BONUS: What Does Career Everywhere Mean to You? (Live from NACE 2026)

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the Career Everywhere Podcast. I’m your host, Meredith Metsker. And today, I’m excited to share our first ever bonus episode! 

As many of you know, I recorded live mini-interviews at the uConnect booth at NACE last month. I asked everyone who participated the same question I ask all of our guests here on the podcast: What does Career Everywhere mean to you? 

We had some really thoughtful answers, and I compiled them all into this bonus episode so you can hear them, too. As a heads up, I did record these interviews in a loud conference hall, so the audio might not be as clear as our normal episodes. But we did our best!

Hope you enjoy this bonus episode!

Nancy Inkertsiah, Roosevelt University

My name is Nancy Inkertsiah, and I’m from Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. Career Everywhere to me means opportunities galore. You just gotta be patient and find what fits you best.

Emily Sheltry, Clarkson University

My name is Emily Sheltry. I’m from Clarkson University. Career Everywhere to me means flexibility and adaptability. I heard amazing phrasing today at the NACE conference. Somebody said they want their students to have “careers of choice, not jobs of necessity,” and I was obsessed with that phrasing. I think the flexibility of just being able to really have the opportunity to think through what’s important to you and what you want your life to look like is, like, the one gift I would give to everybody if I could.

Kaidy Smith, Kansas State University

My name is Kaidy Smith. I’m the Employer Relations Associate at Kansas State University in the Central Career Office. Career Everywhere to me, it means from start to finish thinking about where the student wants to be ultimately and how everyone across campus can help them get there and having those partnerships to support that student.

Sierra Whipple-Padgen, University of Washington Foster School of Business

My name is Sierra Whipple-Padgen. I’m a Senior Career Coach at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington in Seattle. And for me, Career Everywhere really just means bridging that gap between what career actually is and how you are building those skills in everyday life. Connecting with, like, students who are in our clubs and our organizations or as you mentioned with, like, faculty who are like, “We teach first, like, classrooms,” and really showing that everything you’re picking up, everything you’re learning is something that you can apply to your work to make it better, more accessible, a happier place to be.

Karen Wong, St. Catherine University

I’m Karen Wong. I’m the Director of Career Development at St. Catherine University based out of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Career Everywhere means to me being able to provide opportunities for students to learn career readiness, learn all the career skills that they need to be successful in their future, really meeting them where they’re at on campus or off campus to be able to provide all those opportunities for them.

Paul Casey, Kean University

I’m Paul Casey. I’m the Associate Director for Employer Engagement from Kean University. Career Everywhere is kind of like my purpose. Throughout my career, I’ve been really focused on helping others find their career path, and whether it was with the Boys & Girls Club or Kean University or, you know, at home hanging out on LinkedIn, working to support people find their career path. And my son’s a sophomore at Seton Hall University, and I help his friends do the same. So it’s really where I’ve found my ability to help others.

Larry Jackson, UC Berkeley

Hi, my name’s Larry Jackson. My pronouns are he/him/his, and I’m Senior Associate Director of Career Education at Berkeley Career Engagement. And when I hear Career Everywhere, what it means to me is that everyone’s adopting a vision of career readiness for all their students, undergraduate, graduate. Just making sure it’s creating an ecosystem where students feel supported, and it’s not limited to just one office.

David Adams, University of Florida Warrington College of Business

My name is David Adams. I’m with the University of Florida Warrington College of Business. Career Everywhere means to me the entire institution coming together to support students’ career success and everyone working in the same direction toward that effort in whatever their unique role or function is within the university.

Tamara Menghi, Curry College

I’m Tamara Menghi. I work at Curry College, and Career Everywhere to me means that the student is doing all kinds of career stuff in the classroom. They’re chatting about how their professor helped them with their resume. That professor then sent them my way. We’re talking with alums about potential careers, and employers are coming in even to help outside of recruiting, just to chat with students about potential careers and how to be ready for them. That’s what Career Everywhere would be for me, and I’m trying to build that at Curry College.

Ben Weihrauch, University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering

I’m Dr. Ben Weihrauch. I’m Senior Director of the Engineering Career Hub at the University of Colorado Boulder. And what Career Everywhere means to me, I think about it from an equity perspective. So Career Everywhere should mean everywhere for everyone and every learner, not just those who have cultural capital or privilege or network connections. Career Everywhere should mean opportunities for all of our learners, regardless of first generation status or background or race and ethnicity. That’s the only way that as a society in a country and our local communities that we’re going to make an impact from a career and economic development perspective is to make sure that our learners get the right amount of career coaching, experiential learning, so they have great resumes and great skill sets and making intergenerational impacts in their community.

Mandy Thomas, Purdue University Global

Mandy Thomas, Purdue University Global. What Career Everywhere means to me, it is not limited to a single course, like a capstone course. It is infused everywhere, from the beginning, the middle, the end, everywhere in a student’s curriculum.

Tiffany Lee, Purdue University Global

I’m Tiffany Lee with Purdue University Global, and Career Everywhere means to me continuous opportunity.

