Preparing Our Students for Creative Futures
CAPX Programs and Resources Help Students Prepare for a Lifetime of Opportunities
Where can an art school education take you? For more than 150 years, SAIC alumni have been working and creating in a broad spectrum of industries, organizations, companies, and practices. Their varied job titles listed below—as reflected in recent online alumni profiles—expand on the School’s core value that meaning and making are inseparable.
EVENTS
Dancer Environmental Activist Environment Designer Exhibition Designer Fashion Designer Filmmaker Footwear Designer Forensic Artist Furniture Designer Game Designer Graphic Novelist Journalist Judicial Extern Landscape Designer Lighting Designer Location Scout
Materials Librarian Motion Graphics Designer Photographer Podcast Host Product Designer Preservation Planner Public Relations Specialist Operations Director Scientific Illustrator Social Media Manager Sound Designer Speechwriter Sustainability Coordinator UI/UX Designer Visual Merchandiser Writer …And many more
For each SAIC graduating class, CAPX manages The Outcomes Survey, which gathers employment and graduate school admissions data. Our alumni responses are combined with those of other Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) schools to provide comparative insights into the value of an arts education.
CAPX offers engaging programs and workshops designed to help SAIC students and alumni develop materials, skills, and strategies to build their creative careers.
Our annual flagship event in November brought over 70 employers from Chicago and beyond to meet 500+ students— nearly triple the number of past years. This year’s Expo featured dynamic, on-site programming, including Fireside Chats—conversations with creative influencers moderated by Nick Brown, founder of Glappitnova—and a professional Head Shot Booth. We also sought to broaden industry representation via our first-ever Start-Up Sphere, highlighting leading and emerging Chicago-area tech start-ups. Students and alumni networked in real time with leading companies and organizations, learned more about the nature of their work, and explored potential job and internship opportunities. Top: Nick Brown chats with Veronica Appleton, We Are Unlimited (photo Sara Condo). Bottom: Pauly Ramirez (BFA 2016), Hermit, speaks with a group at Go Fund Yourself (photo Marina Porta Perera).
Bachelor’s alumni who found their internships helpful
81.8%
Master’s alumni who found their internships helpful
89.1%
In spring 2018, for the first time, SAIC’s week of graduate critiques (known as “Crit Week”) was also CAPX Week—a full five days of activities that invited students to “Exhale… Explore… Experience CAPX.” Programs included:
2015 74.4%
• Special Expert Exchange sessions • Document Your Work: how-tos and authorizations in SAIC’s new documentation space • Informative Lunch + Learn workshops • Go Fund Yourself! Entrepreneurial Strategies presented in partnership with SAIC’s Shapiro Center • SAIC Day of Service at Homan Square
85%
Photo Alexia Leroy
Career and Professional Experience School of the Art Institute of Chicago 116 S. Michigan Ave., 14th floor Chicago, IL 60603 312.499.4130 | careers@saic.edu
@SAICcareer
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SAIC Curricular Partners
Hosted in CAPX throughout the year, these sessions give students an opportunity to learn more about for-credit internship options and how to start their internship search via SAIC Compass.
Group sessions give students an opportunity to develop their professional materials, hone their networking and research abilities, and build their interview skills with the support of their peers and the guidance of a career advisor. Students also learn how to use our SAIC Compass jobs platform more fluently and explore networking strategies using LinkedIn and other social networks.
Documenting Your Work Students are introduced to SAIC’s new documenting space to create high-quality images of their work for their portfolios, websites, and applications for grants or graduate school. They learn how to use seamless backdrops, LED lighting, C-stands, sandbags, and other grip equipment, as well as camera and lighting basics to post-production skills via Adobe Creative Suite.
Art & Law Thursdays CAPX has partnered with Lawyers for the Creative Arts and the American Society of Media Photographers to present this monthly program through fall 2018 that offers valuable contemporary legal advice for working artists. Topics include copyright registration, licensing, fair use and intellectual property, and best practices for digital and online content under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
RESOURCES CliftonStrengths®
Big Interview
Gallup’s CliftonStrengths® assessment helps students discover their dominant talents and ways in which they naturally think, feel, and behave as unique individuals. CAPX uses the assessment, which is free for students and faculty, in Sophomore Seminar, Professional Practice, and Capstone courses; in group workshops; and in individual advising sessions with one of our three Gallup-certified CliftonStrengths® coaches. Since CAPX began offering this resource in 2016, more than 500 students have engaged in the process—332 this past year. They incorporated their insights into their internship and job search strategies, as well as into their artist statements, résumés, and cover letters.
