Career Services helps mold students into global leaders by cultivating confidence, character and a winner mentality, the team says
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For BYU–Hawaii’s Career Services, career readiness goes beyond building an exceptional resume or technical skill set—it’s about developing the confidence and mentality that defines a winner. “You need to be confident in yourself and your capabilities because that’s going to be the first step in pursuing your future,” said Ikaia Nawahine, Career Services’ career planning and placement manager. To that end, he said the team is focused on challenging students to go further, aim higher and open their eyes to the opportunities that await them on a larger stage.
The Career Services team, said Nawahine, works with students from all backgrounds to cultivate a culture of competing for high-quality jobs. “It’s not just about getting a job after school, but about going out, competing and winning jobs that probably students from bigger universities are applying for as well,” he explained, noting that BYUH students are equally qualified and capable for top-tier positions. Career Services, he emphasized, is committed to further refining and sharpening the university’s competitive edge: its close-knit, global community of students from diverse cultures across the world.
We’re not just here to create great employees. We’re here to build great people and great leaders.
Shaping global legacy
Nawahine said Career Services supports BYUH’s overall mission by helping shape students into leaders who will consistently embody the university’s values while strengthening their own communities. “We want to ensure our students are placed in high-quality career positions, not only allowing them to return home, but also to live and lead in their communities, families and especially in the workforce,” he shared.
For Nalia Tollefsen, a junior from Laie studying health and human science and the supervisor of Career Services’ peer counselor team, the center plays a vital role in carrying forward the university’s legacy. “We help students prepare for real-life experiences in their careers and fields of study. We provide resources that give them meaningful experiences and opportunities,” she explained. The resources they offer, she continued, are designed to help students build confidence and character—qualities that can serve as their sharpest weapons when honed.
Career planning and placement advisor Melanie Kauvaka described Career Services as a resource training center. However, she said their services go deeper than resume preparation, mock interviews, networking, internships or job fairs. “We also try to model leadership and service through our student workers, hoping to influence their fellow students with it. So that as they move into companies after graduation, they can carry those standards with them and build opportunities for future students,” she shared. She said they are aiming to maintain a standard of excellence that will become BYUH students’ legacy worldwide.
“We’re not just here to create great employees. We’re here to build great people and great leaders who will return to the Asia Pacific region to go bless their brothers and sisters in those countries,” emphasized Nawahine. In recognition of the sacrifices students make to pursue an education, he said the Career Services team is committed to providing tools the BYUH community would need to create an impact.
Catering to a diverse student body
As one of the things that set BYUH apart from other campuses is its diversity, Nawahine said the guidance offered by the Career Services studio is tailored to students’ varied backgrounds and cultures. Although it has always been the team’s priority to design their services around students’ needs, Nawahine shared they recently implemented region-specific assistance. “So whether you’re from the Philippines and wanting to work in Japan, or you’re from Tonga and wanting to work in New Zealand, we are catering your path to where you would like to end up and be employed,” he said.
Explaining why the team divided its efforts by region, Nawahine said, “We need to understand that different countries have different requirements; different industries have different credentials.” To ensure informational accuracy and up-to-date requirements, he said their student employees are tasked to regularly conduct in-depth industry research on different countries. “Being provided with good and accurate information gives students the upper hand when applying for jobs back home,” he said.
In line with this initiative, the studio started offering regional resume guidelines this semester, Kauvaka said. “Every regional counselor in our office has created guidelines for the countries where students want to work,” she shared. This new practice, she continued, makes the students’ preparation more focused and strategic.
“Knowing the requirements of the region is essential because, for instance, if you submit a U.S.-standard resume in South Korea, you won’t even get an interview,” Tollefsen explained. She said the counselors are trained to help students gain comprehensive understanding of region-specific templates and requirements.
Nawahine said they are also working on implementing employer boards, beginning with an “Asia-Pacific Employer Series,” where they plan to invite top executives from several leading companies in those regions to the campus. “As part of their time with us, we want faculty and deans to sit down and converse: ‘What do the requirements look like now in their regions? What do our students need to learn so they’re competitive in your industry?’” he explained. Their first focus, he shared, would be the Philippines, which is home to about 700 BYUH students.
Nawahine said the goal is to build a network with industry leaders from every country in the university’s target regions. This strategy, he explained, would ensure students can gain the knowledge needed to remain competitive in their chosen fields. “We want to consistently know how we can best adapt our teaching so that we’re providing the best opportunities possible for our students,”
he expressed.
Taking ownership
“The biggest impact we can have on students is to help them feel the confidence that they can go and compete for high-quality jobs and positions,” Nawahine shared. He said the Career Services’ well-trained team exists to show that BYUH cultivates a community of exceptional students who can make a difference in any industry—and in the world at large. “But it all starts with the mentality of being a winner and going out and competing for these opportunities,” he emphasized.
The services offered by the studio will continue to evolve and open up better opportunities, he said, but the most important piece of the puzzle still falls on the students. “Even with all we do for the university and our students, they also need to take ownership of their futures. Sooner rather than later, so that we can have more time to work with them,” he explained. Nawahine issued a call echoed by the rest of his team: “We have all these resources, services and events ready to share. We can have everything in place, but we also need students to take advantage of these opportunities.”
“The key is consistent effort,” said Tollefsen. She said the most impressive growth she has witnessed came from those who continually showed up to utilize the resources accessible to them.
“We want people to feel loved, empowered and encouraged when they leave our office,” Kauvaka expressed. Careers take time, she emphasized, and she said she hopes students can trust the process, have a vision of hope and have confidence that their hard work will pay off. “If students consistently meet with us, the lasting impact comes from those relationships. They will feel Christ’s love through the culture of our department,” she added.
Visions for the future
“The last thing I want is for a student to get to their last semester and have no idea where they want to go, what they want to do or how they want to do it,” Nawahine expressed. He said that’s why the Career Services team will continually work on putting together workshops and training sessions—an effort that will constantly adjust and adapt to perpetually changing industries. “The way I see it, five to ten years from now, I imagine organizations all over the world knocking on our doors, begging for recommendations because they know we provide individuals who are doers and winners,” he said.
Kauvaka shares the same vision. “I see our pipelines with companies growing stronger and our department possibly doubling in size with more peer counselors and full-time staff,” she shared. Hoping to make a ripple across the campus and into the wider community, she said she specifically aims for stronger connections in Asia and the Pacific. “I want students to be able to acknowledge that Career Services played a role in their development through training, invitations and relationships,” she expressed.