Faculty Champion: Dr. Craig Pinkerton

The Knowlton Center is pleased to announce that November’s Faculty Champion is Dr. Craig Pinkerton!

Dr. Pinkerton, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication, has consistently made the Knowlton Center for Career Exploration a partner in his coursework. As an educator, his mission is to nurture students’ growth in thinking well, speaking well, and writing well and to facilitate growth and experience that engages students in good faith communication across differences. In introducing the Knowlton Center to his students, Dr. Pinkerton furthers this mission by ensuring the skills and knowledge gained through the classroom translate to the professional world.  

 (1) Find a mentor, (2) Take advantage of the Knowlton Career Center, (3) Network, and (4) Gain experience. If you are not sure how to do 1, 3, or 4, go to the Knowlton Career Center to learn how!

-Dr. Craig Pinkerton

Over the past academic year, Dr. Pinkerton has collaborated with the Knowlton Center in a variety of ways. In his Rhetoric of Story course, he invited the Knowlton Center to present on how a student can build their professional brand and how to tell their professional story in an authentic and credible way. Students were able to think about their skills, talents, and the values they hold and began to tell their story through the lens of their career. In addition to Rhetoric of Story, Dr. Pinkerton’s Public Address course has benefited from class visits talking about the importance of skills such as public speaking in the professional world. 

Dr. Pinkerton has also partnered with the Knowlton Center to provide professional headshots for his students. In keeping with the theme of building a credible, professional brand, the Knowlton Center set aside three days for Dr. Pinkerton’s classes to come to the Center, take a professional headshot for use on LinkedIn, on their campus email, and on Canvas. 

An advocate for career exploration, Dr. Pinkerton has this to say: “I attended college as a first-generation student. Unfortunately, no one ever told me to go to the career center early or taught me how to network. I learned these things after I graduated. For the longest time, I lived with the misconception that the only thing I needed to prepare for my career future was to do well academically. I was wrong. My motivation for getting students engaged with the Knowlton Center early in part stems from helping them avoid the mistakes I made when I was an undergraduate.

In my classes, I argue that there are four keys students must obtain to unlock their potential and secure their career future. What are those keys? They are (in ascending order of importance) as follows: (1) Find a mentor, (2) Take advantage of the Knowlton Career Center, (3) Network, and (4) Gain experience. If you are not sure how to do 1, 3, or 4, go to the Knowlton Career Center to learn how!”

By Paige Revering
Paige Revering Student Engagement Coordinator