BYU–Hawaii’s Alumni & Career Services Center has launched a campaign to raise awareness about what they can do for alumni and students alike by asking the age-old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Junior psychology major from California, Emma Hunt, who is the events manager for the Alumni Center is the brain behind the campaign.
She explained the motivation behind the new campaign by saying, “When I first came to work here, I recognized that a lot of students didn’t know what Career Services was about, and I really wanted to show students that Alumni & Career Services can help them get whatever job they want in the future.”
Hunt went on to talk about her inspiration for the campaign. She said, “Sometimes we feel like kids. We start to think about graduation and feel like we have no clue what we’re doing with our lives. So we’re getting students thinking by asking them what they want to be when they grow up, and then promoting that we can help them be that.”
McKinze Norton, a junior graphic design major from Kansas, who is a marketing employee of Alumni & Career Services, helped develop the campaign.
She elaborated on Hunt’s statements, saying, “The point is to get people to come see us in a way that’s approachable and fun and not intimidating. People sometimes hear the word ‘career,’ and it has so much weight behind it that they avoid it. But the Career Center here on campus is great. There are so many opportunities to help students get where they want to be that aren’t being taken advantage of.”
Mark Macdonald, the Director of Alumni & Career Services from Utah, talked about how the student-led campaign came about. He described his style of leadership and teamwork as one that invites students to take initiative in the workplace that he aims to support.
At the time of the development of the new campaign, Macdonald said the Center was in the process of updating their bulletin boards around campus, and he invited student employees to get creative and come to him with any ideas and that is what Hunt did.
To market the campaign, they set up a photo booth and asked people to write down on a whiteboard what they want to be when they grow up, and then took their photo. Those pictures will be hung up on the Career Services bulletin boards, he said.
Norton said they are trying to increase their social media following, and Macdonald discussed changes that took place around the office, such as the layout structure. He explained, “We wanted an area that was more open, active, receptive, and spiritually uplifting. When people come in, they shouldn’t feel like they’re hitting a wall.”
Alumni & Career Services is located to the right of the Club Dining Facility and is open and available to all students, regardless of year or major.