Staff profile of the Student Participation and Job program
Student Career Volunteer, Career Center
Sakurako Miyazaki, junior, School of Education
The students who study and work on campus play an important role at the university. Here, we introduce the profiles of students to highlight what kind of students are involved in the Student Participation and Job program, and what their schedules are like. In this article, we will introduce Sakurako Miyazaki, who is a student in the School of Education, and works as a Student Career Volunteer at the Career Center. We will talk to her about her daily life as someone who plans and helps run events related to the career-building efforts of Waseda University students.
Q. When did you first get involved in the Student Participation and Job program?
I started getting involved at the end of May 2019, when I was a sophomore.
Q. What got you started?
I became interested in the work of Student Career Volunteers (SCV) when I participated in the Future Design Guidance event. After talking directly with the senior students who are involved in the SCV, I decided to join that day.
Q. What kind of activities are you involved in?
I help plan career-building efforts from a student perspective together with the Career Center staff. These are the four main activities I’m involved in.
- Interviews with HR staff at companies / Posting articles in Waseda Weekly
Past work: Waseda Weekly “Focus: Job Hunting Special”
1. Ebara Jitsugyo/IBM Japan Edition, 2. Daiwa Institute of Research Holdings Edition, 3. Dentsu/Koike-Ya Edition, 4. Nippon Life/Toyoshima Edition - Student proposal career event (student and alumni session)
- Student proposal career event (student and alumni session)official Twitter account / Lending books related to career-building at C-Space (1F, Waseda Campus Building No. 6))
- Seasonal events such as the Tanabata event
Besides these activities, SCVs can also plan and run new projects. We create plans while exchanging opinions with a diverse group of SCV members from various departments, as well as staff members.
Visiting a company to hold an interview with HR staff for material for a Waseda Weekly article in 2019 (Photo: Seiji Ishigaki)
Q. Tell us how you’ve felt since you’ve joined the Student Participation and Job program.
At the Career Center on the third-floor of Toyama Campus Building No. 30 (Waseda University Student Center)
I think opportunities are everywhere, but to notice them and to act on them is entirely on you. In my case, I didn’t know about the activities of SCVs until spring in my sophomore year, but as I spent my student life with the feeling that I wanted to be involved in projects related to helping build the careers of Waseda University students, I happened to come across this opportunity. With the SCV activities, we don’t just work on existing plans, but we’re also able to create and implement plans on our own volition, so I’m always conscious of making the most out of valuable opportunities.
Q. How do you manage to balance multiple tasks, like your studies, the Student Participation and Job program, and club activities?
I set deadlines on all the things I need to do. I think that teamwork is what makes it possible for each group to have open communication among its members and for them to support each other during busy times.
Q. Do you have any suggestions for improving the Student Participation and Job program that you’d like the university to hear?
It would be great if there was more interaction among members of the Student Participation and Job program, as well as collaborative events. (This is not a suggestion to the university as much as it’s something I’d like to plan and make happen.)
Q. Tell us about your future aspirations, and what challenges you’d like to take on.
As an SCV, I want to work on making the project introducing career-related books a standard part of the university experience, and make it more popular. I want students to become interested in the Career Center through the low-barrier entry point of information on useful books and opinion exchanges regarding those books, and make the most of these resources to support the career-building of students. I also want to plan an event introducing the Career Center staff members as a new project, which I’d like to implement together with the project introducing career-related books.
Q. Have you received scholarships from the university or from outside organizations?
I receive the Okuma Memorial Scholarship (400,000 yen per year).
Weekly schedule during a school term
