A team of eight from UCF Career Services proudly participated in the 2025 Florida Association of Colleges and Employers (Florida ACE) Conference, held in Orlando, Florida from June 11–13, 2025. This year’s conference theme, “60 Years of Excellence: Shaping the Future of Education and Employment,” brought together over 120 professionals from public and private colleges, universities, and employers across the state.
UCF Career Services made a strong impact by delivering three breakout sessions and leading three roundtable discussions, showcasing innovative programs and leadership in career development.
Breakout Sessions
- “Empowering Tomorrow’s Graduates: How Work+ and PeerKnights Enhance Career Readiness for Working Learners”
Presented by Shelby Melfi & Julie Kephart
Work +, a developing program within Career Serv University, is leading the way in this transformation. This session dove into the pilot implementation of supervisor training aimed at incorporating essential career competencies into the student’s working-learner experience. Attendees learned about PeerKnights, a team of working learners at UCF, which has successfully integrated these core career competencies into their operations. Examples of career success stories due to PeerKnights work experience were shared to demonstrate how supervisor training can empower students, enhancing their employability and readiness for the future workforce.
- “Graduates to Guides: Leveraging Alumni Networks for Student Career Development”
Presented by Alexis Walmer
Designed for career services professionals, the session explored how to utilize alumni as accessible resources for mentoring, internship development, job referrals, and career exploration support. Participants gained a deeper understanding of how to leverage alumni networks to support student career development, including mentorship, internships, job placement, and career transitions. Career services professionals can leverage LinkedIn’s alumni database to help students identify and connect with graduates from their institution, enabling career exploration, mentorship opportunities, and industry-specific networking with alumni who share similar academic backgrounds or career interests.
“Thriving in Career Pathways: A Psychoeducational Workshop Series for Generation Z”
Presented by Alexandra Minnick
In the post Covid-19 world, Generation Z college students have faced unprecedented stress and uncertainty regarding their career paths. To address these challenges and support the resilience and growth of our current workforce, UCF career professionals have developed an innovative psychoeducational workshop series integrating mental health and career development focusing on navigating transitional stress, imposter syndrome, job search stress management, career mind mapping, managing stress during career fairs, and parallel planning for the unexpected. This presentation showed an example of programming that can be incorporated into institutions to profoundly impact the well-being and success of Generation Z students.
Roundtable Discussions
- “Beyond the Logo: Creating Value-Driven Sponsorship Programs”
Facilitated by Taylor Sandifer
A sponsor’s impact shouldn’t stop at their logo; let’s turn commitment into real connection. Employer sponsorship programs are vital for fostering strong industry partnerships and enhancing student career opportunities. This roundtable discussion explored strategies to strengthen sponsor participation, increase return on investment, and align program offerings with both employer and student needs. Through collaborative discussion, we aim to identify strategies for optimizing program structure, refining benefits, and fostering long-term employer partnerships.
- “From Vision to Visibility: Crafting Impactful Marketing & Event Branding Strategies”
Facilitated by Marisela Juarez
This roundtable session explored how to develop a structured marketing plan that integrates social media, email campaigns, and traditional marketing distribution to promote cross-functional programs. Participants gained insights into leveraging various marketing channels and how to develop consistent branding to create cohesive and impactful promotional strategies. We showed examples of how we implemented marketing strategies to cross-promote programs effectively.
- “Empowering Global Talent: Insights and Trends in International Students Programming”
Facilitated by Alexandra Minnick
During the 2023-2024 school year, almost 45,000 international students attended universities or colleges in Florida. International student attendance continues to increase each year. International student programming ensures that international students are prepared to enter the global job market with the necessary skills and confidence. This roundtable discussion explored and shared valuable insights and emerging trends in programming designed to empower the career readiness, and professional growth of 21st Century international students, exchanging perspectives, and generating innovative ideas for programming.
UCF Career Services continues to lead and innovate in the field of career readiness, contributing valuable insights and fostering collaboration across the higher education and employer communities.
