An experiment in success

By Joanna Oxendine

In the midst of record-high unemployment rates, one Cal State San Bernardino program serves as a catalyst to the right job.

Few communities have found it harder than the Inland Empire to bounce back from the economic downturn that began in 2008.  According to a May 2011 article in U.S. News and World Report, the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area tops the list of worst U.S. cities for job seekers.  With an unemployment rate of nearly 14 percent and close to four unemployed adults for every job that is posted, it’s little wonder the region found it difficult to recover when other areas of California and the United States are beginning to feel some relief.

In his May 2011 “State of the Region” address, local economist John Husing concluded that education and the region’s relative lack of degree-holding adults is at the crux of the Inland Empire’s economic troubles — and the highest-priority problem that must be solved in order for the region’s people, and its economy, to move forward.

However, in the midst of the economic disparity surrounding it, an innovative student support program at CSUSB — CoyoteCareers — is working to address that problem, one student at a time.

The award-winning program, established in fall 2007 with a $2.4 million U.S. Department of Education Title V grant, is a unique collaboration between the CSUSB Alumni Association, the Career Development Center and Community-University Partnerships.  Designed to pool some of the most critical and historically underfunded resources on campus, the program supports Hispanic and low-income students in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics —  by providing additional tutoring, career preparation workshops, paid internship experiences, and access to some of CSUSB’s most successful alumni.

The program seems to have unlocked the door to employment success for many STEM students. “Through the program, they are provided awareness of opportunities and instruction on how to prepare for those opportunities,” says Bryan Bradford, human resources analyst for South Coast Air Quality Management District and a 1998 graduate of CSUSB with a master’s in public administration.

“I’m involved [in CoyoteCareers] because I know the talent is there, and I’m charged with finding that talent.” –Alex Nájera

Bradford, who’s hired a number of CoyoteCareers students for AQMD, also participates as an expert alumnus, volunteering through the CSUSB Alumni Association to present some of the program’s Academic Career Education, or ACE, workshops, structured by the Career Development Center.

Since the start of the program, nearly 200 alumni have returned to the university volunteering as workshop presenters, internship hosts, or networking connections and mentors through the CoyoteCareers program. They’ve done so for personal and professional reasons.

“I’m involved [in CoyoteCareers] because I know the talent is there, and I’m charged with finding that talent,” says CSUSB alumnus and Riverside County human resources analyst Alex Nájera who also has a master’s in public administration. “And from a personal standpoint, I know that anything I can do that will help students get perspective and be competitive is appreciated.”

The university is known for some of the strongest STEM degree programs in the region.  However, students need more than a degree to be competitive in today’s tougher-than-ever job market.  The CoyoteCareers program works to bridge that gap and provide students the edge they need to secure employment.

“I really don’t know where I’d be without the CoyoteCareers program,” admitted Branden Hodges. A 2011 graduate with a bachelor’s in chemistry who had been working at a local restaurant to support his young family, Hodges learned about the program from his wife in the fall of 2009. Like many first-generation students, he wasn’t sure exactly how to go about getting where he knew he wanted to be: the career of his dreams in the field of his choice.  However, with the help of the program, he gained some career soft skills — such as how to interview and communicate effectively — and work experience.

Hodges isn’t alone. In the three-and-a-half years the program has been active, some 700 STEM students have taken advantage of CoyoteCareers, including its workshops, paid-internship experiences and opportunities to network and connect with alumni. Since fall 2007, more than 650 STEM students have participated in the ACE workshops alone. With topics ranging from career exploration to résumé-writing and interviewing skills, the ACE workshops not only provide students applicable and relevant advice on the job search process, but also afford them the opportunity to connect with successful alumni, as most workshops are presented by alumni experts. Like Bradford and Nájera, many alumni presenters are in a position to recruit or hire STEM majors.

“The CoyoteCareers program gives students perspective into the real nuts and bolts of finding a job,” said Nájera. “Those students who attend the workshops and actually apply the knowledge have a noticeable level of confidence with soft skills. Anything that makes you more knowledgeable than other candidates is a huge plus in this economy.”

Bradford agrees. “Through my participation in the program, I’ve met some very sharp, very impressive students … and have hired a number of them,” he said.  “As an alumnus, I know they have a strong academic background, and as a participant in this program, I know they’re well-prepared with regard to soft skills.”

According to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, nearly 40 percent of all new hires are interns.

It’s not only their participation in career preparation workshops and networking with alumni that’s giving CoyoteCareers students a leg-up, either. Internship experiences arranged through Community-University Partnerships are also giving students an advantage. Structured with CSUSB’s low-income,working students in mind, the program offers a $1,000 stipend for each 100-hour experience. Although many students seek an internship to gain résumé-building “real world” work experience, few realize initially the enormous employment-securing potential these 100-hour experiences hold. According to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, nearly 40 percent of all new hires are interns.

Amanda (Rodriguez) Sanders is one of those students. She graduated from Cal State San Bernardino in 2008 with a B.S. in chemistry and biology and went on to earn her M.S. in environmental sciences in 2010.

“I knew I needed work experience in order to get the job I wanted,” Sanders said. “My CoyoteCareers internship not only gave me that experience, but also gave me a leg-up to an actual position.” Sanders, who discovered the program while searching for an internship experience on the Career Development Center’s CoyoteLink job posting board, spent her 100-hour internship in the labs of AQMD and, like many of her CoyoteCareers program cohorts, was offered degree-relevant employment at the end of her experience.

“The whole program gives students valuable experience to understanding their career path and the application of their education,” continued Sanders.  “The workshops helped me create a stronger résumé and interviewing skills, and the alumni I met proved to me that my goal was obtainable.  I realized that if they could do it, so could I.”

In addition to following the program’s general progress, coordinators also are tracking retention rates of CoyoteCareers students and comparing the rates to Hispanic and/or low-income STEM students who don’t participate in the program.

So innovative and successful has been the program … that it has become a model program for the California State University system.

To date, CoyoteCareers students have higher retention rates than students who do not take advantage of the program’s services. The average second-year retention rate of CoyoteCareers first-time freshman students stands at 95 percent, while retention rates of all CSUSB program-eligible first-time freshman students is 64 percent. First-year retention rates of CoyoteCareers transfer students hover around 93 percent, while all CSUSB program-eligible transfer students’ rates are closer to 82 percent.

So innovative and successful has been the program, which has been recognized by both the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the National Association of Colleges and Employers, that it has become a model program for the California State University system. The program was highlighted by the CSU Chancellor’s Office in a Learn and Serve America grant to improve support for and retention of STEM students across the 23-campus system. The creators of the program — Pam Langford, who earned a B.A. in marketing from CSUSB in 1985 and is director of alumni affairs and a special assistant to university President Albert Karnig; Diane Podolske, director of Community-University Partnerships; and Carol Dixon, interim director of the Career Development Center — have written a how-to guide, due out this fall. It will aid in establishing CoyoteCareers-like programs across the state.

At CSUSB, the program, whose federal funding is set to expire in fall 2012, will be continued and expanded to include additional support and career preparation services for all Cal State San Bernardino students under the campus’s new Student Success, Graduation and Career Placement initiative, further supporting the university’s efforts to better prepare its students to aid in mending the broken economy of the Inland Empire.

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