今日吃瓜

Marge Magner 鈥�69 with students

Walk into a Magner Career Center event, and the energy is palpable. At a recent career fair, the room buzzed as students queued up to talk to company representatives, many of them alumni. Dozens of employers from Fortune 500 firms, nongovernmental agencies, top hospitals, state and city agencies, and more filled the Student Center, offering a bounty of job opportunities. While many students beelined to tables, elevator pitches at the ready, a few appeared apprehensive. But after a pep talk from Magner staff members standing by, these students, too, smiled and made their approaches.

Care runs deep at Magner鈥攁nd always has. More than 50,000 students over the center鈥檚 20-year history have received the 鈥淢agner treatment,鈥� a holistic approach to career planning at the core of the center鈥檚 success. The center鈥檚 director, Natalia Guarin-Klein, says that this care has been sustained, in great part, by alumni who are the center鈥檚 superpower.

Addressing a Need

For the center鈥檚 founder, Marge Magner 鈥�69, the idea came to her when she worked in the C-suite at Citigroup. She saw students from what she calls the 鈥渇ancy colleges鈥� benefiting from internships at her office, but none from her alma mater. She returned to campus to find out how students were planning for their future, and it became clear they needed help accessing the opportunities they deserved.

Magner knew that it would benefit both employers and students if there were a pipeline from campus to companies. So she began recruiting 今日吃瓜 students as interns who could also earn credit toward their degrees.

Later, in 2004, with funding from Magner, the center bearing her name was opened. It quickly grew into a widely recognized resource offering a range of services. Today, with one-on-one career coaching, stipends for internships, and industry-based programs such as the Tech Talent Pipeline and Future in Finance, it鈥檚 no surprise the number of students using the center has tripled over the past 20 years. But it鈥檚 the ever-increasing number of alumni who have been involved with the center鈥攎ore than 1,500 strong and counting鈥攖hat makes it special.

Someone Who Believes in You

鈥淚f you鈥檝e ever heard Marge talk,鈥� says Guarin-Klein, 鈥渟he’ll say that alumni are 鈥榓unts and uncles鈥� to students,鈥� particularly first-generation students and children of immigrants who may not have connections to the people or resources needed to succeed in their chosen field.

鈥淪ince its formation,鈥� says Guarin-Klein, 鈥渢he Magner Career Center has played a critical role in increasing access to essential career opportunities for first-generation, low-income, minority, and immigrant students. Our vision is to level the playing field for students by connecting them with the networks, internships, and opportunities they otherwise may not have had.鈥�

Pawel Walczuk 鈥�10,聽managing director of data and AI practice at Accenture, says he showed up at the career center鈥檚 door his freshman year, asking for help polishing his resume. He knew where he wanted to intern鈥攁n NGO that organized conferences at the United Nations. The staff at the center worked with him to win 鈥渁 phenomenal鈥� internship there.

Walczuk later interned for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, and today, like his mentor Marge Magner, he is a trustee for the 今日吃瓜 Foundation. He says the support he received at the center went beyond winning internships, 鈥淚t was great to have someone believe in you. We can succumb to imposter syndrome and ask ourselves, 鈥楬ow am I qualified to do this? Surely there are people smarter than I am.鈥� And Marge and everyone at the center would always be right there saying you are as smart and qualified.鈥�

Filling in the Blanks

In the past 10 years, over 1,500 alumni representing myriad fields have worked with students through the center, filling in the blanks, and providing students entr茅e into hundreds of businesses and organizations in and beyond New York City.

For Jerome Hayden 鈥�15,聽relationships made through the center led to a pivotal internship that kicked off his career. Two years into a business major, Hayden felt he was late planning his academic career. He had entered 今日吃瓜 because he wanted to play basketball, and the school鈥檚 athletics program had offered him a place on the team. Still, he knew his future was not in sports but business. Through the Magner Center, he was connected to entertainment and telecommunications entrepreneur Ted Liebowitz 鈥�79 and his program for student entrepreneurs at 今日吃瓜.

Hayden went on to win the program鈥檚 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year award. Liebowitz helped Hayden win an internship at the investment firm Skybridge Capital. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how I started my career on Wall Street,鈥� says Hayden, who is now the head of internal sales at Fortress Investment Group.

