Degree of success

Olivia Pasquale ’12, MPA ‘17, is a big fan of Binghamton University. She grew up in the area and has enormous pride for the education she received. In fact, she fell so in love with campus that she and her husband opted to take her wedding photos right on the Peace Quad.

“That’s how connected we were to the campus! My brothers both attended, I went here as an undergraduate and was finishing up my master’s at the time,” she said. “We used the steps and the clock tower as a backdrop!”

With fond memories of her time at Binghamton and the chance to advance her education even further, Pasquale worked in several roles across campus, always hoping to create engaged alumni and happy, successful students. She began in Human Resources, where she planned to leverage her bachelor’s degree in psychology. When the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Sciences opened its Career and Alumni Connections office in 2012, she switched over to bridge the student- and alumni-facing gap.

Most recently, Pasquale has filled another role, focusing even earlier in students’ professional paths: she is now the director of the School of Management (SOM) Career Services office.

This change was precipitated by changes in her personal life as a new mother and her decision to pursue a master’s degree in public administration with the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA), which she said gave her “a great, broad base” that could go in whichever direction she chose to pursue.

“Instead of being on the road, I thought I would ground myself and be student-serving. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to lead this operation and be a part of one of the fastest-growing and now premier business schools in the nation,” she said. “Relationship-building with alumni, employers and recruiters is my forte, but there’s no better population to ‘sell,’ because they just speak for themselves. These students leave here with a job.”

The director position has a lot of moving parts. Often, Pasquale meets with students about their career goals to help them succeed, from resumé-writing to giving mock interviews and professional development preparation. All first-year students have a built-in appointment with Career Services at the beginning and midpoints of their curriculum to prepare them for recruitment and to ensure progress is being made.

She also often presents to classes and communicates with employers. Twice per year, her team hosts week-long recruitment events; in that time, over 50 events are organized. Their signature event in fall 2025, Employer Networking Night, had over 1,000 participating students.

And the best part: it’s successful. In 2025, SOM had a 94% overall placement rate.

Pasquale said the best part of her job are the hard-working students. Many, she believes, come to Binghamton for value or quality despite acceptances to other institutions, and both she and the employers she connects students with can sense those skills and dedication. A close second for her are the alumni, whose willingness to give back and help students make her work possible.

Altogether, she takes great pride in her work and hopes to serve as a mentor to the students she supports. “With more than 2,300 students in the School of Management, every day brings the opportunity to connect with someone new,” she said. “When a student returns, and you start to see their growth and celebrate their success, that’s more rewarding than anything else. That’s what keeps me coming back.”

These are skills, she added, which she strengthened at CCPA. The ability to put herself in others’ shoes and team focus make both her work and her leadership more successful.

“Being just as good of an active listener as you are a leader is super-important,” she said.

As we move into a faster-paced future, Pasquale noted that the field is changing, but Binghamton is adapting along with it. She thinks that workforce development and the personal touch of her office will always be needed.

At the end of the day, Pasquale said, she’s ready to work with the market wherever it leads.

“We’re expanding so much in the School of Management: increasing enrollments and working with other industries, for example,” she said. “We are still an accounting and financial services college, but we’re finding that there are other things that our students want to do — they want to go into fashion, they want to go into the sports industry and healthcare. It is part of my responsibility to make sure that we have the employers to support those dreams.”