Two student employees chatting at the South Student Recreation Center at the University of Arizona. Campus Recreation hires several hundred student employees each academic year.
Photo: FJ Gaylor
March 17, 2026
University of Arizona Center for Career Readiness Receives $100,000 Lumina Foundation Grant to Elevate Student Employment as Career-Connected Learning
The University of Arizona Center for Career Readiness has been selected as one of 16 institutions nationwide to receive a grant from Lumina Foundation through its From Campus to Career initiative, a national effort to scale career-connected high-impact practices and strengthen workforce outcomes for students.
Student employment, when intentionally designed, can become one of the most powerful high-impact practices available to undergraduate students, linked to increased engagement, deeper learning and greater preparation for life after graduation. On-campus employment often goes underdeveloped as a structured learning experience. This grant positions the University of Arizona to change that at scale.
The two-year grant will support the center’s work with supervisors of student employees, deepening how they connect students’ day-to-day work experience to transferable skills that serve them throughout their academic journey and beyond. The effort is led by Annie Kurtin, director of experiential learning; Katie Beauford, senior student employment specialist; with support from Emily McCarthy, executive director; and Megan Forecki, Ph.D., lead institutional assessment professional, whose collective work in experiential learning design and assessment has built the foundation for this campus-wide initiative. “Student employment is one of the most powerful developmental experiences available to students,” said McCarthy.
“This grant gives us the opportunity to build on the strong work our student supervisors are already doing and elevate that experience campus-wide ensuring more students can point to their on-campus work as evidence of career-readiness.” – Emily McCarthy
The work aligns directly with the University of Arizona’s Delivering on Our Promise strategic imperatives, which identify Success for Every Student as the university’s North Star. Intentional, career-connected experiences including student employment, internships and research are essential to student success in college and beyond. As an HSI and land-grant university with a longstanding commitment to equitable access, the University of Arizona joins a cohort of institutions that includes regional public universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Hispanic-Serving Institutions selected to serve as national models for career-connected learning.
Lumina Foundation launched From Campus to Career to help institutions move beyond offering high-impact practices in isolation and instead connect them intentionally to career pathways and labor market demand.
“Too many students complete meaningful academic experiences without clear pathways to translate those experiences into career opportunities,” said Jasmine Haywood, strategy director for credentials of value at Lumina Foundation. “Career-connected high-impact practices are one of the most powerful tools we have to make that connection visible and real.”
“When students can clearly see and show how their education prepares them for meaningful careers, the value of a credential becomes tangible,” said Debra Humphreys, vice president of strategic engagement at Lumina Foundation.
The initiative is implemented in partnership with Excelencia in Education, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Center for Innovation in Postsecondary Education, which will provide technical assistance and facilitate cross-campus learning across all grantee institutions. Sova Solutions serves as strategic implementation partner to Lumina Foundation, providing overall project coordination across the cohort. University of Arizona is among the first institutions in America to earn the new Intentionally Thriving Institution designation of the Seal of Excelencia.
The Center for Career Readiness is here to inspire and prepare all University of Arizona graduates to create lives of opportunity aligned with their purpose and values. Through career advising, experiential learning and campus-wide partnerships, the center connects students, employers and the broader Arizona community in support of meaningful pathways from education to employment.
For more information about the Center for Career Readiness, visit career.arizona.edu or contact career@arizona.edu.
