The Center for Career Engagement (CCE) is thrilled to introduce the inaugural cohort of the Career Innovation Faculty Fellows (Fellows). At the CCE, our vision is to cultivate a robust career ecosystem where all students can maximize their potential for lifelong career success. In collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning, the CCE launched this program to empower faculty to develop innovative course content that seamlessly integrates career exploration and preparedness into the academic experience.
The cohort has worked together during Fall of 2025 to develop and share ideas, receiving structured support through group sessions, individualized consultation, and peer review. Each fellow is currently piloting their new career assignment in a course this Spring and collecting data to gauge students’ response.
One aim of the program is to support career thinking as part of a student’s academic journey rather than a separate endeavor. In discussing his motivation to blend career-focused activities in his Seminar in Plant & Microbial Biosciences course, Spencer T. Olin Professor in Biology, Joe Jez noted, “Research is the core of graduate training but having students investigate career options earlier in their training gives them time to prepare for what comes after the thesis defense (or postdoc). Partnering with the CCE and helping students see their options offers a way to broaden their understanding of what comes after graduate school.”
Another goal of the program is to increase students’ career-readiness by helping them to notice and leverage the professional competencies they are naturally developing in their courses as they consider their next steps and join the workforce. Describing her decision to integrate career into her New Media, New Technologies course, Associate Professor of Art and Archaeology, Ila Sheren explained, “Many employers are seeking the skills in qualitative analysis, written and oral communication, and visual literacy that we build organically in our field… My goal is to show students how Art History provides valuable skills for a variety of future careers.”
The course assignments developed by the Fellows are as unique as the courses themselves and encourage students’ career development in a variety of ways.
For example, students in Senior Lecturer, Kristen Wyckoff’s Environmental Engineering Capstone course have historically participated in an environmental design contest where they interact with judges from sponsoring firms. Her assignment asks students to prepare for the event with structured peer resume reviews, research on company sponsors, and a plan for proactive engagement with other students and professionals at the event.
In her Literary Journalism course, Senior Lecturer, Heather McPherson teaches her students to develop strong research skills, including preparing for and conducting interviews. Her assignment asks students to leverage these skills to conduct an interview with someone of professional interest, producing a profile piece while simultaneously learning about a career path of interest and building a new professional relationship.
Students in Senior Lecturer, Ragini Maddipati’s, Public Health Seminar II are simultaneously navigating the interview process in preparation for practicum in the upcoming summer semester. Her assignment gives students the opportunity to investigate various potential career pathways in both non-profit and for-profit sectors and to construct a tailored cover letter draft articulating their leadership philosophy and approach to public health challenges, which they can use as a template going forward as they actively apply.
Lisa Gilbert, Senior Lecturer in Education, elected to develop a career-focused assignment for students in her Capstone Seminar in Educational Studies course, which asks them to synthesize what they learn about career preparation through the service learning and leadership speaker components of the course. Students will articulate the value of their Educational Studies learning in a final poster project. Sharing her rationale for joining the cohort, she shared, “My hope is for WashU students to seize their golden opportunity for rich exploration on our vibrant campus. Then, as faculty working in partnership with the CCE, we can help them discern pathways to use their whole selves in careers defined by authenticity and purpose-driven leadership.”
The assignments developed by the Fellows will be included in the CCE’s new Assignment Library and made available for colleagues within WashU at the end of the Spring term.
Applications for the AY 2026/27 Career Innovation Faculty Fellows cohort will open in March of 2026. If you are a faculty member interested in this work, we welcome your application! If you have questions, please reach out to CCE Academic and Campus Partnerships team.
