Information to Take the LEAP

Meet the New World Panelist

Staff Sergeant Sparrow has served 11 years in the US Army. He originally joined out of the state of TN and has since been stationed in CA, FL, and TX as an intelligence analyst and collector. He is currently an army career counselor at the Army Career Center in Edison, NJ.

Leave Your Legacy

Alfred E. Blake IV the is Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship Programs for Rutgers Business School, Founder of Rutgers Entrepreneurial Academy of Leadership, and the author of The Students Handbook To Breaking All The Rules and Co-Author of the Super Sister Skylar Children's book Series and Founder of Rule Breaker University an Educational Consulting Company geared at Leadership development for people between 18-25. Alfred is excited about Entrepreneurship and Innovation and aids students within the Entrepreneurship Minor/Concentration.

Beyond the Bubble Panelist

Arianna Tormey is an alumna from Rutgers University with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Women and Gender Studies. At Rutgers, Arianna was involved in a number of student organizations such as the LEx Leader Corps, Rutgers Intramural Sports, as well as the HOPE Peer Education program. She currently works as a legal clerk for the law firm Dennigan Cahill Smith, LLC in Princeton, NJ. Within the next year, Arianna looks to continue her education by applying to law school in New York City, where she is originally from.

Navigating Hybridity

Becca focuses on engaging students with Career Exploration and Success from the start of their time at Rutgers. She oversees the Career Studio, which provides career resources and services to students on the spot, with no appointments necessary. She also oversees core programs within CES, including the How-To workshop series and this annual Career Conference you're attending! Her favorite part of her work is supervising Peer Career Coaches and Career Engagement Operatives, highly-trained peers who provide guidance and resources to students stopping into the Career Studio and participating in CES events.

Once an undergraduate student herself, Becca earned her BS in Mathematics from Monmouth University and her MA in Higher Education Student Personnel from the University of Mississippi. Prior to joining CES, she worked with New Student Orientation and Family Programs here at Rutgers and Residence Life at Rider University. Becca became a Board Certified Life & Career Coach in 2016 and recently started her own life coaching business, Clarity Created Coaching. She also founded The Celebrate Life Foundation nonprofit in 2019 and spends her free time helping others celebrate life!

A few words of encouragement from Becca: If you ever find yourself panicking that you don’t know what you want to do and everyone else seems to have it figured out, remember this - they probably don’t. Life isn’t about figuring out every little detail and then following those inflexible steps. You change and evolve, as do your passions, goals, and aspirations. Always strive to be better, always make sure you enjoy what you’re doing, and don’t forget to be kind to yourself- you’re doing the best you can and that’s all I ask of you!

Meet the New World Panelist

Catarina Caulfield is an Industry-to-Campus Connector with the Office of Career Exploration & Success at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She identifies key employer partners and alumni mentors, collaborates on their recruitment and engagement strategy, and creates meaningful career opportunities for Rutgers students and alumni. Before joining Career Exploration & Success, Catarina spent eight years with an Executive Search & Recruitment firm, matching top talent with employers in the property & casualty insurance industry. Catarina is a proud Rutgers University alumna with a B.A. (Portuguese, Economics, Labor Studies) and an M.A. (Labor and Employment Relations).

Beyond the Bubble Panelist

Jodi Lynch is study manager at Merck and a Masters of Public Health candidate at Rutgers. She is a first gen student and graduated from the Rutgers Business School as a Supply Chain Major in May 2021. While at Rutgers she was heavily involved in LEx, Career Exploration and Success, and was the President of the Global Health Institute Student Council. She believes that leveraging your unique story and experiences are the key to landing your most fulfilling career and hopes to empower you by sharing some lessons she has learned along the way!

Beyond the Bubble Panelist

Matthew Russo is a recent graduate of the Masters of Human Resource Management program at Rutgers University. He is a highly motivated individual that helped RUSHRM Graduate Chapter achieve the "Outstanding Student Chapter" award last year as Co-President. In addition to his coursework, he pursued an Internship at Leading While Human and helped coordinate the Leadership Dialogues series. He currently works at Integrity House as a Talent Acquisition Specialist where he helps bring in top talent for the largest non-profit substance abuse and mental health treatment organization in New Jersey.

The Social Responsibility Umbrella

René Deida leads Prudential's nonprofit capacity and learning portfolio. He is responsible for the company's disaster relief and recovery efforts, programs to strengthen the capacity of nonprofit organizations and a portfolio of national and local grants. He also leads employee engagement programs that include board service and pro-bono consulting for nonprofits. Rene has an MPA from Rutgers SPAA and is a part time lecturer, currently at Bloustein.

The Brandemic

Robyn Ginese is a leadership facilitator, curriculum designer, and executive trainer with a background in talent development, organizational renewal, and team effectiveness. She is the Global Head of Executive Leadership & Development at FIS Global, and the Founder & Principal Facilitator for a leadership coaching and consulting group. Previous to her work with corporate audiences, she spent 15 years working within Higher Education including serving as the Director of Leadership & Experiential Learning and the Associate Director for Experiential Learning & Career Readiness at Rutgers.

