Submitted/University Career Center

KU basketball player Sherron Collins warms up before a game with the KUCareerHawk.com logo in the background. The University Career Center won a national award for its innovative project to reach students through a basketball pregame show.

University Career Center lauded for innovative pregame program for students

So what’s an office to do when its mission is to serve students, but its location isn’t exactly easy to find? The University Career Center came up with a solution that not only got students’ but national attention.

The center was selected for a National Association of Colleges and Employers Chevron Award for its “University Career Center — Center Court” program. The award recognizes a college career center for a groundbreaking development in the field. For its efforts, the University Career Center won $1,000 and a plaque that will be presented at the association’s national conference and will be featured in the association’s online journal.

The center partnered with Kansas Athletics and Jayhawk Sports Marketing to reach the students they serve. Given KU’s basketball tradition, the center developed a plan to reach the Jayhawks’ devoted basketball-following students. Students regularly camp out for days to get good seats at basketball games and are allowed in Allen Fieldhouse before the rest of the public on game days.

They developed a series of videos about the center, its services and things students should know about seeking a job after school. Students are asked questions such as: “Where is the University Career Center?” and “What is a résumé?” David Gaston, director of the University Career Center, said up to 4,000 students attend each game and as many as 2,000 students enter in the first 30 minutes after the doors open. The result is a captive target audience.

“Center Court has been a great way to share career-related information with students in a fun and entertaining way,” he said. “We want students to know we are here to assist them with any career concerns they may have, and this was a perfect opportunity to speak directly to our target audience.”

The videos are played on the scoreboard, and ads featuring the center’s Web site, KUCareerHawk.com, are displayed on more than 30 LED screens throughout the arena. Before each game, an emcee introduces students to the “University Career Center —Center Court” student pre-game show. After the video plays on the big screen, the emcee leads students in a series of games and events that have included career-related scavenger hunts, trivia contests and charades. Student representatives are selected to lead their section in the contests. Winning students receive a prize pack of gifts from the center and a gift card from an employer partner. T-shirts bearing the KUCareerHawk.com logo are also launched into the winning section.

The program has proven to be effective.

“On average, we have seen a 10 to15 percent increase in web traffic on days following games,” Gaston said. “In addition, we have seen a 30 percent increase in scheduled student appointments this spring over last year and a 50 percent increase in student participation in spring networking events over last year.

By the way, the University Career Center is located at 110 Burge Union.

The center’s pre-game videos are available online.