Hailey Roy – Contributor
The new associate dean, Thierry Thesatus, is working to connect with other university departments to help them bring career-based goals to students at SCSU in different ways.
“There are a lot of skills employers are asking, whatever the industry area, whatever the company or organization,” Thesatus said. “I think we at Southern provide those experiences for students to develop those skills. I just want to work with everyone to be able to provide a shared language and help students see the meaning of some of these experiences.”
As the new associate dean of career and student success on campus, Thesatus is getting a feel for the university.
“I’ve just been trying to learn more about Southern. I’m learning more about our students, meeting with a lot of staff and faculty, just to introduce myself and let them know that I am here and seeing what the needs are,” Thesatus said.
Graduate intern, Jonelle Bailey, at the Office of Career and Development, is happy to have the extra help when holding large student-attended events.
“Yesterday we had our career fair and it was a complete success. In the past, we’ve been able to do a nonprofit fair last month and without the help of two extra people I dont think that we’d be as successful,” Bailey said. “I can see a more positive environment in our department. There are a lot more ideas and a lot more production happening,”
Professional development co-chair of CT Career Consortium, interim director of the office of the Career and Professional Development Committee, Aimee O’Shea, spoke on the restructuring of their office this past summer, which included bringing Thesatus onto their team.
“He is sort of this bridge, this leader that is connecting our [the Office of Career and Professional Development] areas to really bring some synergy to the work that we do since it’s all so interconnected,” O’Shea said.
Previous to becoming the associate dean at Southern, Thesatus worked as the associate director of career and employee relations at Borough Manhattan Community College, a career counselor at Long Island Univerity and a teacher and advocate counselor at a non-profit organization, Good Shepherd services. Haven’t had experience in a four-year residential college in a long time, Thesatus said he is excited to work at Southern’s campus.
“The feeling of being at a four-year residential campus is amazing.” Thesatus said. “Seeing all the students be excited about on-campus programming and the different ways they’re looking to connect to offices and services and even the types of services we offer are very different as well,”
Thesatus started his education at Kingsborough Community College and then transitioned to Stony Brook University. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in education at St. John’s University. During his schooling, he originally wanted to be a New York City Board of Education Teacher, thus why he graduated college with a background in history and teaching.
Thesatus decided to alter his occupation and work in the career field because of an opportunity that was presented to him by his previous director at the nonprofit organization, Good Shepherd Services.
“She saw something in me. There was an opportunity that opened up and she asked me is this something that I would be interested in and I love education, I love working with students, I love providing students with opportunities and also expanding their scope.” Thesatus said.
Thesatus thought about it for a bit because it was a different direction for his career path than he expected. After some thought, he accepted the job.
“I love sharing this story with students because I love to help them understand how transferable their degree is as well as the skills and knowledge that you are developing as a student, how transferable those things are to so many different job opportunities,” Thesatus said.
College graduates rarely work in a field related to their major. A poll from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that only 27% of college graduates work in a career related to their major in December 2014.
“There are a lot of skills employees are asking for, whatever the industry area, whatever the company or organization they’re asking for candidates to have. I think we at Southern, provide those experiences at for students to develop those skills,” Thesatus said. “I just want to work with everyone to be able to provide a shared language and help students see the meaning to some of those experiences whether it’s inside or outside of the classroom.”