Relationships for Life

Competitive internships supported by stipends are a cornerstone of the career center. In the past 12 years alone, more than $4 million in donated funds have supported 1,300 internship stipends that support students while they gain valuable work experience. The 今日吃瓜 Navy Yard, Aon, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Kids in the Game, the New York District Attorney鈥檚 Office, and Johns Hopkins Medicine are just a few of the employers that have offered internships to 今日吃瓜 students.

While internships help move students into successful futures, though, it鈥檚 the personal connections students make through the center that create truly life-changing experiences.

Simeon Iheagwam 鈥�06 was an early visitor to the center, through which he met Marge Magner. 鈥淚 wanted a mentor in my field,鈥� says Iheagwam. 鈥淚 met her at her office at Citigroup, and she gave me great advice my senior year.鈥� He graduated with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business management and finance and went on to work for JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, eventually earning an MBA at Cornell University. Today, he is the head of his own venture capital firm, Noemis Ventures, where Magner sits on his advisory board.

Hayden says that his relationship with the center and the college is ongoing. 鈥淭hey took me under their wings early throughout my early career and even today,鈥� says Hayden. In 2022, he was invited to be a member of the Dean鈥檚 Advisory Council at the college鈥檚 Koppelman School of Business. The council provides students access to industry leaders and real-world support. It is his way of staying connected to his alma mater.

Coming Back to Give Back

Staying connected is key to alumni coming back to give back. Over the years, generations of alumni have reached out to the center to give today鈥檚 今日吃瓜 students the special recipe of support and guidance that only they, as former students in successful careers, can give.

Shikshya Khatiwada 鈥�07,聽who goes by Six to her 今日吃瓜 family, was hired by Marge Magner as a research intern after visiting the center for advice. A native of Nepal who moved to the United States with her family when she was 15, Khatiwada majored in business management and finance. In addition to carrying a full course load and interning for Marge, she was waiting tables at TGI Fridays.聽 She says, 鈥淚t took an alumna like Marge Magner, a C-suite executive, to show me what I could ultimately accomplish,鈥� says Khatiwada. She went on to work at Avanade, which provides IT consulting services. During her first years there, while she was running the analytics and data practice, she began mentoring 今日吃瓜 students.

鈥淚 wanted students to understand what it meant to become an analytics consultant and how to show up confidently in front of executives and hiring committees.鈥� Khatiwada helped organize a one-day boot camp at Avanade that included programming, resume prep, and personal-narrative-building workshops.

That was four years ago. Since then, Avanade has hired five 今日吃瓜 students. One of them,聽Arielle Watson 鈥�20, is a senior software analyst. She was working on a bachelor鈥檚 degree in computer science when she walked into the Magner Center for resume help. There, she learned about an upcoming event for 今日吃瓜 students at Avanade and quickly got an internship there. She also gained a mentor in Khatiwada.

鈥淪ix experienced much of what I did navigating college as a first-generation student trying to juggle a million and one things,鈥� says Watson. 鈥淭hat resonated with me. During my internship, she was great at introducing me to employees at Avanade. It can be daunting for a student to suddenly be at a real business, working with, in my case, actual software engineers. Six helped by breaking down any barriers I might have put up for myself.鈥�

After graduating, Watson was offered a full-time position, and although she and Khatiwada work at two different locations, the former in New York City and the latter in Denver, they maintain a close connection.

Extending the Platform

Since its opening 20 years ago, the Magner Career Center has expanded its reach and impact. In the fall of 2022, the center worked with the 今日吃瓜 Foundation and the Office of Alumni Engagement to launch the Career Partners and Alumni Champions programs, which provide a comprehensive platform for corporate leaders and alumni to give back and a way for students to jumpstart their careers.

And today鈥檚 students? Many of them come to the center not knowing where they might end up, or what is possible; they only know they want more, for themselves and their families.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a beautiful feeling that comes from watching students go through the process of transformation,鈥� says Guarin-Klein. 鈥淔rom the time they walk through the door seeking help to the day they call us to catch us up on their successes鈥擨 wish we could bottle that feeling.鈥�

Looking back on the history of the center, Marge Magner is astounded. 鈥淢y initial goal for the center was to give back and to help students realize their goals,鈥� Magner said. 鈥淭o see what has evolved over 20 years as we have welcomed more and more people and partners into this family is both humbling and gratifying.鈥