The Job Market Is Changing. So Are We.

How is Lewis & Clark preparing students for a job market shaped by AI disruption, economic uncertainty, and shifting employer expectations?

A key part of the answer is the new Career Accelerator—a four-year, integrated approach that blends the intellectual depth of a liberal arts education with skills development, real-world experience, professional connections, and personalized guidance. Under director Joe Hewa’s leadership, the Career Accelerator is transforming how Lewis & Clark prepares students for meaningful work after graduation.

Graduates are entering a job market marked by longer searches, fewer entry-level roles, AI disruption, and economic uncertainty. How is Lewis & Clark responding?

It’s certainly a challenging environment for students launching their careers. At Lewis & Clark, we’re striving to prepare students in ways that support their success, both in the current job market with its specific and unique challenges, as well as in lifelong careers of impact.

In many ways, we’re leaning into tried-and-true strategies, but we’re also going against the grain a bit in terms of trying to address the current job market landscape. We’re telling students, “Invest in your classic liberal arts education—because it’s more necessary than ever—and become skilled using technological resources and skills, such as data analysis, the ethical use of AI, and so on.”

There’s a lot of anxiety right now about AI. What’s your take?

I would argue that Lewis & Clark is offering the exact antidote that’s needed to confront the challenges facing this emerging generation of workers. Yes, AI is very real, and it’s having an impact on companies and on markets. But there’s still a need for real human skills—interpersonal skills; the ability to show empathy; the ability to listen and adapt in the moment to the needs of a client, a manager, or a supervisor; and the ability to draw on multiple perspectives and bring those things together to solve seemingly intractable problems. AI can do some of these things but not as effectively as a human.

How is the Career Accelerator helping students build skills that matter in the workforce?

We think about skills in two broad categories: foundational skills and specialized skills.

The foundational skills are what a liberal arts education does exceptionally well—effective communication, critical thinking, drawing on multiple perspectives, information literacy, research, writing strong arguments, and working in teams in a way where the sum is greater than the parts. These aren’t taught in just one class; they’re woven into virtually every course at Lewis & Clark.

At the same time, we’re intentionally highlighting specialized, in-demand skills. That might look like Excel, AI prompt engineering, data analysis and visualization, cybersecurity, and so on. Students in data science, math, political science, sociology and anthropology, history, music, theatre—really across the academic disciplines—are gaining highly desired skills. We’re helping them recognize where that learning is happening and how to translate it.

One of the biggest challenges for students is developing the self-awareness to see these skills and the context awareness to articulate them. So part of our work is metacognitive: helping students recognize what they’re developing, reflect on it, and then demonstrate it—in résumés, cover letters, interviews, and networking conversations.

Internships are often described as game changers. How are you connecting students with these opportunities?

We’re approaching internships with real intentionality—especially paid, credit-bearing ones. That structure matters. Students earn academic credit while also receiving guidance from a Lewis & Clark faculty or staff mentor who helps them identify opportunities, reflect on the skills they’re developing, and think strategically about networking while they’re in the role. That added layer of reflection and support enhances the value of the experience in ways that simply securing an internship on their own often does not.

The pay matters, too. Students need to cover meals, transportation, and rent. When they’re juggling a separate part-time job just to make ends meet, it pulls focus from the internship itself. By offering paid, credit-bearing opportunities, we allow students to concentrate fully on the experience—so they can make the most of it with the guidance and support of the institution.

Joe Hewa, Director of the Career Accelerator
Credit: Illustration by Barry Falls

Who are some of L&C’s internship partners?

We are working to solidify existing relationships and develop many new ones. Our faculty have built a strong partnership with the Portland Art Museum. We’re up to four paid interns there each year, with the potential for more. The African American Alliance for Homeownership is interviewing students now, and we’ve launched two paid summer internships with the Albina Music Trust, building on L&C’s connection with the Albina Vision Trust.

We’ve also created high-impact internships with alumni leaders—one in New York with Adam Merino BA ’05 at Legend Capital and one in Washington, D.C., with Blake Androff BA ’04 at Signal Group Consulting, which is reserving a spot specifically for a Lewis & Clark student.

We’re developing opportunities with U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley’s office and with Classic Foods through owner Jake Greenberg BA ’79. These are just a few examples—new partnerships are coming together all the time.

What we’re trying to do is build true relationship pipelines so that organizations can count on Lewis & Clark students and on the support of an institutional partnership. It’s mutually beneficial. Employers know the kind of students they’re getting, how the hiring and supervision process works, and the level of our commitment.

What other experiential learning opportunities are available to students?

When we talk about experience, our first priority is really paid internships. But our students have additional high-impact opportunities as well.

Lewis & Clark is a leader in overseas study. We want students to stretch themselves—intellectually and personally—in global contexts. Studying abroad isn’t just about travel; it’s about learning to navigate new cultures, new systems, and new ways of thinking. Employers consistently tell us they value adaptability and cross-cultural fluency, and overseas study builds those things in a very real way.

