Taylor Tate 

Kickstarting your career can be scary and stressful. At Penn State Abington students are supplied with the right materials to grow and prosper in the next phase of their lives after college. 

Penn is State Abington provides students with the right materials they need to be successful in their career journey. This includes Penn State Abington’s Career and Professional Development (CPD), which offers students help with some fundamentals in their career development process. 

The brains behind this amazing and impactful program are from none other than Director and Program Coordinator of Career and Professional Development, Tina Vance-Knight.  Vance-Knight asserts, “Its best for Penn State Abington students to start early and often- we want to start with kids their freshman year.” There is an easy-to-use 24/7 Career Tools  website, which also comes with easy access to other valuable steps in career planning such as meeting the CPD Team, choosing a major, connecting with alumni from Penn State Abington and more.

The CPD program allows students efficient access to Nittany Lion Careers, which houses opportunities for all including alumni and employers. Penn State Abington’s 24/7 career tools offers a never-ending supply of bulleted, linked recourses to jumpstart student’s careers with guides, information and contacts to employers, psi jobs, interview access and more. Penn State Abington’s dedication to their students’ success is number one priority here at Abington. Vance-Knight also says, “We help [students] explore majors and careers, identify their careers/professional goals and explore those professional goals and their brand,” adding that Career and Professional Development Program hosts, “200 events a year, we help students craft their own job search brand to help students identify strategies they need to present, and we get students connected with global and redial employers as well as Penn State alumni network.”

Cody Knight, a Junior at Penn State Abington, says that “Penn State Abington has helped me make connections with people who have other connections within my field of study, which helps me with future internship opportunities,”  and Juliette Ohler, another student at Penn State Abington can verify that Penn States brand has a significant role in student’s careers; she says, “I can get a good and highly known “Penn State” education but can still stay at home and commute.”

Vance-Knight sums up CPD and the hard-working team behind this organization: “I always come back to this analogy of my team and its resemblance to a car. I think of my team councils and how they are the engines of the office, the people that focus on engagement are like the headlights of the cars, and the student workers are like the car parts to make the students function and help with student’s goals. Together we work as a team to make things run smoothly.”

 Vance-Knight also talks about the organization’s focus on students and their future: “We focus on students future–guides on the sides.” Director Vance-Knight says. This includes help with internship applications for students with a wide range of possible majors, workshops, and events that are updated annually. The team at Career and Professional Development can help with “Internships, student leaderships, study abroad, you name it–we want to help you with what is right for you.”