Oxley Career Education Program

Oxley Career Education Program Mount grads don’t just get jobs.

They launch careers.

“Innovative, cutting edge, far beyond what most colleges and universities offer, a leader in career education . . .”

Everyone has heard the same questions.

“What do you want to be?”

“What sort of work do you want to do?”

Some people know. Some think they know but aren’t sure. Some don’t know yet.

Accountant, physician, nurse, lawyer, social worker, psychologist, human resource manager, physical therapist, professor, dentist, marketing executive, architect, coach, cinematographer, investment analyst, television producer, director of community relations, museum curator, journalist, teacher, zoo keeper... possibilities too numerous to list.

The Oxley Career

Education Program is getting national attention.

The Oxley Career Education Program is named for Geraldine Oxley ’51, an insurance industry pioneer and generous benefactor of the College.

The statistics also tell us something significant. Most people will have more than one career. The average is six! The nurse becomes a hospital administrator and then insurance executive. The teacher becomes an IBM executive and then vice president of the New York Stock Exchange, with plenty of steps in between. The English major becomes an attorney, then becomes in-house counsel for an investment firm, then an executive,

then president of a bank. The History major becomes a physician, then the managing director of surgical intensive care unit, then a pharmaceutical company executive.

Real examples from the Mount.

Much in your future is beyond knowing, but you can be ready.

Many colleges say, what do you want to be? Now, come up with your plan.

There are two problems with this approach. First, if you’re not positive about what you want to be, do you know what your best options are?

Second, what on earth is a plan?

How do you make one?

The Oxley Career Education Program is unique. Whether you know what you want to be or not, it helps you to build the skills - and the plan - to discover your best options and launch your career.

Advising at the Mount At the Mount, advising is different from most colleges and universities. It’s teamwork: you, your faculty advisor, and your professional advisor.

As at most colleges, each student has a faculty advisor to help with registration, course selection, and all sorts of related questions. At the College of Mount Saint Vincent, your faculty advisor is your instructor in First-Year Experience 101 (a required course). You get to know each other. Your advisor helps you to understand major and Core curriculum requirements and advises you about graduate programs.

The Mount is different. In addition to a faculty advisor, each student has a professional advisor for four years. The professional advisor works with you and your faculty advisor to connect you to all sorts of opportunities:

Freshman Year: Explore

• The Oxley Career Education Program • Internships • Study Abroad • IPSL (The International Partnership for Service Learning) • Academic Resource Center • Mount Mentors • National Fellowships and Awards • Center for Undergraduate Research • Honors Program • and many more...

• FYE 101: Take First-Year Experience (a required course) with your faculty advisor and be introduced to college life, academic expectations and support systems, as well as critical thinking and information literacy.

• Self Assessment: Assess your values, interests, skills, and motivation.

• Get involved on and off campus: Activities that you enjoy and excel at also help you to build skills and distinguish yourself in the marketplace.

• Explore: Learn how to identify work and experiential learning options that you would enjoy.

• Learn about and prepare for an Oxley Discovery Internship: Résumé writing, networking, and successful interviewing skills.

Choosing Your Major For some fields of work, the major is a credential: accounting, nursing, and teacher education particularly.

Nonetheless, most jobs in the United States are not advertised before they are filled, and more than 80% of people are employed in positions that have no obvious connection to their undergraduate major.

Why? In most fields, the things the Mount emphasizes are the ultimate credential: a repertoire of analytical skills; clear, critical thinking; the ability to express yourself convincingly both orally and in writing; and the ability to weigh moral and ethical questions seriously.

The challenges are the same whatever your major: how do I identify my opportunities? How do I prepare? How do I get chosen?

Beginning your first semester and over your four years at the Mount, the Oxley Career Education Program will help you to answer those questions and build the skills you need to not just get a job but to launch your career.

Major Options • Accounting • Biochemistry • Biology • Business • Business Administration • Chemistry • Communication • Economics • English • French Studies • History

• Interdisciplinary Studies • Mathematics • Nursing • Psychology • Psychology and Childhood Education • Sociology • Spanish • Teacher Education • Visual Arts and Experimental Media

Sophomore & Junior Years: Expand and Extend • Jump-start workshops: Teach how to fuse your major, your interests, your strengths, and your skills into a career path.

• Learn: Refine your skills in résumé writing, identifying career exploration opportunities, and successful interviewing.

• Get involved on and off campus: Make sure your activities outside the classroom develop your communication, teamwork, time management, problem solving, and leadership skills. What you love to do will help you to identify what you can offer employers.

• Connect: With internship opportunities and prospective employers through Mount alumni, networking events, job shadowing, career fairs, information sessions, informational interviews, and the Paramount Perspectives speakers series.

• Prepare for another Oxley Discovery Internship

• Build confidence: Well-grounded confidence comes with mastery and helps turn opportunity into accomplishment.

Senior Year: Excel • Meet: With your professional advisor to finalize your graduate/ professional school search strategy and time-line.

