Amber Lennon, Executive Director of Career and Professional Development & QEP, Elizabeth City State University

In an interview with Invest:, Amber Lennon, executive director of career and professional development and QEP at Elizabeth City State University, discussed career exploration, professional development, internships, and access to opportunity. “I think it is really about exploration and helping students understand what their options actually are,” Lennon said.

What has been a focus for Career and Professional Development over the past year?

Within the last year, we have focused on telling our story better. All of this work has been happening. We have been holding career fairs, and we have had the State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Foundation grant renewed for the past five years. That work has continued, along with strengthening relationships with faculty and staff.

We are at a point where we are trying to show the work we have been doing. Typically, in higher education, we get so stuck in the weeds of doing the work, meeting with students, and holding events that we don’t pause to tell the story. We are now telling the story of the things we have been doing in the background.

What are students looking for in their career paths, and what support do they need?

Our signature program is aviation, so strengthening our relationships with different airlines remains important. At the same time, not every student who comes into aviation wants to be a pilot, which is why we have been more strategic about helping students explore what they actually want to do.

AI is obviously something students are interested in. We also have students who want to be influencers, so we are thinking about entrepreneurship and what that looks like. We are at a stage where students are exploring their options. Some come in thinking they want to pursue a traditional career path and then realize, once they get into it, that it is not necessarily what they want to do.

There are also students who do not initially understand all the steps required for a particular career. For example, some of our kinesiology students are interested in sports medicine, occupational therapy, or physical therapy but may not realize they need to continue into a graduate program.

Overall, our students are interested in learning and open to exploring. We recently had a transformative New York Career Trek where we took students to New York to expose them to different possibilities, which was exciting. We have also done a couple of smaller ones focused on opportunities in North Carolina and real estate. I think it is really about exploration and helping students understand what their options actually are.

How are students developing the professional skills they need beyond the classroom? 

We are focused on personal branding. All ECSU students have access to LinkedIn Learning at no cost. As part of our SECU program, students are required to complete five hours of LinkedIn Learning. Microcredentials are also part of our strategic plan. We look at certifications, but a lot of what we encourage through LinkedIn Learning focuses on soft skills development, including public speaking, personal branding, and financial management. Those are things that help develop the student as a whole.

We want students to understand that they should always be themselves and be authentic, but they are also representing their families and ECSU. When a student is wearing Viking Blue or an ECSU sweatshirt in the community, people may form an impression of what an ECSU student is like based on that interaction.

That is something people may not necessarily associate with the Career Development Center, but we do a lot of preparation and have a lot of conversations about how students show up, even in class. We want students to take themselves seriously, and we want other people to take them seriously and understand the value they bring when they enter a room.

How is the Career Development Center expanding its reach among students and alumni?

We do a lot of this work in person. When I first got here, we were seeing about 200 students. Last year alone, we saw more than 500 students through one-on-one appointments.

Compared with our enrollment, we are reaching a good portion of our student population. It is very easy, especially on LinkedIn and social media, to compare numbers. Another university may have 1,000 students attend a career fair, but it may have 20,000 students enrolled. If we have 500 students at a career fair, which we do, we are reaching a significant portion of our student population.

We do a lot of one-on-one appointments and presentations, and our schedules stay busy. We also continue to serve alumni. It does not matter what year someone graduated. As long as they can get in contact with us, we can schedule an appointment virtually or meet with them on campus. There is no time limit on when we will work with our alumni. We are always here to help.

What barriers does the paid internship program help remove for students?

I had a business major who was placed with a local museum. The staff told us how much they were going to miss her and that they wanted her to come back. When I asked whether she enjoyed the experience, she said she had never considered that kind of work as an option.

That gets to what we are trying to accomplish through the grant. We focus on startups, local nonprofit organizations, and government agencies, which can struggle to attract talent. Students are gaining positive internship experiences while discovering organizations and career paths they may not have considered before.

This was also the first year we were able to pay students $18.25 an hour for 10 weeks. Through the program, we have purchased professional clothing, provided transportation stipends, and, in some cases, helped with housing costs.

We also surveyed students who had not completed an internship to understand what was preventing them from doing so. The three main barriers were family responsibilities, lack of transportation, and lack of summer housing. Through the State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation program, which serves 20 students each year, we have been able to remove many of those barriers.

We lowered the GPA requirement to 2.0 so that we could be more inclusive. Sometimes a GPA reflects real-life circumstances, such as balancing family and work. A student can still be an excellent employee but may not qualify for opportunities with higher GPA requirements. This program gives them a chance to gain experience and have something meaningful to discuss when they graduate and begin interviewing.

Even though we lowered the GPA requirement, the average GPA for each cohort is still above 3.0. We also had an adult learner participate outside the traditional 18-to-24 age range. That speaks to our ability to get to know our students, understand what opportunities fit them, and connect them with employers.

What would strengthen the connection between career preparation and post-graduation success?

For me, it comes down to creating the right infrastructure. We know the work is happening, but now we need the platforms, technology, and operating procedures in place to track it more effectively.

Our team is small, and tracking students after graduation can be a full-time job. We do not currently have someone dedicated specifically to assessment, so we are working to improve how we collect and clean data, identify trends, and understand whether students are getting what they need.

For example, survey responses have helped us identify barriers such as summer housing and transportation. Even when the responses represent only a portion of students, they help guide our conversations with employers and the support we provide.

Career development is also challenging to track because participation is not mandatory, and only certain departments require internships. We want students to understand how to access these opportunities, while also building a better picture of how many complete internships and what happens after graduation. That will help us measure the impact of the work and continue strengthening it.