Rackham welcomes Coordinator of Graduate Student Career Advancement Clarence Anthony, Jr., in a new embedded position at Rackham created in partnership with the University Career Center. In his role, Anthony will provide career coaching, advising, and programming for doctoral students, along with connections to employers and employment opportunities via the University Career Center.
“I love my new role because I get to work with people who are going down a road that I have been down,” says Anthony, who received his bachelor’s degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in counseling and counselor education from the University of Florida, in addition to a master’s degree in psychological counseling from Columbia University Teachers College. “Earning a Ph.D. is a challenge in many ways, and I feel honored to be able to help others to think about how they're going to use their degree.”
As part of his responsibilities, Anthony will seek to assist graduate students in their career exploration in several ways:
- Offering expertise for engaging with professionals, and for conducting research on career options in multiple sectors.
- Creating, implementing, and evaluating workshops on career decision-making, networking, developing professional tools and skills, organizing domestic and international job-search strategies, and leveraging social media.
- Assisting graduate students in understanding the transferability of their academic coursework as they explore possible next steps in myriad areas.
- Supporting students to be successful in the implementation of their job/educational choices and the negotiation of acceptances to launch their professional careers.
Anthony’s position is modeled on the successful implementation of a Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) embedded psychologist, Laura Monschau, who began working at Rackham in 2016. Just as graduate students can make appointments with Monschau in addition to taking advantage of counseling and services through the main CAPS office, they can similarly choose to schedule an appointment with Anthony while still availing themselves of other resources at the University Career Center.
“Rackham’s embedded CAPS counselor has been a great service to our students,” says Rackham Dean Mike Solomon, “and I’m excited to see the benefits of this model extend to graduate-student career advancement.”
This is the first position of its kind for which the University Career Center is partnering with a U-M school or college, and Anthony says he’s excited to use lessons from his own career to help others.
“I see myself as being able to use both my education as a counselor and my experience as a past Ph.D. student to coach students and recent alumni to realize the value of their degrees and experiences, and to recognize their strengths as professionals,” he says. “My goal is to help the people that I work with find their most optimal fit, and to be aware of their opportunities.”
Students who wish to make an appointment with Anthony can do so through the Career Center website.