The Career & Leadership Readiness Institute (CLRI) at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) celebrated the completion of its inaugural year with a virtual celebration for 35 NOVA students and alumni who received certificates of completion and an address from NOVA President, Dr. Anne Kress!
Requirements to obtain the certificate included completing a variety of workshops including topics such as Resume Preparation, Interviewing, Networking, Diversity & Equity Inclusion in the workplace, communication and conflict resolution and other sessions highlighting how to professionally stand out from the crowd. Students delivered a final project to complete their CLRI certification.
Over 500 individuals attended activities throughout the semester and late last-year. Orientation sessions were offered from November-January and 21 workshops, panels and information sessions led by 29 various community partners were offered during 8 weeks of the Spring 2021 semester. Captioning services were provided for every session and as well as an opportunity for NOVA ASL interpreting students to practice their interpreting skills.
CLRI’s first goal is to provide opportunities for students to engage in career and leadership readiness training and networking activities with the NOVA community and employers to increase career connections. The second goal is to prepare NOVA students with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to navigate a diverse workplace. It is an optional program for NOVA students and does not have any academic credits or grades tied to it.
Participants at the Virtual Recognition Celebration received a NOVA Polo, an embossed padfolio, and an engraved NOVA pen along with their certificate of completion. Community partners received a special NOVA engraved pen.
The CLRI is a 2020-21 InNOVAtion Grant sponsored by the NOVA Foundation. This grant sponsored initiative was submitted and implemented by Brittany Hollis, IET Career Coach and Tiffanie Rosier, SySTEMic STEM Education Coordinator.
A couple of responses from students who completed the course:
“I appreciate very much all the enthusiasm and dedication you have transmitted to us through your excellent work. The knowledge and skills acquired are and will be very valuable for our professional development. Thank you for your time and continuous monitoring so that we can complete each required step. I would absolutely recommend you for future activities!”
Kelly S.
“Thank you to all the Employers/Partners that came to the CLRI workshops. You were wonderful, helpful, kind and insightful. You were an amazing group of men and women who work in the fields of interest and were able to answer our questions and give us amazing feedback and connections for the future.”
Marijane D.