LaQuan Norman for NACE Board of Directors Nominations

Speaker: LaQuan Norman, Director, Ramapo College of New Jersey

LaQuan Norman: Greetings from Ramapo College of New Jersey. I'm Laquan Norman, the director of the Career Center. And I enthusiastically submit my application for consideration for the NAE board of directors. I'm interested in serving for three reasons when I have a commitment to research and diversity, equity and inclusion. Second, I am a committed lifelong learner and third, I derive great joy in helping people and organizations achieve their goals. When I first became director three years ago, I wanted to ensure that every student at Ramapo felt welcome in the career center and that every student regardless of identity had equitable access to our services and to um employers. So we set this really bold goal. Every student at Ramapo will have an internship practicum or research experience prior to graduation. And the way to do that was to disaggregate our data, to look for gaps in our services, our programming and our outcomes and to develop interventional strategies to make sure that every student had access to us. Our goal is to, to dismantle any systems of power and privilege that would prevent social mobility. Secondly, I'm a lifelong learner and I can remember the first time that I went to nice in Las Vegas. I was so excited to soak up the information that I learned there and to bring back and to apply to my practice. And I've gone to many nice conferences and been just as excited with the knowledge that I've acquired. It's even given me the courage to share our experiences over the last nine years at Rampo. We've talked about our required career development curriculum and the results of that as well as about how we use our data to inform our services. Finally, I like to help organizations and people suc succeed. So whether it's as an engineer, working with orthopedic surgeons to develop products to improve patients' lives, a marketing director, uh developing strategies for going to market for bio uh biomaterials or working with students to help them achieve their desired post graduation goals. It brings me joy. It's what drives me. I want to bring this energy and my skills and my knowledge to the n board of directors so that I can work with colleges learn from them and they can learn from me. I thank you for considering my application and I wish you the best of luck as you determine your slate.