Robyn's experience is in designing and advancing immersive learning environments with a strategic focus on transformative learning, team dynamics, and hands-on competency development. She loves building self-awareness and leadership efficacy, polishing unrealized potential, and cultivating confidence in others so they can explore, grow, and ultimately thrive.

Beyond the Bubble Panelist

Shivani Patel is Rutgers alumna from Old Bridge, NJ with a degree in Marketing and minors in Human Resource Management and French. Throughout her time at Rutgers, she was a LEx leader, Alpha Phi Omega brother, RUDM liaison, RU4Kids representative, and Career Engagement Operative with CES. She aspires ultimately to either have a career in social responsibility in a role that fosters creativity and collaboration or explore other business avenues of her own.

Redefining "Career"

Sue Pye is the Director of Career Development & Experiential Education in the Office of Career Exploration and Success. Before Rutgers, Sue worked in career services at Seton Hall University and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). She began her full-time career in higher education in residence life working at Kean University, William Paterson University, and the College of Saint Elizabeth.

Sue attended Vanderbilt University for two years and then completed her bachelor’s degree at Rutgers with a double major in Anthropology and Communication. As an undergraduate student, she engaged in many experiential education opportunities including an honor’s research project and archeological lab work. She also held part-time jobs to pay for college working for Residence Life, Student Activities, and the Rutgers Student Center. During breaks, she was a summer camp counselor and worked part-time in the Graduate School Admissions Office at Columbia University. Through these experiences, she realized higher education was a career field and eventually completed her master’s degree in Higher Education at NYU.

Beyond the Bubble Panelist

Steven Florez is a senior majoring in economics and minoring in political science from Chatham, NJ. He has been involved on campus with ALPFA, HSF, LEx, CLAW, and Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity, Inc and is currently the undergraduate representative for the Black and Latinx Rutgers Advisory Board at CES. Upon graduation in January, Steven will be working at Boeing as a financial analyst in their Business Skills Rotational Program.

The Digital Landscape

William (Wil) Jones is the Executive Director of Career Exploration and Success at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. In his role, he oversees career services for a broad array of Rutgers academic programs on the university’s New Brunswick campus. He provides leadership to the department and works collaboratively to develop strategic roadmaps for the Rutgers career ecosystem.

At Rutgers, Wil co-founded the industry-centric career cluster approach to service delivery that has become a national model. Professional associations have recognized Wil as a rising star (NACE), a leader in innovation excellence (NACE and ACPA), and most recently, the Hire Big 10 Career Consortium bestowed him with the David S. Bechtel Outstanding Career Services Professional Award.

Before working at Rutgers, Wil was the Associate Director for External Relations & Information Technology for the University Career Center & The President's Promise at the University of Maryland, College Park. There he managed the Employer Relations Team, public relations and marketing team, and the information technologies team.

Wil considers himself a "Terp for Life." He earned his master's degree from the college student personnel program at the University of Maryland where his research interests focused on the career decision-making self-efficacy of student leaders. He also received his bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in government and politics.

• The LEAP Summit will be held over Zoom. Please review the system requirements to ensure your desktop or laptop computer can handle the event. The Zoom mobile app for smartphones and tabloids is limited and not recommended as your primary platform. 
• We also recommend that everyone use a headset and microphone connected to your computer during the conference to help reduce audio echos and feedback. You will have two options for audio, connecting through your computer, or connecting through your phone. 
• After you register, download, and install the Zoom Client for Meetings rather than using the web version.

• Check back one week before the conference to download LEAP Summit Zoom Background! They are not required but serve as a uniform and professional background for the conference. 
• Add your LEAP Summit virtual background image to your Zoom account (help video here - you do not need a green screen) before the conference. This background will remain as your default for all future meetings until you change it. If you find that your background is inverted, follow this help video for assistance.
• Update your display name (help video here) in Zoom using the naming scheme "First Name (class year: FR/SO/JN/SN/GR/TR) Pronouns;” ie. John (FR) he/him

• Have your phone charged and accessible to participate in engagement opportunities (e.g., Poll Everywhere, Kahoot, etc.) at specific points in the day. 
• For networking, since we will not meet in a physical space, we created an online directory containing information for presenters.

The LEAP Summit is a professional career conference where you will be networking with distinguished faculty, working professionals, and fellow students.

Conference Attire

• The LEAP Summit will have a professional atmosphere and career focus, but comfortability is of utmost importance! We encourage students to dress business casual for this conference. We recommend dressing in colors that contrast the Zoom backgrounds provided if you intend to use them.

Best Practice

• We encourage students to keep cameras on but remain muted when you are not speaking/engaging. The conference is an interactive experience with networking components so, if accessible, be visible and engaged throughout!