Beyond Barnard provides lifelong support to all students and graduates as they define, pursue, and achieve success in their careers and communities. The office represents an integrated hub of services and resources in the areas of career development (including job and internship exploration and applications), campus roles (including jobs funded through Federal Work Study, Barnard College Jobs, and other forms of on- and off-campus work), competitive national and international fellowships, and graduate and professional school. Members of the Barnard community can access Beyond Barnard from their first day on campus as students, throughout their matriculation, and for a lifetime as graduates. Resources are available to students and alums, regardless of whether they intend to pursue careers in academia, corporate industry, nonprofit organizations, the arts, or government (and many others in between).
Beyond Barnard’s resources are designed to complement the academic mission of the College. Our work proceeds from the assertion that one’s major does not dictate the entire course of one’s career, and that there is too often a false dichotomy between the skills and knowledge necessary for success in the classroom, and those necessary for success in careers after graduation. To this end, Beyond Barnard emphasizes the value of transferable skills, personal and professional networks (especially with Barnard alums), and critical thinking about the purpose of a liberal arts education in the context of the twenty-first century.
In its 2022-2027 strategic plan, released publicly in 2022, Beyond Barnard defines its central values as equity, exploration, education, engagement, and empowerment. The office lays out its specific pursuit of these values on its website, and reports on key indicators like the placement rates of graduates, and demographics of advisees here: https://barnard.edu/beyond-barnard/data-and-outcomes.
In all of these activities, Beyond Barnard emphasizes that students and alums own their career trajectory. The office works to empower them to define and pursue their path and their purpose. Students and alums can tap into Beyond Barnard resources (enumerated in more detail below) at its website, through its online Handshake portal, and on social media. Newsletters about services and resources are deployed weekly to students throughout the academic year. Additional targeted messages are deployed to students and alums year round.
Information about Beyond Barnard is available on its website, and questions can always be addressed to beyondbarnard@barnard.edu.
Advising and Programs
The Advising and Programs Team provides one-on-one advising, events, workshops, mentoring opportunities, and other resources that help students and alums explore and pursue diverse careers, fellowships, and graduate or professional school programs. Leading more than 4,400 individual advising appointments annually, the Advising and Programs Team can support students and alums in career exploration, job and internship document creation (resumes, CV’s, cover letters, etc.), applications for graduate and professional school (including Medical School, Business School, master’s and PhD Programs, and Law School, among many others), interview and negotiation best practices, networking, and the pursuit of competitive fellowships. Appointments are secured using Beyond Barnard’s online portal. Drop-in hours with full-time staff are also available. Information about how to schedule appointments or drop in for advising is available on the Beyond Barnard website.
In addition to full-time staff, the Advising and Programs Team oversees the Peer Career Advisor (PCA) program. PCA’s offer drop-in and scheduled appointments for students to review job documents, discuss job and internship search strategies, review LinkedIn profiles, and more.
Central to Beyond Barnard’s philosophy on career exploration is its integration of multiple stakeholders from the Barnard community—including alums, faculty, parents, staff, and others—into its resources. Programs like Career Insights connect students to alums for conversations about industries, career skills, and diverse fields.
In 2019-20, Beyond Barnard celebrated ten years of career mentoring programs at the College with the launch of Barnard Connect and Beyond Mentoring. Barnard Connect is a virtual mentoring platform that allows students to connect with mentors. Beyond Mentoring, accessed through Barnard Connect, gives students the ability to apply for short-term projects for career and professional skills development that are hosted by alums, parents, and other friends of the College. These initiatives together represent a significant expansion of Beyond Barnard’s other mentoring initiatives: the Executive Mentorship Program, Mentors-in-Residence, and Alum Ambassadors.
Questions about the Advising and Programs Team may be directed to beyondbarnard@barnard.edu.
Partnerships & Employer Relations
Beyond Barnard’s Partnerships and Employer Relations Team administers Beyond Barnard’s funded internship programs, part-time employment programs (including on-campus and off-campus opportunities funded by work study programs), manages a comprehensive online job and internship posting site available to full-time Barnard College students, and oversees partnerships with corporate and philanthropic organizations that support Beyond Barnard with funding.
Through its administration of the Beyond Barnard Internship Program, Laidlaw Scholars Program, GRoWing the Arts, Liman Center For Public Interest Law Fellows, Bridgewater Scholars, and other funded internship programs, the Partnerships & Employer Relations Team administers funding for unpaid or low-pay internships and research opportunities for more than 350 students per year. The team’s administrative oversight of the Summer Research Institute plays a pivotal role in the execution of that program as well. Information about the specifics of each program, funding, eligibility, and application processes, is available on Beyond Barnard’s website.
With respect to campus roles and part-time employment, the Partnerships & Employer Relations Team performs multiple functions. First and foremost, the team plans and executes paid professional development programming for the 1000+ students engaged annually in roles that are supported by the Federal Work Study Program, Barnard College Jobs, and other forms of paid student employment opportunities. Finally, in its function as the manager of Beyond Barnard’s Handshake page, the team manages relationships with hiring managers for part-time independent contractor roles.
Throughout the year, the Partnerships and Employer Relations team leverages its relationships with employers across industries to connect Barnard students and graduates to internship and job opportunities. Handshake again plays an important role, and acts as the College’s central clearinghouse for job and internship listings. But the team also provides distinctive opportunities for employers and partners to connect directly with students and alums. The team leads Focus Series in both the Fall and Spring, featuring a range of fields including tech, nonprofits, consulting, arts, law, and finance. It hosts regular information sessions and programs led by visiting employers, including on-campus interviews for internships and full-time jobs, and workshops that prepare students for success in the recruiting process.
Finally, the Partnerships & Employer Relations Team supports Beyond Barnard’s Opportunities Conferences, which foster direct connections between students, employers and hiring alums.
Communications & Operations
The Communications & Operations Team assesses and communicates about the effectiveness of Beyond Barnard’s work. It also manages all processes associated with Beyond Barnard’s many programmatic initiatives, from payroll paperwork for student workers to access to online platforms run by the office. Beyond Barnard tracks the graduate and professional outcomes of each graduating class and reports them each year. In line with peer institutions, outcomes are reported six months after graduation. To track satisfaction and improve its resources, Beyond Barnard also collects data in the form of surveys from students and alums. Data that Beyond Barnard collects and reports on can be found on the Beyond Barnard website in its Data and Outcomes section.
Questions about the Communications & Operations Team may be directed to beyondbarnard@barnard.edu.