New Name, Same Mission For Center For Professional Development

Limestone College’s Career Services Department recently became the Center for Professional Development thanks to the vision of the department’s Director Ileka Leaks.

Leaks felt that the title of the department played a large role in how the department was perceived on campus and wanted to provide it with a new name to better describe its mission. The department works to provide students with the information they need to look beyond the title of their majors and apply it to life outside of the College. Leaks believed that the previous title indicated that the department only provided resume services to the students, when it actually focuses on the student as a professional who will soon enter the job market.

The new departmental title was approved earlier this year.

Limestone’s Center for Professional Development, which is a part of the Student Success division, educates students to the fact that choosing a career is a collaborative and lifelong process. Having the word “Development” in the title better indicates to students that they can get help from the department to decipher what career paths they want to take and then determine how to develop the people skills and self-identification they need in order to obtain their goals and apply what they have learned at Limestone to their careers.

“Limestone has a diverse student population,” Leaks said. “By changing the name of the department, we are able to capture a larger audience. We are not just filling out resumes. We are building vital life skills. We give students the opportunity to get into the door of career paths, and with the skills we teach them, they are then able to seal the deal on their own.”

“As students progress through our program, I see them develop from wide-eyed freshmen who don’t know very much, to being more confident seniors and alumni,” she continued. “I believe professional development should be included in that. It doesn’t matter how great an education a student has if they do not know how to market themselves.”

With an undergraduate degree from Presbyterian College and a graduate degree from Georgia Southern University, Leaks has worked at Limestone since 2001 to provide students with the information and skills they need to prepare themselves for lives beyond the College.

(By Marena Camby, Limestone College Communications & Marketing Department.)