Career coaching helps students explore interests, connect strengths to possible paths, and build a plan over time. At Denison, coaching is paired with Career Communities, mentorship, alumni networking, and real experiences so students can test ideas and gain direction.
Unparalleled access to experts — early and often.
Career coaching
Take advantage of thousands of appointments with our professional career coaches and get personalized guidance to help you understand who you are and where you’re going.
Career communities
These groups offer industry-specific insights, experiential opportunities, internship and job leads, and alumni networks. You’ll network and build friendships with students and alums who share your career interests.
Ask questions, receive professional advice, and make connections with Denison’s deeply engaged alumni.
Coaching that puts you first
Our professional career coaches will work with you 1:1 to understand your interests, strengths, and ambitions, and help you turn them into a plan. Explore career possibilities. Find the right internships. Prepare for interviews. Navigate a job search. Evaluate an offer.
Beginning on day one, you’ll have an expert in your corner to ask the right questions, offer honest feedback, and help you take the next step with confidence.
Mentorship that moves you forward
Access to leaders is part of the Denison experience. Every conversation, workshop, and mentorship builds your capacity to think and lead boldly. Whether you’re sitting down with a CEO or seeking advice from a mentor who’s been where you’re going, you’ll learn how leaders navigate risk, purpose, and growth.
The executives-in-residence program brings accomplished industry leaders — CEOs, CFOs, founders, and board directors — to The Hill through sustained engagement opportunities to deepen the connection between academic learning, career preparation, and professional insights.
Denison’s faculty includes many professors of practice, highly experienced professionals on the front lines of their fields who bring current industry knowledge into the classroom, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, musicians, sports administrators, scientists, and more.
We bring working artists at all stages of their careers to Denison to provide 1:1 feedback, support, and mentorship, as well as a vision of some of the different ways in which art can function, question, and articulate experience in the world.
The playwright-in-residence program is an every-other-year residency for a noted playwright to spend a semester at Denison, directing productions in Denison’s state-of-the-art Eisner Center and coaching, critiquing, and mentoring students 1:1.
An engaged alumni network
Denison boasts an active alumni network, filled with accomplished leaders from all industries and sectors who return frequently to campus and host events to give back, including:
- President of Nasdaq Nelson Griggs ’93
- Award-Winning Actor Steve Carell ’84
- NYT Bestselling author of Atomic Habits James Clear ’08
- Award-Winning Actor and Entrepreneur Jennifer Garner ’94
- Federal Reserve Board Section Chief Claudia Sahm ’98
- Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer of Mattel Lisa McKnight ’90
- Former President, CEO, and Executive Chairman of ESPN George Bodenheimer ’80
- Former SVP and Head of Corporate Communications at WarnerMedia James L. Anderson ’85
- Olympic Marathoner Makorobundo Salukombo ’12
- Former Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner ’64
We bring world leaders to you
From Tony-award winning stage performers to the Vice President of the United States, Denison brings leaders to you from different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives through an expansive range of endowed lecture series and panel discussions.
Past speakers and classroom visitors include:
- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence
- Oceanographer and discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic Robert Ballard
- Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winner Rita Moreno
- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
- Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman
- Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and James Baker
- U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate Bob Dole
- Pulitzer Prize Winner Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Robert Gates
- Governors Jon Huntsman and Bobby Jindal
FAQ
Students can start right away. Career coaching, mentorship, Career Communities, alumni networking opportunities, and visiting professionals are available early and continue throughout a student’s time at Denison as goals become more specific.
They visit campus, share real-world perspectives on roles and industries, offer practical advice, and help students build career direction, mentorship relationships, and networking connections. Through conversations, panels, workshops, and residency programs, students learn how to explore options and prepare for opportunities.