ON DIRECT
Associate Director of Employer and Externship Program Outreach Tom Blennau ’02
Rojas, who still works at St. John’s Law, and we talked about the new position. After some further conversations with the Law School’s leadership, I saw that this would be a great opportunity for me to leverage my relationship-building skills in support of alma mater. It was the perfect next step in my professional journey. TA: What do you enjoy most, and find most rewarding, about your work?
You can usually find Tom Blennau on the road, visiting alumni and other prospective employers with a focus on strengthening and developing relationships, assisting with recruiting needs, and generating new employment and externship opportunities for St. John’s Law students and graduates. It’s a role that takes him back to his roots at the Law School, where he excelled as a student in the evening program. Here, he talks with Assistant Dean for Marketing and Communications Trent Anderson about coming home to work at St. John’s. TA: After graduating from St. John’s Law cum laude, you practiced at the intersection of law and technology for many years. Why did you decide to start this new professional chapter? TB: After enjoying 20-plus years working in the insurance industry and as a lawyer, I thought it might be time to try something new. My passion for building trusted relationships with clients was a constant in my work up to that point. Still, I didn’t know exactly how my next chapter would play out. Around that time, as luck would have it, I heard that the Law School’s Career Development Office was creating a new role on its employer outreach team. So I called my former career development advisor, Helena
TB: I truly enjoy working with our students, learning about their goals and interests, and introducing them to right-fit jobs, externships, and internships. It’s also been wonderful to see our young alumni paying it forward by helping us build and strengthen the St. John’s Law connection at their firms, companies, and organizations. I enjoy collaborating with my colleagues throughout the building to create new employment and networking opportunities for students and alumni. Associate Dean Jeanne Ardan has done an amazing job building a team in the Career Development Office. We all have distinct, but complementary, roles that support our individualized and fully integrated approach to career development. It’s through this collective effort, and with the commitment and support of our alumni, that we’ve been able to achieve outstanding graduate employment outcomes year after year. While the numbers alone are impressive, to me, it’s what’s behind the numbers that means the most. It’s the St. John’s Law family coming together to have such a positive impact on lives and careers. TA: In addition to your outreach role, you also teach the Externship Seminar at St. John’s Law. How do you think our students benefit from externships? TB: Our externship program offers students an amazing opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience in a real-world setting. Our program has grown tremendously over the last few years. We now offer placements in nearly every practice area and setting spanning the private, public, and governmental sectors, and we work closely with our students to help them identify and secure externships that align with their interests. Our Externship Seminar
accompanies the placement and complements the practical skills the students hone in the field. Teaching has been an exciting and rewarding experience. I’m able to share the knowledge I’ve gained in my legal career to help our students graduate practice ready. TA: Every St. John’s Law student is assigned a career counselor starting their first day on campus. How do you think this differentiates us and our students in this crowded marketplace? TB: Employers recognize and appreciate that our individualized approach to career development helps us better meet their needs. I really enjoy meeting with our alumni and other employers to learn more about their businesses, and collaborating with them to find good hiring prospects. I’ve been given the latitude to shape this new role so we can be responsive to the changing marketplace, and I’m very grateful for that unwavering support from the Law School’s leadership. It’s led to the creation of many new and exciting employment opportunities for our students and alumni. TA: What do you hear from our alumni who give back to alma mater by hiring St. John’s? Is it a meaningful connecting point for them? TB: I chose to attend St. John’s Law because of its reputation for having a strong alumni network. But it wasn’t until I was out on the road meeting with them in my new position that I experienced just how fantastic our alumni are. They’re proud and supportive, and they’re excited about the great progress the Law School has made under Dean Simons’s leadership. The question they ask me most often is, How can I help? They want to hire St. John’s. They want to mentor our students. But, more importantly, our alumni understand and appreciate the St. Johns Law student qualities that have remained constant over the years: smart, hardworking, unpretentious, gritty, personable, and practice ready. Those qualities form an unbreakable thread connecting the generations of St. John’s Law students and alumni. It’s really wonderful to be a part of that strong and enduring connection. You can reach Tom at blennaut@stjohns.edu or (718) 990-5929. SPRING 2019 l 29