Career Services Specialist Gary Handy is one of the people you can get advice from to help figure out what you want to major in, what you want to do with the chosen major and what kind of careers you can get with your major or which graduate school to attend. Handy is one of three specialists that students can go to at Career Services. They are located in the Student Services office in Morgan Hall, room 105. 

Handy is an adjunct faculty member for the interdisciplinary studies program, and he teaches a course called Major and Career Exploration.

This class is a 2 hour elective credit class, and it gives students the opportunity to have a long in-depth discussion for the semester. This class is extremely useful, considering many students come to college or university without knowing anything about what they want to major in or what career they want.

Handy helps all kinds of students. The things you learn from this include utilizing your major and job searching tips. This kind of help is helpful for students, and not only new students who are coming fresh from high school, but also returning students.

“Many students don’t even know about this aspect of Washburn,” Handy said. “Out of over 6,000 students, we maybe see an eighth of them.”

Many of the students are here to get a degree, graduate and go on to the workforce, but a lot of these students are also first generation college students. They don’t have the same help that others do. Then there are the nontraditional students who are maybe coming back to college or are coming for the first time, and they have no idea about this service either. 

Christian Johnson, freshman biology major, thought Handy was very helpful in explaining what is necessary for a resume.

“Gary had come to one of my classes and talked about how to make and create a resume in my Majors and Careers class,” Johnson said. “He was really helpful about explaining the reasons why you need a resume, showed us how to create one and what it should look like. I plan on utilizing the Career Services in the near future since I am still undecided on what I want my future career to be.”

Sota Shuto, senior international business and marketing major, thought it Handy had great advice for international students. 

“Since I am an international student, I don’t really know about all of the services that Washburn offers. I didn’t know there was a Career Services place here so when I heard about it from one of my classes, I researched a little bit and found Gary,” Shuto said. “I haven’t used it yet, but since I am close to graduating I plan to use them before I do. I think I will stay in America for one year, so figuring out how to do these things will help me.”