Center for Professional Excellence
Career Education
At the CPE we can help you plan your future—even if you don’t have a clue which career best suits you.
Self Assessment
Which personal and professional paths are most likely to lead you to success?
Career-oriented assessments, including personality profiles and skill and interest inventories, can help you find out. They’ll give you a clear understanding of yourself as well as the tools to make smart decisions about your future.
Career Guidance
We offer lots of help as you explore your chosen career path. Meet one-on-one with career education staff to learn how to develop meaningful career goals, craft a strong résumé and conduct effective interviews. Enroll in the career exploration course (Professional Foundations of Career Development, CPP 299). Attend seminars about workplace issues, meet recruiters at on-campus fairs, and enroll in career planning classes and workshops. Topics include conducting a job search, compiling credential files, launching an internship and networking with working professionals. Also, browse the career resource library and job listings. You may also find the following link useful: What Can I Do With this Major?
Ethics and Values Formation
At every stage of your professional life, you’ll face tough ethical decisions. At the CPE, we’ll help you sharpen your personal sense of workplace ethics and humane values. You’ll always be ready to do the right thing for yourself and for others.
Graduate School Preparation
Is graduate school for you? We’ll help you find out as you identify your short- and long-term professional goals. Working closely with Elmhurst faculty, we’ll determine your job prospects in various fields at all degree levels. For more information, go to our graduate school planning site.
Internships
The mission of the Center for Professional Excellence Internship Program is the development of students through self-formation and eary professional preparation; the hallmark of the Elmhurst Experience.
Students
Internships provide an opportunity to explore occupational fields related to majors and career goals. The program is set up to guide students through intentional learning objectives, skills assessments and performance evaluations. The experience should complement and enhance classroom learning while creating links between the College and world of work. We recognize that government agencies, social service organizations and companies invest in an important community resource: the student. We ask that through this internship, the employer will assist with their intern's personal growth, career, skills, leadership development and cross-cultural awareness.
The value of an internship:
- increases your marketability
- establishes networking opportunities
- gives you the training to acquire or polish your marketable skills
- helps you explore and clarify career goals
- refines communication and other transferable skills
- increases negotiating power
Learn more about the internship program in the Internship Guidelines.
An Elmhurst internship can lead to a great job and give you a powerful start on life. View the Internship Site List to see a few of the organizations that have helped our students on their journey of discovery.
Complete the Student Internship Application and either submit it via email or print and drop if off in the Center for Professional Excellence, Circle Hall. Once the CPE receives your request, the Internship Coordinator will contact you to set up an appointment. It is that easy!
Employers
Elmhurst College has an established internship program that goes back nearly a half century and has resulted in increased partnerships with business and industry. Each year more than 100 students and employers participate in the internship program.
Internships are typically part-time positions of fixed duration that offer students the opportunity to explore an occupational field and/or work experience related to their college major. As a four-year college, we have majors ranging from traditional business administration to human services administration to math and the physical sciencies. Students seeking degrees in these majors are available to intern in your organization.
Internship Terms: Fall, Spring and Summer
Students work 10-20 hours per week during the Fall or Spring Term for up to 14 weeks, and Summer Term up to 8 weeks.
Field Experience
Students intern 35-40 hours per week for the month of January only. Many transition to part-time jobs or Spring Term internships.
Learn more about the internship program in the Employer Internship Information Packet.
If you are interested in posting a position, log onto ECconnect.com.
If you have any questions concerning the internship initiatives, contact Holly Coffin at hollyc@elmhurst.edu.
Mentoring and Shadowing
The Center for Professional Excellence Mentoring Program is designed to help students develop professionally and prepare them for a meaningful and ethical life beyond college—a life valuing integrity, social responsibility and intellectual excellence—augmenting the hallmark of The Elmhurst Experience, self-formation and early professional preparation.
The Mentoring Program is broken down into two initiatives, short-term career exploration (shadowing) and long-term professional preparation (mentoring).
Short-term career exploration consists of informational interviews and shadowing experiences. The purpose of short-term career exploration is to provide students with an opportunity to interact with professionals to explore if a career is a good fit for them. Students are afforded the opportunity to accompany a professional through their work day, observing them as they make decisions, engage colleagues and pursue professional goals.
Long-term professional preparation, or mentoring, is a one-on-one relationship between a student (protégé) and a professional (mentor). The purpose of the relationship is professional and personal development of students facilitated through the guidance and shared experience of a mentor.
Learn more about the CPE mentoring program.