Noah Kraulidis, National Louis University

My name is Noah Kraulidis. I’m an Employer Relations Manager for National Louis University based in Chicago, Illinois. And Career Everywhere, what that means to me is being the places where students are at and bringing the career there. Career isn’t just a singular place. I love to make sure that I’m in the hallways, in the classroom, at the events for students, and visible as a career office and bringing those conversations to them so they know that it’s not something that they need to come to an office for, that only takes place in a classroom or takes place in a certain office, but those are things where we’re engaging students about career on all aspects of campus and all areas that they’re in.

John Nykolaiszyn, Florida International University

Hi, my name’s John Nykolaiszyn. I’m the Director of the Office of Business Career Management at Florida International University. What I think Career Everywhere means to me is advocation. Students can advocate for themselves with their skills, their abilities, not only in the world of work, but in general. So Career Everywhere immediately defaults in my mind to being an advocate.

Erica Kryst, Cornell University

Hi, I’m Erica Kryst from Cornell University. Career Everywhere to me means the institution thinking holistically about all of the facets of how higher education is going to prepare and shape someone’s career success, not just in that first job after college, but for the rest of their life. There’s so many things happening, right, during that four years, and there’s so many different ways we can engage that will help them develop the skills and the confidence and the connections to be successful. And I think, too, a lot about, like, the role of mentorship and how that plays out. Mentors for students come from everywhere. They come from so many different parts of their student experience, student employment, to who’s advising their student org, to the faculty, to career advisors, right? So there’s so many ways that institutions influence what students do.

Arthur Lumzy, Jr., East Texas A&M University

Hello, My name is Arthur Lumzy Jr. I serve as the Executive Director of Student Career Preparedness. Career Everywhere means to me integrating career across the whole career ecosystem and providing 24/7 support.

Steve Simpson, University of Buffalo

Hi, Steve Simpson from the University of Buffalo. I serve as the Director for the Career Design Center, which is our central career center for the university. So what does Career Everywhere mean to me? There’s so many great responses to that through the podcast, but for me, I’d say it’s having a jointly understood and developed set of learning outcomes that everyone throughout the institution that’s involved in career work, from the center to faculty to staff across the areas to student leaders, jointly understand, jointly own, and can serve as artifacts to build around for their own unique applications. So in our case, as a large public university, there’s so many different types of programs, from nursing to, you know, to communications to medical school to law, and so the applications of how do you go about addressing those learning outcomes and helping students realize they can look very different across the institution based on those different paths. And so, but having those directly understood and owned, and those common connections, areas of focus, for me, is what represents Career Everywhere as a foundation.

Adam Capozzi, Syracuse University

Adam Capozzi, Syracuse University, Director of Career Services Assessment and Student Success. I oversee the central office with a distributed decentralized model, and that’s actually the perfect reason of why talking about Career Everywhere is important. We embed career in every aspect of the lifespan of a student, from when they walk on campus, meeting with us during orientation, meeting one another moving into dormitories and having a member of our team there actually help move the boxes into the rooms so they see a face that is friendly, and they know that they can count on us. When it comes time to bridge the in-class experience, with real-world application, engaging with faculty, engaging with the support staff, being there to showcase that career doesn’t have to be a touchpoint in second and third year. It’s being right there from the start because it’s going to be paramount by the time they get to the final opportunity at Syracuse.

Gerald Tang, Bridgewater State University

I’m Gerald Tang from Bridgewater State University in Southeastern Massachusetts, serving as the Executive Director of Career Services and Internships. Career Everywhere means to me is creating an equitable and strategies that everybody be able to provide career insight, and even it could be a virtual, an AI or not online strategy so that students have equitable access and information that is valid, credible, and be able to receive that information on a regular basis at any time that they need to.

Lindsay Arbach, North Dakota State University

I’m Lindsay Arbach with North Dakota State University, and to me, Career Everywhere is the idea that career development doesn’t just happen in a career center appointment. Students are building career-ready skills every day through their classes, their student organizations, leadership roles, volunteering, and other experiences across campus. And then in my marketing role, I get to help tell these stories and connect students with resources and opportunities along the way.

Ryan Palm, Mercyhurst University

My name is Ryan Palm. I am from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, where I am the Executive Director of the Brad McGarry Center for Neurodiversity, and what Career Everywhere means to me is really that we’re not bound to this one transaction of, “Hey, we helped you find an internship. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.” But rather, we’re supporting students. In our support program, we are with them from the moment of application through the actual internship, through job coaching, through helping support their employer partner, through really doing whatever we can to make sure that they have a meaningful experience, and then really having conversations after the experience as well. How can we help them take what they’ve learned in that internship experience into a job, into the materials they’re creating for their job applications, right? How do we make the most out of that experience and really try and make it meaningful, impactful, and help them onto their next step, whatever that might be.

Matthew Warren, Wayne State University

My name is Matthew Warren. I’m with Wayne State University. I’m the Employer Engagement Manager of Main Campus Career Services, and Career Everywhere means to me greater access for students, really building out the roadmap for them from day one. Students often think that they have to wait until their junior or their senior year to come to Career Services, but it’s really an essential tool from day one. It’s integrated in the classroom, in internship learning, and those professional development opportunities. I’m really working hard to marry the on-campus experience with those real-life career learning experiences so that by the time they graduate, they really know what they’re doing.