Big Interview is an online platform that combines video lessons and virtual exercises to help students and alumni improve their interview skills. Students build confidence on their own time and receive valuable feedback from our career advisors from the comfort of their dorms or studios.
Entrepreneurs in Residence
VALUE OF SAIC INTERNSHIPS 2018
Internship Info Sessions
Group Jobs Search
CAPX Week Were your internships helpful in preparing you for your career?
CAPX Faculty of the Year
PROGRAMS
SAIC Internship and Career Expo Animator Architect Archivist Art Director Art Historian Artist Agent Art Therapist Arts Educator Arts Journal Editor Attorney CEO/Founder Cinematographer Collections Manager Conservator Content Strategist Costume Technician
A student consults with CAPX Peer Advisor Adrian Jacobs (photo Alexia Leroy).
Some key numbers from CAPX Week:
175+
Student Workshop Participants
CAPX Annual Report 2018 | Events
116
Advising Appointments
54
In June 2017, CAPX welcomed our first entrepreneurs-in-residence, alumni Paulina (Pauly) Ramirez (BFA 2016) and Nika Koda (BFA 2015). They are co-founders of Hermit, an online platform that connects individuals seeking to commission artwork with artists. Throughout their residency, Ramirez and Koda met with students to share their startup expertise and guide students who wish to launch their own creative ventures. To learn more about Ramirez’s journey from recent graduate to chief operating officer, watch her video profile An Entrepreneurial Learning Curve produced by NationSwell in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. http://nationswell.com/ kauffman-foundation-hermit-art-platform/
STUDENT FULBRIGHT FELLOWSHIPS
ALUMNI COLLABORATORS
6
30
US Student Fulbright Program CAPX advises applicants to the US Student Fulbright Program, yearlong exchange fellowships offered by the US Department of State. In the 2018 cycle, SAIC marked a School record six Fulbright Fellows, who will be pursuing their artistic projects in Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Spain, and Tajikistan.
FACULTY COLLABORATORS
56
Academic Spine CAPX works closely with the Undergraduate Division on the Academic Spine, a required three-course sequence for all undergraduates that includes Sophomore Seminar, Professional Practice Experience, and the Capstone courses. CAPX provides support throughout this sequence by offering class presentations and workshops—including the CliftonStrengths® assessment—as well as access to career resources and programming. CAPX’s Internship as Professional Practice classes fulfill the Professional Practice requirement.
Shapiro Center
Program Engagement
STUDENT + ALUMNI PARTICIPANTS
992
CAPX’s offerings are integrated throughout undergraduate curriculum. We also provide specialized programming and resources for graduate students.
COMMUNITY COLLABORATORS
46
During CAPX Week, CAPX and SAIC’s Shapiro Center co-host “Go Fund Yourself!”, a dynamic entrepreneurial strategies event. This year’s inaugural event featured a panel of industry professionals, entrepreneurial experts, SAIC students, and alumni who led workshops and conversations about building a practice, crowdsourced funding, and finding creative independence.
Expert Exchange Individual Sessions CAPX Annual Report 2018 | Programs
CAPX Annual Report 2018 | Resources
CAPX Annual Report 2018 | SAIC Curricular Partners
At our first annual CAPX Faculty Appreciation lunch, we celebrated our collaboration with faculty and their direct engagement as Career and Internship Advisors and instructors of Professional Practice: Internship as Professional Experience. We presented the CAPX Faculty of the Year Award to John Henley, who has guided hundreds of students through their internship experiences and is a key ambassador for SAIC’s internship program. John Henley shows off his CAPX Faculty of the Year Award (photo Mike Bellis).
MakeWork CAPX partners with the Office of Institutional Advancement and SAIC’s MakeWork Council on the MakeWork Challenge, supporting the increasing desire of students to develop their entrepreneurial skills and ideas. In 2017–18 interested students and alumni had opportunities to be coached on pitches for their ideas and win awards from a $10,000 prize pool to launch their ventures.
CAPX is fortunate to partner with talented faculty and staff across SAIC • • • • • • • •
Residence Life Campus Life Academic Advising Fashion Design Visual Communication Design Graduate Division Low Residency MFA Program AIGAS
Annual Report 2018