College of Education & Human Services

CSP Alumni Career Coaching Program

The CSP Alumni Career Coaching Program provides a venue for current CSP students to benefit from the experiences and expertise of our alumni. The support fostered through this mentoring program helps prepare our students for a successful internship or job search.

As an alumni career coach, you will have the opportunity to advise students in a variety of ways:

  • Make connections between their classroom concepts, practica, and assistantship to their future roles as a student affairs professional.
  • Navigate moving from a student leader to a graduate student and to a full time professional (and sometimes moving from a full-time professional to a graduate students).
  • Analyze campus culture beyond their undergraduate institution(s) to include WIU and summer internship site
  • Engage in the summer internship and/or job search (resume and cover letter review).
  • Prepare for interviews (phone, Skype/Facetime, in-person mock-interviews) and campus presentations often associated with the summer internship and/or job search process.
  • Determine a focus area for their first student affairs job.
  • Think about the big-picture of their student affairs career.
CSP Alumni Career Coaching Program

"I'm enjoying my experience so far, as my mentor is reliable and our personalities match enough to have great conversations. We coordinate meetings via Google Hangouts about once a month, and create an agenda between meetings so we have things to talk about."
    - Jessy Cheung, graduate student, '18

How do I participate? The program begins at the second half of the academic year in early January. The CSP team recruits mentors throughout the year, and you can join by filling out this form . The form will include contact information, functional areas in your past and current portfolio, and passion areas. We collect similar information from the students and are providing a space for them to share information about the support they may benefit from as a graduate student and student affairs professional. The CSP team will review the submitted alumni and student profiles and make pairings based on the number of participants and information provided.

Interaction: It is a requirement for mentors and mentees to connect on a regular basis (i.e. one a month phone call, Skype or Facetime, or email conversation). However, the frequency, topics of conversation, and form of communication are things you both can determine.