The Coffee and Careers chat hosted jointly by Career Exploration and Development (CED) and Student Accessibility Services (SAS), is a new drop-in career advising opportunity for Kent State students with disabilities.
The workshop was launched on Oct. 27 and will continue to be held in the SAS office on the first floor of the University Library every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Free coffee and donuts are also available to those who attend.
As a leading Career Peer for students with disabilities, Josie Vano programmed these drop-in hours to provide specialized service to this community through assistance with job-searching, preparing for job interviews or assessing accessibility within the workplace.
“We’re making sure we’re plugging into the community what ways students with disabilities need specific career services and what we need to know as career advisors to meet those needs,” Vano said. “So the drop-in hours are a first step to really connect with students and build a rapport with them.”
According to Vano, many students with disabilities enter the workforce and encounter a more unique set of challenges than most. Oftens, this community has to ask themselves if their future workplace will be accessible to them, what their rights and responsibilities are within that workplace and what else they must proactively do that others may not have to.
While the workshop exists to answer these difficult questions, help with resumes and prepare for interviews, students with disabilities are also encouraged to provide any suggestions on how their career needs can be better met during their time at Kent State.
“What we encounter a lot of times is folks in the disability community have decisions made about their lives on their behalf instead of being encouraged to make decisions themselves,” Vano said. “That’s from a policy level to an individual level, so one of the efforts we've been focused on is making sure we’re including students’ voices in developing this program.”
Any Kent State student in the disability community is encouraged to fill out this CED survey about their career experience at the university so far.
Through detailed, specific and personalized programming for each student community on campus, the CED aims to be an all-inclusive resource that can be relevant for all students. While this drop-in in partnership with SAS is specifically focused on those with disabilities, the office also hosts drop-in sessions that are available to all Kent State students Monday through Friday.
Any student is welcome to visit Career Services for specialized career help or guidance.
To see more information on career advising drop-ins, please visit www.kent.edu/career/drop-ins.
For more information on the office of Career Exploration and Development, please visit www.kent.edu/career.
For more information on Student Accessibility Services, please visit www.kent.edu/sas.