Learn from an On-Campus Pro (National Student Employment Week)

Career chats (or “informational interviews“) are a critical way to find out what it’s like to work in your future industry and decide if it’s a good fit for you. Plus, in chatting with a professional in your field, you might be able to get application tips and connections!

Here at DU, you don’t have to look far to find supportive professionals with industry knowledge: they’re all around! This National Student Employment Week, student employees can sign up for a guaranteed slot for a career chat with one of our on-campus insiders:

• Learn from Melanie Kasparian about: mathematics, assessment, analytics, or online learning
  • Melanie is both a professional and lifelong academic with expertise in assessment, analytics, student affairs, e-learning, faculty development, and curriculum design. She is currently the Director of Assessment and Planning at Student Affairs and Inclusive Excellence. In this role, Melanie works with student affairs professionals on planning, data analysis, and reporting to support departments in their work and ultimately use data to improve the student experience. She has a strong enthusiasm for collaborating with students, faculty, and staff, in the creation of high quality and intuitive learning experiences. With a background in Mathematics, she is highly experienced in interpreting data and applying it within needs analysis scenarios to implement targeted improvements based on experiential and evidence-based learning principles.
• Learn from Julia Senecal about: sustainability, youth empowerment, or K12 education
  • Julia Senecal earned her MSW and Animal-Assisted Social Work certificate from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work, where she concentrated her studies in Sustainable Development and Global Practice. Julia completed her Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration with a focus on Nonprofit Management at the University of Central Florida. Before beginning her graduate studies, Julia worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs and as a public school teacher.

    Since becoming involved with IHAC, Julia has engaged in research efforts exploring the impact of human-animal-environment interventions on the self-regulation capacities in youth with psychosocial challenges, the social capital implications of animal-welfare legislation, and the efficacy of humane education curriculum in building empathy in elementary school children. Julia currently serves as an Adjunct Instructor at IHAC, and is passionate about promoting the broader implementation of humane education as a way to empower youth to engage in practices that support global and ecological stability, sustainability, and equality for humans, animals and the environment.

• Learn from Josh Davies about: technology, digital marketing, or web administration
  • I am a highly qualified Information Technology Professional and Media Production specialist with over a Decades experience leading digital marketing, project management, and information technology teams. I am an seasoned project manager, information architect, UX Designer, Marketing Manager, and Content Creator. I hold a B.A in Cultural Anthropology and a Masters in Library & Information Science. I pair my technical expertise, which I have developed over many years working in the profession, with my charisma and communication skills.
• Learn from Jessie McGinty about: public health, nutrition and wellness, mental health, or changing your major/career field
  • As Director of Health Promotion, Jessie’s role is to provide leadership and direction for campus-wide programming, initiatives, and services designed to support student wellbeing and success, particularly in mental health/suicide prevention, alcohol and other drugs, gender violence prevention, and sexual health education. This includes efforts to further magnify the 4D experience through promotion of well-being and integrated health.
  • Previous work includes time as a community dietitian and diabetes educator; a nutrition lead and supervisor for a Women, Infant, and Children’s (WIC) Clinic; global manager of nutrition and wellness supporting the employee food program and strategy at Google; adjunct faculty for the University of New England MS in Applied Nutrition program; and Volunteer work as a Crisis Text Line Counselor. Prior to serving as the Louis Richard Girouard III Director, Jessie was the HCC’s Manager of Strategic Initiatives.
• Learn from Dong Dinh about: higher education, first-general student support, DEI
  • Dr. Dong Dinh graduated from DU with both his MA and EdD in Higher Education. He identifies as a queer Vietnamese American and concentrates his research and expertise in supporting historically underrepresented students with a specialty focus on Asian American and first generation populations. He is an avid adventurer and coaches a Dragon boat team in Denver with his free time.
• Learn from Margaret Deibert about: accounting, finance, and audits
  • Experienced Internal Auditor with a demonstrated history of working in the accounting industry. Skilled in Microsoft Excel, Customer Service, Microsoft Word, Public Speaking, and Microsoft Office. Strong accounting professional with a Master’s degree focused in Accounting from Oklahoma State University.
• Learn from Sandra Castro about: (Details coming soon!)
• Learn from James O’Donnell about: management, outdoor recreation industry, hospitality
  • Hands on leader known for both a strategic and focused tactical approach, with extensive experience in building effective teams and creating strong management operating systems and executable plans for optimizing profitability. General Management experience in leading Mountain Resort Operations; Hotel, Rental Property and Condo Operations; Retail and Restaurant Operations; and Real Estate Development, Leasing and Management. Extensive international growth strategy, M&A, acquisition integration, and finance experience. Strong people leader focused on employee engagement / experience, personal and leadership development, and creation of a strong succession pipeline throughout the organization. Strong focus on customers through innovation and utilization of data and technology to enhance the guest experience

Here’s how it will work:

1. Register on PCO to indicate your interest! When you do, you’ll be required to upload a document telling us which of the people listed above you’d like to talk to. This could be one or more! Please include at least one sentence explaining why you’ve selected that person/people.
2. We will add you to a closed group in CrimsonConstellation that includes student participants and the mentors listed above. (If you don’t have your account set up beforehand, you’ll be prompted to do so then. It’s a great place to connect with DU alumni and other community members!)
3. We will provide you with resources on how to structure your ask, you reach out to your selected mentor(s) to schedule a time to talk. They will say yes, because they’ve already agreed to this! You can do all this through CrimsonConstellation, so you won’t even need to manage multiple platforms for this. We encourage you to schedule between April 8 – 12, but you can plan for before or after that week if need be.
4. You’ll meet up (in person or virtually) with your mentor, chat about their experiences, and hopefully come away with new perspective on your career field and a new supporter in your network! You can get started planning now with our helpful guide to Professional Networking Conversations.