Speaker: Camille Liverpool, Career Educator
Camille Liverpool: Hi, my name is Camille Liverpool and I am a Career Educator at the Georgia Tech Career Center. I'm thrilled to share we have received the 2024 Career Services Excellence Award for our AuthenTECH partnership program. We are proud to speak on the career center's behalf about our collective efforts to serve the full spectrum of students at Georgia Tech.
Talk briefly about your program and what sparked you to develop it.
Camille Liverpool: Two of the Career Center, strategic goals are focused on creating an inclusive and robust career education experience for Georgia Tech students and advancing equitable college hiring practices. Before instituting the AuthenTECH model, our population-specific efforts scattered and lacked a specific strategy. To organize our efforts the career center used a framework of equal employment opportunity protected classes and assessed the student landscape at Georgia Tech to institute a staff liaison model to engage in concentrated efforts for our high priority populations. These include students who identify as LGBTQIA, first generation, low income, Black, Hispanic Latinx, women, International, and students with disabilities. With this framework in mind, the career center focused on building relationships with student groups and affinity-based offices across campus to create customized programming and scalable services. We also established the DEI career peer program now called AuthenTECH Career Peers to gain peer-to-peer insights and assist with our outreach efforts.
What were you trying to achieve? Did you achieve what you expected?
Camille Liverpool: The Georgia Tech Career Center hosts over 100 programs each semester based on commonly expressed career needs of all students. However, there are unique challenges and experiences certain communities may encounter in their career journey that largely do not occur in the general population. The goal behind the AuthenTECH program is to provide population-specific resources, expand programming, and cultivate partnerships to advance equitable career outcomes. To launch this initiative. Career Center staff volunteered to serve as liaisons to these populations. Next, they were charged with building deeper relationships with campus partners and student groups affiliated with our high priority populations to engage in more meaningful initiatives. Over time, 30+ cross- collaborative yearly programs were developed and the Career Center achieved remarkable results. We have nearly doubled or in many cases, more than doubled, student engagement across the spectrum of demographic factors in the past three years, Our success shows not only in attendance but is also underscored in the high satisfaction rates we consistently receive over the past three years.
Were there any surprises—any results you weren’t expecting?
Camille Liverpool: My name is Davia Woulard. One surprise we found was how willing some offices and populations were to partner while others were not as inclined, We found that some groups did not seek our partnership because they felt well served while others were eager to engage on a larger scale. It is important to respect what is in place or you may run the risk of damaging these relationships. Another surprise was how quickly we were able to make an impact with a largely new staff. 75% of Georgia Tech's Career Center staff were hired within the last three years due to restructuring and other factors. As a result, we were pleasantly surprised to win Georgia Tech's Institute for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Diversity Champion Award in Fall 2023 and the LGBTQIA Center's Billy Pendleton Parker Award for Outstanding Allyship in Spring 2024. We share this not to boast, but to underscore how quickly you can make an impact through concentrated efforts even with a brand new staff.
How did you develop this program? What processes did you use?
Camille Liverpool: My name is Monica Jackson. We first identified affinity and identity-based offices on campus to learn more about their work in the career space and to explore interest in partnering with our office. Secondly, we hired AuthenTECH career peers who shared some identities with the students and we aim to engage through our programming. The peers were instrumental in identifying related student groups, giving insight to the current landscape, and proposing future career center activity. Lastly, we launched initiatives in response to what we learned and we continued to refined our content over time to better the program.
From your perspective, what was the single most important outcome of this program?
Camille Liverpool: The most important outcome of the AuthenTECH partnership program is what our liaisons have learned. Engaging in population-specific work isn't always going to be easy or successful. You may also receive negative feedback and engage in some hard conversations. This is to be expected and embraced, but it is worth the outcome of engaging in work that leads to equitable career services accessed for all students.
If someone wants to replicate your program, what do they need to know upfront (the first steps to take, potential pitfalls to watch for)?
Camille Liverpool: If someone wants to replicate the program, they need to start with direct conversations with your student populations and campus offices, rather than creating something you think they need. They may already have programs or services in place that best serve them, and your office could be of assistance in other areas. Be mindful you don't fall into the trap of checking a box, and focus on authenticity in all of your efforts. Own it if you make mistakes and continue to build bridges.
