Using Design Thinking During COVID-19

Career Level: Basic-, intermediate-, and advanced-level career services and university relations and recruiting professionals
Competency: Program implementation
Fee: FREE (member); FREE (nonmember);

This product is currently unavailable. If you have any questions, please contact NACE Education & Events at events@naceweb.org, 610.625.1026.

Summary
Thank you to our sponsor, Upkey! This event registration is free to all attendees.

The future continues to be impacted by a high degree of uncertainty. As circumstances surrounding COVID-19 and the economy change daily, there are many unknowns impacting the outlook of career services and campus recruiting. In this session, presenters will introduce a design thinking framework as a means to address challenges in supporting students’ and interns’ career development during a pandemic. Best practices and research-informed strategies will be shared as a means to provide attendees with immediate take-aways for application to employer or career services-based institutions.

Following this program, you will be able to:
- Create an empathy map to develop a greater understanding of our students and interns;
- Learn strategies to define critical problems and ideate on solutions;
- Explore strategies to prototype potential solutions and pivot quickly to new ideas; and
- Use the data and research presented to implement best practices and immediate take-aways that support and promote understanding of the content.
Presenters

Emily Merritt, Senior Assistant Director, [ARCHIVES]
Emily Merritt leads career coaching strategy and initiatives at the Center for Student Success and Career Development at Trinity College. She launched Trinity’s Career Community model and its peer-led Career Studio, and most recently co-created 2021 Connect, a short-term alumni mentoring program. She has used design thinking as a framework for strategic planning and user design with her career development interns during the 2019-2020 academic year. Prior to joining the team at Trinity College, she worked as a career consultant at UConn. She has an M.A. in higher education from Boston College and a B.A from the University of Vermont.

Joseph Catrino, Executive Director of Career & Life Design, Trinity College
Joseph (Joe) Catrino leads the Center for Student Success and Career Development at Trinity College. His expertise includes his focus on life design and design thinking, in which he encourages individuals to be innovative in their problem solving. Through his teaching and knowledge, he has been instrumental in transforming the way students think about their career goals. Since he joined Trinity in 2015, he has strategically collaborated with colleagues to identify and implement creative initiatives and continues to represent Trinity in progressive ways by sharing his passion for design thinking, personal branding, and preparing students for the future of work.