Speaker: Liz Langemak, Associate Director, US University Relations, Verizon
What do you find most rewarding about the work you do?
Liz Langemak: So 5 years ago when I was a professor teaching writing and literature and just starting to take on dual credit partnerships at a university here in Philadelphia, I could not have imagined that I would find partnership work so fulfilling and that I would also go on from there to find roles outside of higher ed that really spoke to the things that drew me to education in the first place, which for me was all about learning and helping students to understand the capacities, and that would even allow me to keep talking shop, with my colleagues in academia. So just like with writing and teaching in my career in general, I find that the most rewarding parts of my work now are about surprise. So when my teams and I take risks, we try out a new collaboration. When we get to help colleagues from Verizon and higher ed consider each other's work in new lights, and this one is my favorite: When we help a student to see that they already have skills in their back pocket that would make them great fits for roles that they never even expected.
Professionally speaking, what do you consider to be your most significant achievement so far? Where do you believe you’ve made a difference?
Liz Langemak: I think the work that I'm most proud of is the translation and bridge building that my teams and I have done between corporate and higher education partners and the way that those conversations have opened doors to new opportunities for students and institutions. At Verizon, for example, right now I'm really excited about our new initiatives to include college administrators in our work in ways that will create new connections not only between us and them, but between different universities. I also hope that I'm doing at least a few small things to make a difference not only in how higher ed and corporate partners understand each other's work, but to help individual people starting out in one of those spaces or the other, to understand that their own skills are very transferable. I believe the folks who want to cross between those spaces should feel confident that they're in possession of a really deep and useful knowledge that other people can benefit from, and I always get excited for the chance to help people think those opportunities through.
