Featured CDO Advisor: Lee Schott
Lee Schott joined the Career Development Office in 2013 after two years in the Kenyon Admissions Office. In addition to providing one-on-one advising for core career development topics, Lee also works closely with students to identify professional mentors who can best assist them with their questions about life after Kenyon. If you’ve met with Lee before, you may have heard him say, “I know someone who works in that industry!” That someone is likely one of the 6,000 Kenyon alumni and parents who volunteer to serve as professional mentors through the Kenyon Career Network (KCN); or one of 2,000 volunteers who sponsor students for short-term job shadows; or one of 500 Bed & Breakfast sponsors who offer homestays to students to facilitate career development experiences around the country.
Lee particularly enjoys creating connections between students and Kenyon alumni and parents. As lifelong learners, Lee feels that students connecting with professional mentors to explore a career field is a natural extension of the innate curiosity Kenyon students bring to their studies. Both mentors and mentees find these connections to be heartening and educational. Among other things, students learn how their hard-earned skills developed in Kenyon classrooms and extracurricular pursuits can be applied in professional settings; and mentors reconnect with the College through student perspectives and stories. Lee shares, “I understand students’ initial hesitations about reaching out to alumni, but the CDO regularly hears from alumni wishing students would contact them more!”
Lee knows academic and professional exploration is a process in perpetual motion--and one in which students regularly evaluate how to best use their intellectual, professional, and personal strengths to have the greatest impact in and beyond the classroom. Lee and his colleagues in the CDO provide the tools, support, and encouragement necessary to help students (and alumni) understand the career development process and feel confident in their ability to navigate it. To book a session with Lee, click here.