Kathy Hendrickson


Over 400 Attend Second Annual Business Career Expo

On a crisp October morning, more than 400 students and employers participated in the School of Business’ Second Annual Business Career Expo. The event, which was designed to complement the successful career fairs hosted by the UConn Center for Career Development, featured a multi-dimensional format designed to enhance personal connections between students and those employers who specifically seek School of Business undergraduate and MBA students.

Students were advised to come to the Business Career Expo prepared to talk about their personal passions such as sports, clubs, hobbies, musical interests, community service, and unique pursuits. Employers were invited to tell stories reflecting their company culture including team sports, community service initiatives, and distinctive company activities or efforts. Students were encouraged to understand the differentiators between companies and in return to highlight the differentiators between themselves and other business students.

In their introductory remarks, the School of Business Career Center (SBCC) team encouraged the crowd to think beyond traditional career fair conversations. “Our students are more than their GPAs, and our corporate partners have more to offer than job postings; we invite you all to find those compelling reasons for connecting here today,” announced Kathy Hendrickson, assistant director of the Undergraduate Business Career Center.

In order to encourage this unique dialogue and to highlight personal passions and talents beyond academics, the event was opened with a performance of the national anthem by the Conn-Men. The Conn-Men is a student a cappella group who performed at the inauguration of UConn President Susan Herbst, and has also recently won the UConn A Cappella Competition. Their inspiring performance launched the morning discussions in a manner which brought immediate energy into the room and the conversations. Employers Jodi Culberston, Northwestern Mutual, and Sean O’Connell ’83 (CLAS), ’92 MBA, GE, were just two of the participants who expressed enthusiasm and appreciation for the unique introduction to the day and the manner in which it immediately facilitated conversations with students.

The full agenda included an open forum in the Student Union Ballroom and 18 concurrent individual employer sessions. The event culminated at 1:30 p.m., when the Conn-Men returned for a half-hour performance for all students, employers, faculty, and staff of the School of Business who participated in the event. Meg Warren, assistant director of the MBA Business Career Center, concludes, “In terms of connecting students and employers in a personal way, the day was a resounding success!”


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NBC Sports and Olympics at Stamford Learning Accelerator

Executives from NBC Sports and Olympics in Stamford met recently with over 80 UConn students at the UConn School of Business Stamford Learning Accelerator (SLA). The event was video streamed live from Stamford to the School of Business Cafe in Storrs, where students at that campus were able to simultaneously participate and pose questions to the NBC Sports team.

NBC Sports kicked off the event showing video highlights from its award winning Sports and Olympics programming. Next, Emanuel Adjekum, Manager Diversity & Pipeline Programs at NBC Sports Group, led a presentation on joining NBC Sports for a number of full-time positions and internships, including internship opportunities for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Students were also able to participate with a panel of NBC Sports executives represented by Eric Hamilton, Senior Broadband Producer, Nathan Suh, Director Business of Development and Michael Benjamin, Production Associate. The panel spoke of their experiences at NBC Sports and Olympics, discussed their own career paths and enthusiastically answered students’ questions from both Stamford and Storrs.

After the presentation, all panelists were available for further discussions and students were encouraged to personally bring up their resumes to Mr. Adjekum for upcoming internships and employment opportunities. A long line of students, resumes in hand, were delighted to do so.

The event was arranged by Brian Brady, Director of the Stamford Learning Accelerator, along with Halina Holloway and Celeste Baran from the UConn Stamford Career Center, in cooperation with Kathy Hendrickson at the School of Business Career Center in Storrs. Live streaming was made possible with support from Jeremy Pollack, Director of IT for the School of Business, James Simon, Director of IT for the School of Business Stamford campus, and Matt Proulx and Ian Hollis from UConn Stamford’s Technology Services.

See photos from the event on Facebook:


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Finance Society Visits Morgan Stanley, Gets Inside View of Wall Street

In the early hours of Friday morning, October 26, 2012, eighteen members of the School of Business Finance Society embarked upon a trip into Manhattan to meet with Dan Toscano ’87, Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Leveraged and Acquisition Finance at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Toscano and his team hosted a Teach-In on Global Capital Markets for the business students. While learning about the inner workings of one of the leading global financial service firms in the world, the students followed up a question/answer session with a trip to the trading floor of Morgan Stanley’s world headquarters in New York.

