As faculty and staff, you play an incredible role in shaping students’ career readiness—often more than you realize. By becoming a Career Champion, you’ll join a campus-wide community dedicated to supporting student career readiness and helping every student see career development as part of their UB experience.
Why Get Involved?
Career Champions help students build confidence, make connections, and explore possibilities. You don’t need to be a career expert—just someone who cares about student success and wants to integrate career conversations into your everyday work.
When you become a Career Champion, you’ll also gain access to resources, tools, and a supportive network through the Career Design Center that will help you:
- Confidently talk with students about their career interests and goals.
- Integrate career readiness into your classes, programs, or student interactions.
- Collaborate with the Career Design Center on events, lessons, or experiential learning opportunities.
How to Become a Career Champion
It’s easy to get started! To earn your Career Champion designation, simply complete all 3 steps:
- Attend one introductory workshop (50 minutes) or meet 1:1 with your departmental liaison for a full overview of Career Design Center and how we can partner together.
- Subscribe to the Career Champion newsletter to stay connected with resources and opportunities.
- Engage with the Career Design Center in at least one of the following ways:
- Bring your students or staff to tour the Career Design Center.
- Embed a career-related assignment in your course using the Brightspace Champion Toolkit.
- Collaborate on a program or workshop for your student population.
- Integrate the Career Readiness Competencies into a syllabus, program, or advising conversation.
- Invite the CDC to present in your class or department meeting.
What are the benefits?
In addition to helping students connect their coursework to their future careers, Career Champions receive:
- A Career Champion Sticker to show your support for student career development and engagement with the Career Design Center.
- Recognition in the Career Design Center newsletter and at appropriate events.
- NACE Membership (National Association of Colleges and Employers) to access professional resources and trends.
- An invitation to the annual Faculty Career Champion Celebration, where we recognize your impact and share success stories from across campus.
- Letter of recognition sent to your supervisor and/or Department Chair. (You can also opt out if you prefer!)
Join the Community
When you become a Career Champion, you’re not just supporting students—you’re joining a network of colleagues across campus who believe in empowering students to design their futures. Together, we can make career readiness part of the everyday UB experience.