In addition, students engage in research and creative work and lead symposia and public-facing academic events with faculty support. At L&C, that can mean collaborating closely with professors on original research, creative scholarship, lab work, performances, and publications. It can also mean shaping signature events, such as the ENVX Symposium, the Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies, the Gender Studies Symposium, or the International Affairs Symposium. In these settings, students are learning to ask better questions, manage complex projects, engage audiences around big ideas, and speak with real confidence and substance about their work.

How does the Bates Center for Entrepreneurship and Leadership fit in?

The Bates Center has been instrumental in embedding an ethos of skills development and experiential education at Lewis & Clark, along with connecting students to businesses in the Portland community and beyond. In many ways, their work has helped generate the donor interest we’re seeing now. For example, Board of Trustees member Heidi Hu BS ’85 and her husband, Daniel Hsieh, made a $5 million commitment to endow the Career Accelerator. That transformational gift is allowing us to partner with the Bates Center and other units across campus to scale an already successful model to the broader student body.

The Career Accelerator isn’t just about skills and experience—there’s also a commitment to offering guidance. How does this work?

One of the beautiful things about the liberal arts is that students can study nearly any field—and go on to do almost anything. But that freedom can also feel overwhelming at times. Our goal isn’t to pigeonhole students into preset tracks or suggest that certain majors lead to only a handful of careers. Instead, we provide the guidance and mentorship that help students ask better questions, think about the kind of impact they want to make, and design their own path.

Beginning this fall, every student will be assigned a dedicated career consultant—alongside their faculty and academic advisors—so that from day one they have someone focused specifically on career possibilities to help them make the most of their time at Lewis & Clark.

We’re also expanding access to guidance beyond in-person conversations. A redesigned website will function as a virtual career center, offering curated, customized resources available 24/7. And we’re developing a digital logbook that helps students track experiences, skills, relationships, and milestones—so when it’s time to apply for internships, jobs, or graduate school, they can clearly articulate what they’ve learned.

Another shift is how the Career Center is organized. Going forward, each career consultant will focus on a broad academic area—the social sciences, math and natural sciences, or arts and humanities—building relationships with alumni, faculty, and industry partners in those areas. Because they both advise students and cultivate external partnerships, they can serve as true connectors, linking students directly to people and opportunities in their fields of interest.

People sometimes use “Career Accelerator” and “Career Center” interchangeably. What’s the difference?

The Career Accelerator is the vision and the commitment; the Career Center is one of the primary ways we deliver on it.

The Career Accelerator represents an ecosystem approach to career development. It’s the promise that career preparation is woven throughout the Lewis & Clark experience—from the classroom to student employment, internships, research, study abroad, and alumni engagement. When students show up here, they’re already in it. It’s integrated and interwoven, not a single office you visit.

The Career Center plays a key role in that ecosystem. It’s a hub for guidance, connections, and opportunities, and it often takes the lead in coordinating experiences and building partnerships with alumni and employers. But it’s not doing that work alone. The Bates Center, the Center for Community and Global Health, academic departments, faculty advisors, Alumni and Parent Engagement—all of them contribute to helping students build skills, gain experience, and form meaningful connections.

You talk a lot about the importance of connections. Why are they so central, particularly in today’s job market?

What we mean by connections is simple but powerful: Careers of impact start with strong networks. And in this moment—when it’s a really difficult time to enter the job market at the entry level—that matters more than ever.

Even exceptionally qualified candidates are sending out massive numbers of applications and being rejected. Many roles aren’t publicly posted, or they go to people who are already known. The reality is that the best opportunities usually come through relationships. Students can have the skills and the experience, but without connections that open doors beyond what’s online, they’re still running into dead ends.

So we’re leaning into time-honored practices of building relationships. We help students learn from people who are further along in their careers—how they made early moves, how they navigated setbacks, how they positioned themselves for growth. The landscape may look different than it did a decade or two ago, but those lessons learned are still relevant.

From the moment students arrive, we create intentional opportunities to connect with alumni and employers—through mentoring, career panels, industry-specific events, and our new L&C Bridge Series. Bridges are about connecting two places that don’t otherwise meet. We’re bridging the space between students and the working world, introducing them to alumni and professionals who are willing to meet them halfway—people who can take them under their wing, offer perspective, and help expand their networks.

We’re also teaching students that building relationships is a skill. It takes practice to engage professionally with someone further along in their career—to present yourself with curiosity, confidence, and a willingness to learn. When students demonstrate trainability, adaptability, and initiative, it opens additional doors.

What we’re doing through the Career Accelerator is systematizing these kinds of relationship-based opportunities so they’re not left to chance. At the end of the day, it’s about helping students build genuine, long-term relationships—with mentors, collaborators, and potential employers—that support their career journeys well beyond their time in Portland.