There’s No Place Like Home for Graduates Thanks to UNK’s Career Center

Dustin Favinger, who serves as the Senior Director of UNK’s Career Development and Graduate Programs, knows how much his students love their home state. He also knows how important it is to help those students prepare for their future professional lives. His responsibilities include being a lecturer in the Management Department of the College of Business and Technology where he teaches incoming freshmen an introductory business course. This class helps to give them a glimpse of what their professional life can look like. He encourages his students to not only focus on the path set before them as college students but to create one of their own. This strategy goes beyond what he teaches in the classroom and extends to his work in career development. Not only as a teacher but also through the CBT Career Center, he shares with students the need to “focus on the path” even though he makes sure to let them know the end result may look different from what they first imagine. 

At the CBT Career Center, students are given the tools they need to start thinking about their long-term goals. Practical issues such as business attire, in-depth knowledge of their individual strengths, help with resumes, and more are provided by the staff to help students use their college years to prepare for their future careers. Staff members have a keen understanding of the business community. This knowledge, coupled with their dedication to all UNK students, makes the folks at the CBT Career Center the obvious starting point for those who want to achieve their professional goals. They go the extra mile to learn about and help their students. 

Thanks to the opportunities made available to students at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, many students, as a result of the path set before them, have achieved their goal of landing their dream job without having to relocate. Many college students want to stay where their home is, and UNK is more than happy to help make their dreams come true. Through the guidance of the staff at the CBT Career Center, these students are given the chance to complete internships for academic credit. Not only does this allow them to experience firsthand what they are learning about in their classes, these internships result in a higher salary when they are offered their first position in their chosen career.

Recent graduates did more than just land their dream jobs upon graduation. Based on the 86.34% response and knowledge rate of these CBT graduates, 85% were able to find jobs in Nebraska. This good news not only affects these newly hired professionals, but the impact on Kearney and beyond is significant. Staff members share that, along with the overall support from everyone on UNK’s campus, the CBT Career Center is “doing a lot to help supply Central and Eastern Nebraska with professional talent.” Of the 63% of students who were offered a full-time position by the companies they interned with, 71% accepted. These internships have a significant “impact on the economic development” of not only Kearney but all of Nebraska. 

This doesn’t happen by accident. Community is important to the College of Business and Technology. As the CBT Career Center staff states, their desire for “the business community” of Kearney and all of Nebraska to “reach out to us” helps them fulfill their commitment to help pair businesses with UNK students who are uniquely qualified. Thanks to the dedication of the faculty and staff of the College of Business and Technology, these graduates have had years of hands-on experience through the experiential teaching techniques that are the hallmark of UNK. This type of learning has prepared these students to step off campus grounds and into their first job ready to wholly contribute to their profession.

There’s really no place like home. With the emphasis on internships, strategic partnerships with local businesses, and the overall unwavering dedication of the College of Business and Technology, Nebraska’s future looks as bright as the students who cross the graduation stage each year and enter the workforce more than prepared to make their home state a place to be proud.