Career Accelerator Reflects on Inaugural Year: Key Successes and Strategic Leadership Growth

It has been nearly a year since Joe Hewa joined Lewis & Clark as the inaugural executive director of the Career Accelerator and professor of practice. The Career Accelerator, one of the first priorities from the strategic plan, was made possible last year by the generous gift from Heidi Hu BS ’85 and her husband Daniel Hsieh to launch an endowment to support the initiative. The initiative is based around four tenets of guidance, experience, skills, and connections.

Joe Hewa“We have made tremendous strides in turning our foundational tenets into tangible opportunities for our students,” Hewa said. “In collaboration with faculty and staff across the community, L&C is expanding skills course offerings, deepening community partnerships, and enhancing the career support we provide to build a robust ecosystem that prepares students for lives of impact from the moment they step onto campus.”

2025-26 Selected Accomplishments

• Developed the L&C Bridge Series to connect students to alumni and other professionals
• The Bates Center experienced a 59 percent increase in ELI skills course enrollment and a 188 percent increase in ELI paid internships
• Created 15 new paid summer internships, including placements with alumni and/or parents of current students in New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco
• Designed a career development digital logbook that all incoming students will receive at New Student Orientation to track their career growth throughout their time at L&C

Staffing Changes

Staffing has evolved over this year to ensure students have the guidance and support they need:

• Senior Associate Director Nina Olken shifted her focus to enhancing the student employee experience and incorporating NACE competencies into all student job postings and offering supervisor training around effective evaluations. Nina has moved to Human Resources in McAfee to further develop a working relationship with HR in the area of student employment.
• Jonathan Manz, most recently the director of the first-year experience, was invited to join the team as the director of the Career Center. After building successful new student onboarding initiatives, including the highly effective New Student Peer Mentoring program, and the overhaul of New Student Orientation, Jonathan, in his new role, will spearhead the effort in developing a four-year career exploration and development program to meet the goal of the Career Accelerator that students have opportunities to develop career competencies from orientation through graduation.
• Assistant Director Tasia Sullivan, Office Manager Kristin Baker, and two new career consultants that will be hired over the summer make up the new Career Center team under Jonathan’s leadership. Tasia and the new career consultants will serve as divisional liaisons to the three academic divisions, providing career guidance to students and building relationships with faculty, alumni, and employers in fields relevant to those academic disciplines.

Jonathan Manz“I am thrilled to join Joe and the rest of the Career Accelerator team to help students connect their world-class Lewis & Clark liberal arts education with their career aspirations,” Manz said. “Moving forward, I am excited to build pathways that encourage our students to explore their passions and harness their skills to serve their community and the world.”

Look for future updates as the team increases the number of internship opportunities while also securing funding so that even more students can participate in a paid internship. In addition, more skill development opportunities, the implementation of the four-year career exploration and development pathway, and increased engagement will take place.