L&C Launches New Career Accelerator “Turbocharged” by $5M Commitment

Lewis & Clark is launching a new Career Accelerator, a transformational approach to career preparation, powered by a $5 million commitment toward an endowment from Board of Trustees member Heidi Hu BS ’85 and her husband, Daniel Hsieh. The Career Accelerator will reimagine the current undergraduate Career Center, setting a new standard for career readiness at liberal arts colleges by integrating skills development and paid internships across all academic programs for the benefit of every undergraduate student.

“I am immensely grateful to Heidi and Dan for this extraordinary gift that will turbocharge the launch of the Career Accelerator and increase the career readiness of all our students,” said Robin Holmes-Sullivan, president of Lewis & Clark. “This crucial early support of the Career Accelerator continues Heidi’s and Dan’s long record of giving. The impact of their generosity will be felt by thousands of students, both now and well into the future.”

The Career Accelerator will reimagine the current undergraduate Career Center, setting a new standard for career readiness at liberal arts colleges.
Credit: Adam Bacher

Hu and Hsieh have a robust history of supporting undergraduate students, including providing funding for scholarships and an endowment for internships. The Hu Media Lounge, named in Hu’s honor and located near Fields Dining Hall, is a de facto living room for the student center. The casual space is enjoyed as a resource for students’ regular technology needs, such as printing, computing, and team projects, as well as a gathering space for social gaming, e-sports, and other tech-based activities. In addition to the $5 million endowment for the Career Accelerator, Hu and Hsieh have committed $600,000 in initial seed funding for the effort.

“Dan and I are so proud to support this forward-thinking initiative that will fuel students’ career readiness,” said Hu. “We are both strong believers in the power of a liberal arts education to prepare for just about any professional path and are excited about the added opportunities that the Career Accelerator will make possible for students.”

The new Career Accelerator will focus on providing robust opportunities for every undergraduate student to acquire career-ready competencies as part of their college education. The goal is for each student to participate in a progression of academically rigorous skills classes that lead to structured internships. Career-ready competencies will be standardized across on-campus employment, off-campus internships, and overseas study programs to ensure consistent, evidence-based benchmarks for student growth.

Among the Career Accelerator’s curricular innovations will be scaling up the for-credit, short-format skills classes in areas such as data visualization, AI, Excel, and SEO that are now being offered through the Bates Center for Entrepreneurship and Leadership. The goal is to broaden the availability of these skills courses, making them available to all undergraduates, in partnership with the Bates Center.

The only prerequisite for entry into a paid, project-based internship class is taking one or more of the skills classes, and every paid internship class will be supported by a seminar component that includes robust career preparation so that students succeed in the internship, a foundation for future career success.

The Career Accelerator grew out of The L&C Advantage: Three Strategic Imperatives for Lewis & Clark’s Future. The strategic imperatives were developed from President Holmes-Sullivan’s campuswide call for “Big Idea” proposals to advance the institution. Last summer, she established the Strategic Imperatives Advisory Council, made up of a staff and faculty at the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Education and Counseling, and the School of Law. The council is charged with making recommendations as to which initiatives should be prioritized in order to most effectively move the institution forward. The Career Accelerator is the first initiative to emerge from the Strategic Imperatives Advisory Council’s recommendations to the president.

Lewis & Clark is currently searching for the Career Accelerator’s inaugural director, who is expected to start at the end of June.

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