations regarding the new university core curriculum and know that we are moving collectively in a positive direction.”

As Wampler looks to the future, she sees this as another example of why CSU provides the best for their students regarding career services.

“Creating this fund expands our reach and extends our diversity of thought beyond our team alone.”

Faculty and Staff looking to apply for funding can do so by clicking here.