During the afternoon hours, following a brief visit to the 9/11 Memorial Site, the students traveled to Wall Street to participate in the Wall Street Financial Crisis Tour which offered an insider’s view of the most significant financial event since the Great Depression. Also in attendance at the day’s events were Jim Lowe, Executive Director of the School of Business Career Center (SBCC) and Kathy Hendrickson, Program Manager of the SBCC.


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SBCC Team Visits ESPN

Kelly Kennedy and the team from the School of Business Career Center, including Assistant Dean Jim Lowe and staff Meg Warren, Robert Volle, Kathy Hendrickson and Lorraine Liswell, had the pleasure of touring ESPN this week in order to gain better insight on what types of roles School of Business students would be engaged in if hired at ESPN’s Bristol campus. Although ESPN recruits from a few dozen schools, they hire from as many as 100 colleges nationwide, and the company has made a strong commitment to increase the number of hires from the University of Connecticut. The SBCC team (shown in photo, right, in 1 of 9 studios at ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut location) was provided with an overview of the key elements of ESPN’s college recruiting season, with an emphasis on learning the critical information that will help students customize their resume and gain a competitive edge when submitting an application to ESPN.

One highlight of the day was hearing from Joe Franco, ESPN’s Head of College Recruitment. He shared many stories about ESPN’s humble beginnings and his personal history as a key member of their core team of employees who opened the doors in 1979. Joe took the time to talk candidly about the key skills that are necessary for someone to be part of the ESPN team. He explained that, “During the job interview, students need to demonstrate exactly how they will not just meet expectations on the job, but exceed them.” He stressed how employees at ESPN are expected to go above and beyond their defined roles. Having this passion for working at ESPN made it evident that ESPN is not just a team, it is a family. Joe Franco and a team of ESPN’s line managers will be on campus to recruit UConn students on November 7, at 6:00 p.m. in Room 106. This event is open to all majors. The Career Center strongly recommends that anyone interested in working at ESPN attend this information session.


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SBCC Senior Night Kicks Off Fall 2012 Recruiting Season

On Wednesday, September 12th, Lecture Hall 106 was filled with School of Business Seniors who are embarking on their full-time career search.

Kathy Hendrickson and the team from the School of Business Career Center welcomed students back to campus and kicked off the Fall 2012 recruiting season. Presenters at the event included Jim Lowe, Assistant Dean of External Relations, Margaret Sweeney, Accounting Internships Program Manager, and Lorraine Liswell and Kelly Kennedy, Program Managers from the Business Career Center. Special guests included Mark Gelinas, Director of College Relations at The Hartford Financial Services, and Jessica Hitt, UConn MBA Candidate and Hartford Financial Services Intern.

The students were provided with an overview of the recruiting season with an emphasis on critical timelines to help them get their job search started. One highlight of the evening was the Employer Tips section, which provided interviewing tips specific to key target companies such as ESPN, RBS, Liberty Mutual, McKesson and The Hartford, to mention a few. Mark Gelinas took the time to talk candidly with students about the career search process as a whole and offered advice to navigate the field of job search.

Students left the event armed with dates, knowledge of employer trends and an unexpected early graduation gift from The Hartford Financial Services Group. As we work with students to prepare them for success beyond UConn, the SBCC was able to partner with The Hartford in the creation of the UConn School of Business Backpack to Briefcase – Making a Successful Transition to the Workplace book.

(Pictured, Left to Right: Mark Gelinas, Director of College Relations at The Hartford Financial Services, Kathy Hendrickson, Undergraduate Program Manager, Jim Lowe, Assistant Dean of External Relations)


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“Summer” at UConn

The week of May 3rd – 5th is finals week at the University of Connecticut School of Business, and Summer, a Certified Therapy Dog came to offer her special brand of help to students.

Summer’s handler, Kathy Hendrickson, works in the School of Business Career Center and is also an instructor at the School.  The Career Center staff sees first-hand the stress that students feel at the end of the semester with regard to finishing classes and landing jobs.  However, as Summer sashayed into the department’s suite and held court on Tuesday and Thursday, the compassion and gentle soul of this six-year old golden retriever gave students a refreshing break to the week.

“Some of the students were showing signs of stress, and it really was a value to them to come sit with Summer for five minutes or even half an hour,” notes Kathy Hendrickson. There was one small hiccup on Tuesday when Summer found a small stream during lunch and proceeded to roll in the mud while Kathy and fellow Career Center staff member Lorraine Liswell ineffectively tried to change her mind.  Summer, and Kathy’s shoes for that matter, were rather fragrant during the afternoon hours, but no one seemed to mind.


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