A sampling from Jaime Dunn, Director of Career Services

Tuesday 

Good morning! This morning I met with a sophomore who’s applying to the Pathways program for the AIP Language Institute in Valencia, Spain. We reviewed his letter of intent and resume and talked about finalizing his application for the deadline next week.

I then met with a former ambassador and career foreign service officer who has offered to speak with students about his career and opportunities with the State Department. It’s always great to bring people to campus to talk about their career paths with students and answer questions!

After classes were out for the afternoon, I headed to the library for a resume workshop with their student staff. It was a small group of us, which made it easy to tailor it to their needs.

My day ended with a meeting with a Santa Fe student visiting the East Coast over spring break. He’d been meeting with alumni in NY, Boston, and DC, and stopped by campus to say hi. He started a “consulting club” on the Santa Fe campus, which has brought a lot of speakers, mainly alums, back to talk about their careers in consulting.

Wednesday

While I’m not a tutor, I’m considered an Associate/non-teaching faculty member because of my close work with students. About eight staff members are considered “Associates” and meet with the Dean monthly to talk about issues facing students and update each other on our office/departments’ work. Today we talked about potential changes to Orientation, student retention, and how we can continue to improve the student experience on campus.

Following on my Associates meeting, today was also our monthly Faculty Meeting. I really enjoy the way these meetings have helped me develop close relationships with tutors, who then partner with my office on events, committees, and student referrals. Agenda items today included an update from the recent Board of Visitors and Governors meeting, a report on the Joint Instruction Committee over Spring Break, and as a follow-up to our Associates meeting, a discussion of how to improve the student experience on campus.

I ended my day with a Center for Entrepreneurship in the Liberal Arts (CELA) session, which is a new initiative this year. Tonight we were joined by a Graduate Institute alumnus, who talked about his experiences with entrepreneurship, both as an undergraduate and now in his professional life. At one point he commented that St. John’s was “the most transformational education experience of my life”. An undergraduate alumnus hosted the session in the co-working space he founded here in Annapolis, called “The Commons”.

 

Thursday 

As part of my broader community engagement efforts, I attend board meetings of the various groups associated with St. John’s. I recently attended a Mitchell Art Gallery Board meeting, and one of the members offered to talk with students on campus. Will spoke with students this afternoon about his career at the National Gallery, his most recent career as a photographer, and answered questions from the students about how they can break into the field as well as offered guidance and advice.

Friday 

The director of the Graduate Institute’s Eastern Classics program in Santa Fe was on campus to talk with students over lunch about the EC program and answered questions.

Jim Beall, one of our longest serving and most admired tutors, connected me to a contact of his who works in the State Department and we organized a visit to St. John’s. He visited campus this afternoon once classes were out to talk with students about his career, which has included overseas assignments in Sana’a, Yemen, Istanbul, Turkey, and as a political officer with the Syria Transition Assistance Response Team based in Turkey. We were lucky he’s currently teaching at Georgetown for the year before leaving for his next post in London! Our students really enjoyed the conversation and asked lots of questions, as Johnnies typically do!

For next week… Reviewing applications for Hodson Internships!