Career Well-Being Certificate Program

The Basic Building Blocks to Pursue Meaningful Work

In Spring 2026, Barnard College is proud to launch its inaugural Career Well-Being Certificate (students interested in participating can click here to register for updates). Modeled on the successful Francine LeFrak Financial Well-Being Certificate Program, this is an opportunity for students at all stages of their Barnard careers to build an awareness of best practices to identify, pursue, and secure internships and job opportunities. It is never to early and never to late to get started learning the fundamental, and getting Barnard's distinctive take on a "community-based approach to lifelong career well-being."

Four years at Barnard prepare students for an enormous diversity of career paths across corporations, nonprofit organizations, government, and academia (and everything in between). Indeed, since 2018, more than 90% of recent graduates have been working or enrolled in graduate school six months after graduation. The intellectual and co-curricular experience at the College — and the value of a liberal arts education — are at the core of that success. So too is Barnard's distinctive lifelong career support and the College's exceptional network of alumnae around the world.

A Community-Based Approach

Irrespective of how the job market ultimately shapes up in 2026, it's clearly a time of especially high concern and anxiety about the economy. To take care of one's career well-being has critical overlaps with mental, physical, financial, and intellectual well-being — and to this extent, investing even just a bit of time in thinking about these topics can help set students up for success throughout the semester and beyond. In the Career Well-Being Certificate Program, students will have the opportunity to attend 5 foundational sessions that will introduce them to the fundamentals of exploring, pursuing, and securing opportunities. They will also take advantage of required one-on-one advising sessions with specially-trained Peer Career Advisors to help them take the next step. By the end of the program, students will have increased confidence in the essential skills necessary to take ownership of their career well-being.

About Career Well-Being Certificate Program Sessions

Across five sessions and two required advising engagements, students reflect on their goals, challenges, and questions in community with one another. With the leadership of Barnard's exceptional Peer Career Advisors and Staff, they will leave empowered with a set of best practices and tangible steps to help structure their next steps. Sessions include:

Session One: Introduction and Demystifying the Current Market Landscape (led by Vice President for Community Engagement & Lifelong Success AJ Aronstein)
Session Two: Building Your Barnard Community
Session Three: Resumes in the Time of the Robots
Session Four: Cover Letters as Argumentative Essays
Session Five: Interviews & Next Steps

Questions about the Barnard Career Well-Being Certificate Program and future Beyond Barnard events can be sent to beyondbarnard@barnard.edu.