Nathaniel Bradley with members of the CCDAE team receiving his award.

One undergraduate and one graduate student recently received the Lumsden-Greenberg Excellence in Career Management award. Nathaniel Bradley is a senior in English with a concentration in technical writing and a Wildlife and Fisheries management minor. The graduate student awardee was Ekramul H. Ehite, a graduating PhD student in biosystems engineering.

This award recognizes students who have demonstrated success in their career development journey and engaged with relevant resources/experiences. These students utilized Center for Career Development & Academic Exploration (CCDAE) services, including individual appointments or classes, gained direct skills through internships or other experiential learning, and attended career workshops, events, or fairs. Additionally, these students have developed a personal brand and have been able to articulate their skills, knowledge, and abilities with confidence through the job search or graduate school admissions process.

Bradley, the first student awarded, participated in several career coaching appointments while changing his major, attended drop-in resume review hours, and attended one of the Career Conversations. He had also utilized Handshake to apply for positions. He is a member of the Student Disability Services Advisory Board and has participated in several experiential learning opportunities, including opportunities through the Departments of Wildlife and Fisheries and Anthropology. He has also worked part-time at a public library, which helped lead to his post-graduate goal of attending graduate school for library and information science.

Ehite attended 20 different career development events over the past year! These included numerous employer info sessions for engineering, Prepare for the Fair, job fairs, and the Memphis VOLTrek for engineering students. On a recent multi-day employer visit, Ehite researched and connected with the employers ahead of the trip, had thoughtful questions for each of the employers, and has connected with employers after he returned to campus. Multiple employers and the trip organizer commented on both Ehite’s skills and achievements, but also on how pleasant their interactions were with him throughout our visit. In addition to his graduate research, he interned at Johnson & Johnson in 2022. He is currently in the process of interviewing with several companies for engineering-related positions, including one he met on the CCDAE’s VOLTrek.