Engaging new students with KICKSTART Your Career

A student’s first semester at Binghamton is an exciting time that is typically filled with making friends, exploring campus and investigating opportunities. This fall, the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development capitalized on the attentiveness and excitement of new students through intentional programming that started when students first arrived on campus.

The KICKSTART Your Career Program was created in Aug. 2019 as a three-day, pre-arrival program for incoming first-year students and was reimagined as a virtual program in subsequent years due to COVID restrictions. This fall, the Fleishman Center was thrilled to be able to host KICKSTART in person once again, this time as a half-day program on the Sunday before classes started. A total of 89 students attended and participated. KICKSTART is designed to support first-year students in their career exploration process, and consists of workshops and activities focused on networking, career exploration and strength identification.

Relationship-building was also a central part of the program, and students who attended were able to connect with each other and with peer mentors who work as senior peer consultants in the Fleishman Center. The Fleishman Center is facilitating a follow-up effort where the peer mentors will reach out to KICKSTART participants once a month for the duration of the school year to offer support as they navigate their first year of college and maintain their connection with the office.