The Pomerantz Career Center at the University of Iowa is dedicated to helping Hawkeyes become leaders in their careers and communities. This not only includes helping seniors prepare for graduation but engaging students earlier as they acclimate to the university, make decisions about their major or career, gain experience, and complete internships to build the skills they will need to be successful finding a job or attending graduate school after commencement. The career center reaches more than 10,000 students annually through 1:1 career advising, workshops, classes, campus interviews, career fairs, and other services.

To enhance skills that students are learning in the classroom and to further develop skills employers are seeking in new graduates, academic courses continue to be one way that the center reaches 1,400+ students annually in class enrollment. The center offers over 20 courses focused on career, professional, and leadership development either online or in a traditional classroom setting. Courses like Money Wise, Communication for the Workplace, Strengths-Based Leadership, and multiple internship courses help students build the skills they will need to be successful after graduation.

The center also prioritizes students’ leadership development by administering the Certificate in Leadership Studies, which is available to all UI undergraduates. The certificate helps students build skills and knowledge for effective leadership from a multidisciplinary perspective. Another option available is a unique, two-semester academic program known as the Career Leadership Academy (CLA). CLA prepares aspiring undergraduate student leaders to excel in their future endeavors beyond the university as well as while at Iowa, and to live and lead with integrity.

Staff from the center travel extensively throughout the year to develop and assist in the growth of relationships with employers both large and small. Each year, staff visit more than 100 organizations are across the country and attend an additional 85 economic and business-development events in area communities. Added to actively traveling, staff conduct more than 100 phone meetings annually with companies, nonprofits, and school districts to help them further their recruiting efforts of University of Iowa students.

These relationships have resulted in increased job, internship, and student employment postings available to University of Iowa students—more than 11,500 opportunities each year are available on HireaHawk.com, an online recruiting system. These recruiting efforts contribute to the fact that the University of Iowa consistently has post-graduation outcomes above 90 percent with the last reported at 93.3 percent for 2014–15. This means graduates are employed, furthering education, or not seeking employment at the time the survey is completed. This data is collected by the Pomerantz Career Center twice per year and is self-reported by graduates prior to or after graduation.

This outcome data is just one indicator of the excellent academic preparation made available to students through the classroom at Iowa, experiential education opportunities, robust career-development services and opportunities, and the hard work and dedication of the students themselves—a hallmark of University of Iowa students. We continue to look to the future to develop programming, services, and courses to keep pace with trends in both higher education and career services across the country.