New course bridges student pathway from college to career

Career development

10/23/2026

A new course in the College of Arts & Sciences, Career BRIDGE (Building Readiness, Insight, Direction, Growth, & Experience), will help students gain professional development skills and prepare for today’s workforce. It will also include a career trek to New York City during spring break to network with alumni and potential employers.

The course, which will be open to 100 first and second-year students, will be offered for the first time in spring 2027 and focus on students in three tracks: finance, writing careers and social impact/government. In future years, those tracks will change and expand to offer opportunities across many career paths, said Jennifer Maclaughlin, director of Arts & Sciences Career Development.

Students in the class will explore the evolving landscape of work through the lenses of labor market data, organizational structures, social psychology and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. Students will also connect empirical research with self-assessment tools and experiential learning to develop personalized, evidence-based career readiness strategies.

“Although our students are prepared in many ways to enter the world after Cornell, there are career readiness skills that aren’t taught in the classroom,” said Maclaughlin. “This class will help students learn so many things – how to apply social psychology concepts to making connections in their field, ways to consider how current workplace issues might impact them, strategies for developing a plan for their career based on their interests and skills.”

The class will be taught by Maclaughlin and Meghan Kilfeather, assistant director, employer and academic engagement within A&S Career Development.

Students who are interested or who have questions about the course can attend an information session at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 27. Students can register on Handshake.

Students interested in the course should fill out an application here. Course applications are due Nov. 17.

The course was made possible through a gift from Jim and Amy Dieterich, parents of an A&S student in the class of 2028.

“We wanted to offer a course that would help students make the connections they need to secure a meaningful internship or job,” Jim Dieterich said. “And we also wanted to offer opportunities for students to discover careers they might not have thought about.”

At the same time, the A&S Career Development office is expanding its focus on outreach with a new role for Kilfeather, who formerly advised students in health careers. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz with a master’s in higher education from the University of Buffalo, Kilfeather joined Cornell in 2021 after working in residence life and academic advising positions at several universities.

Along with the new class, Kilfeather will focus on maintaining and building new partnerships with employers for recruitment, highlighting the benefits of a liberal arts education through the College. She will also advise students and host workshops on various career topics.

“I enjoy working with students to explore their path and developing their career journey, no matter where they are in that experience,” she said. “And I’m looking forward to working with employers to cultivate new and deeper relationships.”