My conversation this week was with Christine Cruzvergara, who just wrapped up more than seven years at Handshake as its Chief Education Strategy Officer. Christine and I first met close to a decade ago as career services leaders at Virginia institutions, part of a cohort that used to get together of career services leaders, and I have watched from a distance ever since as her path carried her from George Mason University to a cabinet seat at Wellesley to a general-manager-style role at Handshake in San Francisco.
Watch the full-length version on YouTube (57 mins)
On the show this week, Christine shares an idea of hers that she championed while she was at Wellesley and elsewhere in her journey. Every student, she argues, should graduate with a personal board of advisors, at least three alumni in their field they can actually turn to. “Same thing goes for our students. They need a board,” she told me.
In an AI world where so much can be automated, Christine believes the real, in-person connection between a student and someone a little further down the road matters more than ever, and it is one of the few things only an institution can provide. What would we uncover if we simply shared what each side already knows, the young alumni already recruiting on campus, the annual-fund donors who would gladly mentor if anyone asked? And are we brave enough to treat career outcomes as an engagement strategy rather than someone else’s department?
Christine’s answer to a lot of this is disarmingly simple. Don’t gatekeep, hire people who can lead change, and stop pretending students experience our org charts. I think people connect to her because she makes the strategic feel practical, and because underneath all of it is a genuinely human bet: that the thing worth protecting, even now, is the connection between people.
Register for our Next Agora
Topic: Talent Development
Title:
Starting With Yourself: Set Mini-Boundaries to Preserve Your Capacity
Date & Time:
Thursday, June 16 from 12-1 pm ET.
Event Type:
TED-style presentation plus small-group networking and discussion
Speaker:
Ellen Whitlock Baker - Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant
Big Themes This Week
Career readiness is everyone’s job, but it still needs a leader and a central office, or it turns into chaos.
The personal board of advisors: every student should graduate with at least three alumni they can actually turn to.
Advancement and career services lose real opportunities when they gatekeep information and relationships from each other.
The young-alumni-donor overlap is a bridge, annual-fund donors who are also natural mentors and volunteers.
In an AI world, the human connection an institution can broker is becoming more valuable, not less.
Team Discussion Questions
Where do our career and alumni offices operate as if the other does not exist, and what would sharing look like?
Could we set a real goal of three alumni relationships for every student, and what would it take to get there?
Who are the young alumni already recruiting or giving that we have never thought to engage as volunteers?
Are we treating career outcomes as an engagement strategy, or as someone else’s department?
How are we helping students become builders with AI while protecting the relational skills employers still want?