• Prepare: For national graduate/ professional school examinations: GRE, MCAT, LSAT, or GMAT. Refine test-taking skills through the Academic Resource Center.

• Attend: Career-targeted workshops for seniors.

• Translate: Skills you develop in classes and through internships into a career-making portfolio.

• Assess and identify: Skills that you need to refine. Develop your action plan.

• Update your résumé: Post it on Dolphinlink, our internship and career database.

• Join the Mount Alumni Network: Share your résumé and expand your network from backpack to briefcase.

• Complete: A capstone internship, practicum placement; or another career-related work experience.

Gain valuable skills and life-changing experience through the College’s partnership with IPSL (International Partnership for Service-Learning).

IPSL offers career-shaping international programs.

For example, you could learn wildlife management in Tanzania or gain NGO leadership training in Cambodia.

Accelerate your career through our joint degrees with other institutions: The First Year Experience (FYE 101) provides a survival package for college life and beyond.

The goals of the course derive from the College Motto: “Teach me Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge.”

• BA/MA St. John’s University – Criminology & Justice

Talented students receive coaching and assistance to apply for scholarships and national fellowships, such as the Fulbright Program and the Goldwater Scholarship.

• BA/MA St. John’s University – Sociology • BS/MBA College of Mount Saint Vincent – Accounting/MBA • BA/MS College of Mount Saint Vincent – Education • BS/MS College of Mount Saint Vincent – Nursing • BS/MS Columbia University – Occupational Therapy • BA/MSW Fordham University – Social Work • BS/DPM New York College of Podiatric Medicine – Podiatric Medicine • BS/DPT New York Medical College – Physical Therapy • BA/PharmD University of Saint Joseph – Pharmacy

Thinking graduate school? Maximize your score on graduate/professional admissions tests like the GRE, GMAT, MCAT, or LSAT through test preparation at the Academic Resource Center

Through the Center for Undergraduate Research, students produce original research to present at colloquia and conferences across the country. Research experience is an invaluable preparation for graduate study and future employment.

The Paramount Perspectives Speaker Series features prominent executives, artists, scientific researchers, doctors, and leaders who bring their professional insights into the classroom, sharing industry knowledge and career insights with students.

Our intensive job interview preparation will hone your interviewing skills. You will master the art of an exceptional first impression, essential for landing that first job – and beyond.

Through the Oxley Career Education Program, you’ll explore and define your career interests and learn how to market yourself, and build and grow relationships that matter.

Capstone Internships allow students to obtain practical experience and take advantage of the professional opportunities of NYC.

Broaden your career horizons with study abroad! We offer international opportunities across the world, including the UK, Italy, Russia, Guatemala, Australia, China...

Need help with composition or statistics or physics? The Academic Resource Center (ARC) expands the classroom with tutoring and supplemental instruction.

Talented students seeking further enrichment may apply for an Oxley Grant.

This fund provides financial assistance to individual student engaging in specialized research or creative projects.

Oxley Discovery Internships are designed for students to explore their career goals, linking academic studies to the world of work...leveraging all the world-class opportunities of NYC.

Jobs fairs give you access to companies, agencies, and non-profit organizations in New York City, the cultural and commercial capital of the world.

Students foster skills and qualities such as leadership, timemanagement, and teambuilding by participation in student activities, service opportunities, and athletics.

Our vibrant campus life offers holistic preparation for a lifetime of meaningful achievement.

Mount Mentors is an innovative, mutually-beneficial program that pairs Mount students with successful alumni and friends of the College.

Mount students go on to graduate and professional study at the nation’s top institutions, including: • Albert Einstein College of Medicine • Brown University • Columbia University • The City University of New York • Fordham University • Georgetown University • Harvard University • Kings College of London • McGill University • New York College of Osteopathic Medicine • New York Medical College • New York University • Penn State University • Rutgers University • St. John’s University • Stony Brook University, SUNY • Teachers College, Columbia University • University at Albany, SUNY • University of Chicago • University of Nebraska • University of Texas Southwestern

Our nursing students complete their clinical placements, externships and preceptorships (oneon-one training with a nurse) at the nation’s finest hospitals, including Memorial Sloan Kettering, Montefiore Medical Center, Mt. Sinai, NYU Langone Medical Center, and Columbia Presbyterian Hospitals.

At the College of Mount Saint Vincent, a student’s education extends beyond knowledge, skills, and preparation for work.

We seek the development of the whole person. In the spirit of Vincent de Paul and Elizabeth Ann Seton, we foster an understanding of our common humanity, a commitment to human dignity, and a full appreciation of our obligations to each other.

For more information about the Oxley Career Education Program and the admission process, contact our Admissions staff or visit us on campus and attend an Open House.

College of Mount Saint Vincent 6301 Riverdale Avenue, Riverdale, New York 10471

(718) 405-3267 or (800) 665-CMSV

Connect with us at: facebook.com @MountStVincent

mountsaintvincent.edu