Kelly O'Shaughnessy for NACE Board of Directors Nominations

Speaker: Kelly O'Shaughnessy, Director of Career Readiness Pathways, William & Mary Office of Career Development & Engagement

Kelly O'Shaughnessy: A little over 10 years ago, I first met Kathleen Powell when she joined uh way with Mary and at the time she was going into her President elect year. And I remember asking within the first few months of her being here, what advice did she have for someone new in the profession? For career development? I was looking for ways to grow and develop my career. And uh she was quick to suggest an active engagement within na and uh from then on, I, I didn't look back. I, I started with the Leadership Advancement Program and applying to be a speaker at the next conference which was accepted in Vegas. Um and it was around career readiness just before the career readiness competencies launched. And uh I've really been excited to see all the advancement and development around career readiness so much so that it's helped me in creating new roles for myself and, and a new position. Um You know, after participating in the uh management Leadership Institute, I uh was fortunate enough to uh work towards promotion here for a new role, focusing on career readiness initiatives on, on our campus and the partnerships that I've made across the association have both benefited, benefited our campus and our students, our employer partnerships. Um but also the work that I do within the, within the association. Uh More recently, I'm co chairing a task force on integrating career readiness into the employer recruiting process. And you know, the, the work that we're doing there is really another part of my motivation for um uh applying to be part of the board. Uh It's great to see all the advancement of career readiness uh in for our campus partners. And now as we dive more deeply into building out resources for our employer partners can only make the association more robust. Uh the more resources we have for our employer partners, the more engaged that they can be. And, and I look forward to seeing this project through and, and seeing what comes next throughout my engagement. I've been excited to see uh how connected people are and how easily it is to connect with others across the association. I hope to pay that forward um as a leader within the association and helping others bring their careers forward and find ways to advance themselves as we also work towards advancing the association.