CPPS advising to expand to dorms

Sometimes the pursuit of a summer job or an internship can't wait until morning. That unfortunate reality is what prompted Career Planning and Placement Services to create a new academic advising program that will link students to CPPS from their residences. The program has been piloted in Van Pelt College House since January. The initiative becomes the fifth "spoke" of the Wheel project -- an effort to bring student-led academic services to all Penn dormitories -- joining residential advising programs in writing, math, library and information technology. As the University's dormitories are organized into 12 college houses this fall, students will be able to see more of these advising initiatives taking effect in their halls. The idea for the career services pilot program -- the latest advising initiative -- was conceived last fall by the CPPS staff to make career-planning services more accessible to students. A student "liaison" will be based at each college house to teach the residents how to use CPPS' services, including its various on-line tools and computer programs, according to CPPS Director Pat Rose. Rose stressed that student liaisons will not be delivering career advice directly. "That's not what this is," Rose explained. "We will be putting a liaison in each college house to help students understand how to use our services. The services themselves are provided [in CPPS] centrally." The program will enter its second phase this fall, Rose said, when four more houses -- DuBois College House and the three high rises -- will obtain in-house career services advisers. CPPS plans to have a student liaison in all 12 college houses by fall 1999, she added. CPPS chose College senior Camille Henry two months ago to be its first liaison in Van Pelt's pilot program. Henry, who has lived in Van Pelt since her sophomore year, said she spends up to 10 hours a week sending out regular e-mails to her housemates informing them of CPPS activities and directing residents' questions to the appropriate CPPS counselor or Web site. She added that she does much of her advising in the hallway and late at night. "One particular night I was helping a couple people who wanted to find out about internships, and it was midnight -- a time when they wouldn't have been able to contact a CPPS counselor," Henry said. "I was able to show them what resources there were on the CPPS homepage right there in their own room." Her job is "not just a matter of passing on information," and Henry stressed that a good adviser must be aggressive and proactive. Indeed, she has tried to be just that in the past two months. In February, Henry organized a workshop for pre-law residents in Van Pelt, with the help of Van Pelt Graduate Fellow Malia Brink, a Law School student. Following the workshop, Brink took several of the residents along with her to class. Henry also led several Van Pelt residents, mostly freshmen, through CPPS in late January to familiarize them with the facilities. She said the program is succeeding in Van Pelt because the house is "relatively small," so she knows many people and residents have an easy time approaching her with questions. Future CPPS advisers working in the larger houses, namely the high rises, will have a harder time unless they are "pretty proactive," Henry predicted.

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