The Pomerantz Career Center values campus partners who invest in their growth to better support students, and we are proud to highlight Career Connectors who demonstrate leadership and dedication to student career success.
Meet Pilar Marcé
Associate Professor of Instruction, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
In what ways do you currently incorporate career-related conversations into your interactions with students?
"I just published with my colleague Dr. Alexis Jimenez an OER – Brotes: Intermediate Spanish I – that includes lessons on emerging jobs and essential job skills to help students reflect on their current skills and their professional future. In addition, sessions focused on career-related topics (namely developing necessary skills, job requirements, job search process, job interviews, etc.) are included in the syllabi of the two Business Spanish courses I regularly teach."
What common challenges do you see students facing when preparing for life after graduation and what is a piece of advice that you give them when it comes to this topic?
"In general, both Spanish majors- and some Spanish minors who want to use their Spanish speaking skills in their future professional careers- do not know where to start looking, because they are not sure about what they would like to do in the first place. I advise them to start early in university to ask themselves questions about their future career. If they are graduating soon, I encourage them reflect on all the skills they have developed along with learning Spanish, and to identify jobs or professional fields of their major where these skills would be particularly helpful and/or a competitive advantage in their job search."
In what ways do you help students connect their academic experiences to potential career paths?
"I encourage them to volunteer and participate in extracurricular activities when they can practice their foreign language skills, go study abroad. I also provide them with resources when needed."
What resources or tools that you have gotten from Career Connectors have you found most helpful when supporting students with career exploration or planning?
"It provided me with very helpful tools on where to start guiding students when they come to see me to discuss this topic. It was also very useful to learn different ways on how to incorporate career exploration or planning in the curriculum and classroom, as well as online tools that my students and I can use for this purpose, like My Career Path Toolkit."
How do you encourage students who feel uncertain or overwhelmed about their future careers?
"Taking it one step at a time. Start with what they can do at this moment. Based on their current skills, try to develop these further and/or acquire new ones through curricular and extracurricular experiences that can help them further along the way."
What skills or competencies do you believe are most important for students to develop before graduating?
"Oral and written communication skills and learning to work with different people."