New Career and Transfer Center making sure students on right path

The counselors in Germanna’s new Career and Transfer Center have a question for GCC students:

“Do you know what you want to study and do you know where you want to transfer?”

Marie Hawley and Sheryl Williamson want to make sure students are on the right path--that there are as few missteps as possible. Missteps can be costly both in terms of time and money, they say, slowing students on their way to degrees and costing thousands of dollars in extra tuition and lost earnings. 

Career Counselor Hawley says of the new Center:

“This is an opportunity for students to really put together their career interests, things they’d like to study and make sure the pieces fit together to transfer for a bachelor’s degree.”

 Hawley said that when it comes to certain programs at universities where Germanna has a guaranteed transfer agreement, “we have to inform [students] that you cannot just do general studies and transfer--you need a degree focus.”

For example, she said, Germanna may have a guaranteed transfer agreement with a university, but not guaranteed entry into its business school without certain prerequisites.

Transfer Counselor Sheryl Williamson said: “We try to encourage students to look ahead. … What sometimes happens is that student graduates with that mentality transfer, they are then faced with taking additional math classes.”

“Or not admitted to the program,” Hawley said. “But if you prepare properly, you can align yourself.”

 “If you start at a four-year school, you have to declare a major by your junior year,” Williamson pointed out, adding that Germanna students should be thinking about that major before they transfer.

“The sooner you know where you want to go and what you want to do, the sooner you can match up your course work so it transfers more seamlessly,” Hawley said.

The Career and Transfer Center also offers assessments through the Virginia Education Wizard, counseling and information sessions and workshops in resume writing and mock job interviews. It also brings representatives from over 40 colleges and universities on campus as part of an annual College Fair. This year’s event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the Daniel Center in Culpeper and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania.

The Center also offers resources “to help identify career paths students may not even know exist,” Hawley said.

It also helps connect students and employers for internships.

Williamson and Hawley have over 50 years of combined experience in education.

The Career and Transfer Center is located in room 228 of the Dickinson Building at the Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania.

The Center phone number is 540/834-1841.

Email addresses for the Center:

Career Counselor Marie Hawley mhawley@germanna.edu

Transfer Counselor Sheryl Williamson swilliamson@germanna.edu

Sabrina Dunaway sdunaway@germanna.edu

Career and Transfer Center's Sheryl Williamson and Marie Hawley

Fredericksburg Regional Alliance President Gene Bailey has business advice for Germanna students: The only thing to fear is fear itself

Gene Bailey,  president of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, offered career advice to about 60 Germanna students, faculty members and staffers at a “Knowledge: Key to a Larger Paycheck” luncheon at the Fredericksburg Country Club Tuesday, Nov. 6 organized by GCC Career Counselor Marie Hawley.
Bailey gave Germanna students tips on networking, opening lines, dining room skills, putting together resumes and job interviews.

   Perhaps the most valuable advice Bailey shared is that the students should keep in mind that others are probably just as nervous as they are.
He invited the students to attend FRA’s 13th Annual Meeting luncheon as his guests and told them not to be intimidated.

  “Everybody is scared of something,” Bailey told the GCC students.

“…The objective is to get in the game, not think of five reasons not to go.”

     ”I was 19 years old and did not have indoor plumbing,” Bailey said. “My [starting point] was a lot lower than anybody’s in this room. If I can do it, I’m reasonably sure there’s somebody in this room who can do better.”

FRA's Gene Bailey and GCC student Joanna Stroup

   

                                                       

GCC Career Counselor Marie Hawley and student Javier Penzellence

                                                       

    GCC's Dr. Miguel Lechuga and students Kimberly McGinnis, Kristina Wall and Christine Beverly 

Germanna Dean Denise Guest