Covenant College recently launched the Center of Vocational Exploration and Career Services, a new initiative to help connect students and alumni with meaningful work.
 
“Our primary goal is to allow students and alumni to identify their skills and interests and then help them connect those to a need in our world,” says Anthony Tucker, the new director of the Center.
 
In addition to connecting with local businesses, non-profit organizations, and churches, Tucker also wants to develop a worldwide network. “We have alumni scattered across this globe,” he says. “Our alumni would bend over backward to help students and young alumni figure out where they can meet a need in our world, and we have a network of churches across the world that want nothing more than to connect young people to needs in society.”
 
One of the ways Tucker hopes to build up this network is by creating “pipelines” of internships for students, as is already taking place in Washington, D.C. “Each year, Covenant grads take a leap into public service in Washington, D.C.,” said Tucker. “Because of this pipeline of talent fulfilling needs there, Covenant students continue moving to and serving in D.C. We want to duplicate that in other places.”
 
The new Center of Vocational Exploration and Career Services also helps students in the early stages of considering a career. In addition to providing career assessment tests to incoming students, the Center is now bringing in speakers and recruiters and working closely with the faculty. “I remember being a student here at Covenant, and I know full well the influence my professors had on me,” says Tucker. “We’d be crazy not to partner with the very people who lead in educating and advising students.”
 
As associate professor of management Dr. Scott Quatro says, “Covenant has done a great job of preparing students for various professional callings. But we need to do a better job of coming alongside students as they discern their professional calling, and then connect them with specific internship or job opportunities. The new Center, under Anthony’s leadership, is an important step to these ends.”
 
To learn more about Covenant College, visit www.covenant.edu.