Mission
We educate and empower College of the Arts students using innovative tools and services to connect with professional opportunities within New Jersey and beyond.
Vision
College of the Art students transform their academic preparation and aspirations into fulfilling work over their lifetimes.
Career Education
The time to start thinking about careers isn’t in students’ final semesters, but much sooner. That’s why we feel that it’s imperative to integrate career preparation and management content into the College of the Arts curriculum. Across all programs and majors we aim to address professional development topics in courses such as freshman seminars.
What we have found is that the more exposure to the working world and practice marketing oneself via resumes, online profiles, interviews and networking events, the more one is able to successfully transition into satisfying and meaningful employment upon graduation. Therefore, through the workshops we will conduct in first- and second-year classrooms, we’ll prepare students to search for and land those first internships and co-ops, with the larger goal to try out multiple internships and thus gain greater clarity on what direction they’d like to take their careers in upon graduation.
The Career Education initiative relies heavily on the support and expertise of faculty and industry professionals. Advice, tips and tools for managing one’s career will be delivered by a string of guest speakers and panel presentations from working professionals, including alumni. Inviting professionals into the classroom from a variety of fields and possessing a wide range of experience gives students fresh perspectives that are relevant and relatable. We believe this component will nicely complement the high caliber education students receive with vocational insights.
Cooperative Education
The university’s strong Cooperative Education gives our students the ability to apply this professional advice plus theories and concepts learned in the classroom directly to field experiences at a variety of organizations in the arts, communication, media and entertainment industries. Our co-ops typically last the length of a semester and give students the chance to develop and enhance their professional skill sets, explore fields of interest related to their programs of study, confirm or reject career interests, and increase their networks while earning academic credit. Experiential education is a critical element to our curriculum here in the College of the Arts, with several programs and majors already making it a requirement. Therefore, it’s a top priority for us to make our students aware of the value in our Co-op Program and prepare them to enter their desired fields.
As mentioned, expanding students’ networks is a goal for our Co-op Program. We feel that alumni can play a significant role in that. That’s why we envision developing a mentorship program that pairs students one-on-one to alumni. These relationships not only will clarify career choices for students and have the potential to open up employment opportunities through their mentors’ networks, but they also are an excellent way to reconnect alumni to their alma mater. We further believe that this is a promising initiative because it will increase and strengthen the way Career Services collaborates with Alumni Relations.
Global Contributions
Our university is favorably seated in a commercially bustling suburb in northern New Jersey, and with quick access into New York City, our students have outstanding opportunities to work in the arts, entertainment, and communication fields. But we want them to think bigger. Students can easily and comfortably look for work in this major metropolitan area, but in support of the university’s mission, we want them to exercise their knowledge and abilities in constructive ways across all borders. That’s why we work to attract employers from different regions of the country where we have strong alumni bases to recruit CART students.
Success Stories
Many of our students acquire incredible opportunities out in the field, and there are plenty more who graduate and go on to lead successful lives and careers, many of which we are unaware of. Through our “Success Stories” webpage, the goal is to not only highlight the achievements of some of these exceptional students and recent graduates, but these stories also serve as reassuring and guiding voices on how others can attain their career goals. This project also draws attention to the employing organizations of these students, proving that there are some excellent companies out there that want MSU students!