Hunter College has been chosen for the first wave of colleges in the new CUNY Beyond career initiative, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez announced in his “State of the University” speech this week.
The initiative aims to accelerate the professional success of CUNY undergraduates by integrating connections to careers into every stage of students’ academic path. CUNY Beyond hopes to reach 100% of undergraduate students, with post-graduate success measured by 80% of Bachelor’s and Associates graduates consistently employed in their career of choice after a year.
The first wave of CUNY Beyond colleges includes Hunter, Lehman, LaGuardia, and Borough of Manhattan Community College.
All 19 undergraduate CUNY campuses will implement the CUNY Beyond career success strategy from July 2025 through May 2030, with the goal of connecting 180,000 New Yorkers to careers by 2030. The university is giving Hunter $2.3 million to implement the program.
CUNY Beyond will build on several steps Hunter already has undertaken in its HunterWorks! career initiative.
The chancellor stressed in his address, for example, that CUNY Beyond will bring career thinking into the classroom.
“As is the case nationally, only a quarter of CUNY students use our amazing campus career services. Yet all of them go to class,” he said. “So instead of waiting for students to walk into a career center or the next job fair, we are working with our faculty and faculty peer leaders in every discipline to embed career touchpoints in their classes, in advising and orientation and in their everyday college experience. We are moving beyond the old notion of career connections as distinct from the academic journey, or something that students don’t need to think about until their junior or senior year.”
During the last two years, as part of HunterWorks!, almost half of Hunter’s departments have embedded faculty and staff as designated internship coordinators or faculty career specialists. Meanwhile, 31 courses at Hunter now incorporate career success strategies and activities in their curriculum through HunterWorks! curriculum innovation grants to faculty members. A Practitioners-in-Residence program also has created courses in key career sectors that are taught by industry professionals.
“We are grateful to CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos-Rodriguez and Vice Chancellor Lauren Andersen for their immense support of our faculty and staff who are committed to positioning our students for career success,” said Dean of Academic Innovation and Outcomes Robert Domanski, who directs HunterWorks!. “CUNY Beyond will make an enormous impact by allowing us to further build the capacity of our academic departments to prepare and connect students to internships and jobs in ways that are customized for each field.”
CUNY Beyond aims to raise student degree attainment and career outcomes by focusing on known springboards of economic mobility, such as participation in paid internships and proactive connection with employers.
It is organized around five pillars:
- Career exposure and exploration, beginning before students set foot on campus and continuing through their academic journey, through aligning academic choices with career aspirations and labor market intelligence.
- Integrated academic and career advisement, by scaling integrated tools and advisers who discuss course schedules and critical career milestones to ensure students are aware of career options
- Career-connected coursework, by integrating career connections into the classroom, supported by industry professionals teaching in-demand skills
- Paid work-based learning, by providing students with access to paid internships, co-ops, and apprenticeships early in their academic careers, including by embedding these opportunities into their degrees
- Systemwide and campus-based employer engagement, by connecting students with employers on campus and via CUNY-wide events.
