Career Treks provide Charlotte students with an opportunity to explore careers, employers, and industries through a “behind the scenes” in-person experience. In doing so, employers have a unique opportunity to increase awareness of their brand and internship and full time opportunities. 

The Career Center is available to support faculty, staff and campus departments who want to integrate Career Treks into their courses and programming. These short, in-person events are typically 2 hours in length and will be packed with information, including (but not limited to) the following:

• An overview of the host employer and its industry 
• A panel of employees who have a variety of job functions
• An opportunity to connect in a smaller setting with individual employees via breakout sessions

Benefits 

Integrating Career Treks into your course or program provides a high-impact experience for both you and your students. Treks help boost student engagement and build industry connections while the Career Center has handled a lot of the lifting. 

Elevate Student Learning and Engagement

• Bridge theory to practice: give students a behind-the-scenes experience of a real-world environment, helping to make course material memorable and relevant
• Boost outcomes: directly connect your students and department to employers hiring for internships and full-time roles, which helps drive your program’s employment metrics

Build and Leverage Industry Connections

• Warm employer introductions: don’t have industry contacts? The Career Center can help get you connected to our established employer network
• Strengthen departmental relationships: treks often lead to guest speaker opportunities, advisory board connections, or collaborative research possibilities

The Career Center Does the Heavy Lifting

• Dedicated strategy and logistics support: access a one-on-one strategy session with the Career Treks Program Manager and operational guidance from our Experiential Learning Support Coordinator 
• Zero logistics headache: get step-by-step how-to guides, pre-built marketing templates, and ready-to-use survey forms so you don’t have to create anything from scratch
• Financial backing: don’t worry about departmental budget - apply for transportation funding directly through the Venture Fund

Lori Brasile, Assistant Director for Career Connections, along with other Career Center staff, is available to discuss trek strategy, employer connections, and administrative support.

• Career center consultation - we will offer one Career Trek strategy session with the Career Treks Program Manager and one operations/logistics meeting with the Experiential Education Support Coordinator with the department per Trek. This meeting should take place at least 4-6 weeks prior to the desired Career Trek.
• Employer engagement contacts - we can help connect departments with possible Career Trek employer hosts on an as-needed basis. Ideally, we would need to know the semester prior to your Trek but will do our best to aid in employer connectivity during the semester if time allows.
• Career Treks administrative support - marketing and communication templates and examples are available in addition to a how-to guide for coordinating a Career Trek, which will also include details on arranging transportation. Examples of student and employer experience surveys are also available. 

Faculty and staff may request funding for Career Treks transportation costs. Funding is awarded on a case-by-case basis and can be requested through the Venture Fund form. Include in the request an itemized breakdown of anticipated transportation expenses like mode of transportation, parking fees, etc.

To qualify for Venture Fund assistance for Career Treks, faculty and staff:

1.  Register for the Career Collaborative and complete one of the following trainings:

• Career Collaborator Training Program
• Career Integration Academy
• Departmental Training 1: Program Data Discovery
• Departmental Training 2: Program ROI Ideation & Strategy

2. Complete a post-Trek impact survey 

Reach out to Lori Brasile, Assistant Director for Career Connections, for questions or to request a consultation and resource guides.