The setup
A $3 million endowment established the career center in UNT at Frisco, according to a news release. The Frisco branch campus houses the College of Applied and Collaborative Studies, formerly known as New College.
About the program
The center is located at the front of the Frisco Landing building and has a conference room and space for networking, said Eileen Buecher, assistant vice president for student affairs and career success.
“As soon as you walk into the building, it is about career readiness,” she said. “We’re walking the talk where career readiness is embedded into their academic experience.”
The university’s career center provides career-readiness activities to undergraduate and graduate students, Buecher said. This includes self assessments to determine personal interests, exploring career options, and finding internships and jobs as well as navigating the graduate school application process.
Students are also required to undergo a newly implemented career readiness curriculum throughout their time at UNT that was created by career center faculty, Buecher said.
“We have a very collaborative model,” she said. “We’re working with the leadership of Frisco Landing [and] with all of the college deans to ensure what we are offering is aligned with the majors and the goals of the students.”
Frisco Landing’s career center has career and employer specialists, who Buecher said work with students through career coaching appointments, workshops and classroom presentations. The center combines the academics learned in a student’s course into transferable skills for the workplace, she said.
“We are those bridge-makers,” Buecher said. “We are those facilitators to help them bring it all together.”
The impact
Internships and workshops at the Frisco Landing career center are built into the CACS program’s curriculum.
“We want it to be embedded in all UNT students that career readiness is a part of their journey that we’re committing to, so they can evolve into their best selves,” Buecher said.
The Frisco Landing career center is open to hosting events for the community, she said. The specialists also host weekly small career fairs with three to five local employers on the Frisco campus.
“Because [Frisco Landing] is so new and such a prime location, there’s so much potential and opportunities for the university, the students and our employer partners," Buecher said.
