SAIC Launches Career and Professional Experience (CAPX)

CHICAGO—SAIC’s Career and Professional Experience (CAPX) office was launched this fall to help students and alumni navigate their career possibilities and answer this question, “What’s next?”

Formerly known as the Career + Co-op Center, CAPX underwent some innovative changes led by Dean Terri Lonier, who leveraged her experience in the arts, higher education, and entrepreneurship to transform career and professional development at SAIC. The result is CAPX’s new initiatives designed to enhance the creative career possibilities of students and alums, including:

• SAIC Compass, a new online platform serving as a central hub for students and alums to create professional profiles, connect with employers, and find internships, jobs, and other opportunities.
• Workshops and seminars on topics such as documenting work, developing an online presence, and networking skills. Many events will feature interactions with SAIC alumni and cultural and industry leaders, including visits from a MoMA curator and the former Global Creative Director at Apple.
• An enhanced advising program that uses a coaching approach supported by Gallup StrengthsQuest assessments (which have been used by more than 14 million people worldwide and adopted by leading educational institutions).
• A new Professional Practice course that integrates student internships into a weekly class. This course is part of SAIC’s Academic Spine, a required three-course sequence for all undergraduate degrees.
• Outreach to employers in the Chicago creative community and beyond that will deepen the School’s engagement and expand opportunities for our students.

Underlying all of these enhancements is an entrepreneurial focus, matched by informal sessions and coaching on business topics such as self-employment skills, new venture development, and financial management.

These initiatives set new precedents for the SAIC art and design community, and they have already caught the eye of Chicago Inno, which featured CAPX as one of its “can’t miss” entrepreneurial centers for students among other top-ranked schools in the city. The CAPX team looks forward to helping SAIC students and alums as they continue to explore their creative futures.

For more information on CAPX, please visit saic.edu/careers.