Promoted by the National Career Development Association, November is National Career Development Month. Across the country, programs are popping up to encourage students to engage in career exploration, career preparation, and career mapping and development. It’s a time for many of our college Scholars to start to focus on future career choices and summer internship opportunities. In fact, career development is so critical to our Scholars’ success, we structured one of our newest initiatives, a mobile application to deliver content and community, around career pathways and industry interests.
One Chicago company that recently joined our efforts to build out and advance our mobile application is Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP). At Chicago Scholars, a college degree is not the finish line, but instead we take it one step further and work with students as they secure that first meaningful job out of college. This transition to career is so important to the long-term impact of that college degree, on the Scholar, their family, and their community. Our partners are critical to achieving our vision of building a vibrant city powered by diverse leaders from every neighborhood, and MDP’s involvement will help drive the important work we do every day. We are excited that our Scholars will benefit from the MDP team members’ knowledge and experience as they progress through school and transition into their own careers.
“I know I speak for our entire team when I say that we are honored to partner with one of Chicago’s homegrown, successful and deeply engaged businesses, Madison Dearborn Partners,” shares CEO Jeffery Beckham, Jr. when asked about this new partnership. “For 25 years, Chicago Scholars has supported so many incredible students in our effort to fulfill our vision. It takes a whole community to achieve our big goals. We are excited about the opportunities our new partnership with MDP will provide to our Scholars, and we look forward to making an even greater impact on our local Chicago communities and students with the involvement and talent of MDP by our side.”
Also, as part of November’s focus on career development, our Board HR Committee hosted a networking night for College and Alumni Scholars focused on careers in human resources. The event allowed for engagement between current HR professionals and interested Scholars, helping to create community and launch future conversations in the mobile application. This type of career-related gathering is just one example of the content that will be curated through the mobile application, supported by MDP. “It was really an exciting opportunity to bring board members, corporate partners, and Scholars together to discuss a topic that is important to me, and also a growing career field,” said Ja’Qwan Hoskins, Chicago Scholars Alum and Manager of Human Resources for the organization.
If you are interested in learning more about the new Chicago Scholars mobile application, or partnering with the organization in our career and leadership advancement work, please reach out to thankyou@chicagoscholars.org.
