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Recent Career Initiatives at DSS

This year’s Disability Awareness Week marked one of several initiatives DSS has undertaken with respect to an issue of continuing interest for the disability population: career opportunities.

“The Disability-Careers Office: A Collaborative Model” was a one-day symposium held in the Marvin Center on October 13, 2006, featuring academic and business professionals coming together to discuss how employers and prospective employees with disabilities can best find one another. Alan Muir, Executive Director of Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities at the University of Tennessee, and Sarah Helm, the Disability-Careers Office Coordinator at the University of Tennessee, opened the proceedings with a presentation on the innovative approach that UTK has taken to this issue. They have created a full-time staff position within their Career Services Office that works specifically with the disability population at UTK on career planning and placement issues.

Regardless of the organizational model that universities take, the urgent need for such a relationship has become increasingly apparent. During his presentation, Muir cited some startling statistics: while the current U.S. unemployment rate is a relatively low 4.7%, among college graduates with disabilities the rate is near 40%. Moreover, a college graduate with a disability is 8-12 times more likely to be unemployed than a peer without a disability. One of the tools that Muir has been available to develop, in his position as Executive Director of Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities, is Career Gateway, the only nationwide job posting and college student resume database focused on college students with disabilities

Here at GW, DSS has recently undertaken a number of initiatives to address these concerns. Career Services and DSS have a close working relationship, though it is not formally structured the way it is at UTK. Additionally, this is the second year in which GW has participated in the Workforce Recruitment Program for Students with Disabilities (WRP), a nationwide program designed to provide employment opportunities in the federal and private sectors for qualified college students with disabilities. It is coordinated by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy and the U.S. Department of Defense. The purpose of the program is to refer students with disabilities for employment at federal and private sector worksites throughout the United States.  Participating organizations have an interest in placing qualified persons with severe disabilities in summer and permanent positions. We’ve also hired graduate assistants from the GSEHD Rehabilitation Counseling Program -- Chris Pope last year, and Hope Fisher this year -- to serve as liaison between DSS and the Career Center and to provide career counseling to students with disabilities.

Last year we had over a dozen GW students participate in this program, many of whom obtained valuable work experience in. Ali Ahmad, who earned a Master’s Degree in Political Management here at GW, accepted a position with the Defense Logistics Agency in Battle Creek, Michigan. [Read more about Ali in our feature on him.]

Mona Floyd worked as Human Resources Specialist for the Department of Defense Air Force Civilian Personnel Division, where she contributed to the Air Force's implementation of the National Security Personnel System, which eliminates grade ratings (i.e. GS- 9,10, 11, etc.) for payroll and creates pay bands instead.  As a result of her credentials being on file with the WRP, she was also invited to apply for several open permanent, full-time "direct-hire" vacancies in the area of contracts and procurement, one with the Department of Health and Human Services and another with the Department of Labor. Mona had to turn down these invitations, however, because she accepted a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Fellowship that involves drafting legislation, writing speeches and going to the House floor with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Mona adds, “I must admit that my circumstance is probably quite different than the average DSS student because I have a law degree and legal experience.  That being said, the DSS program is what put me in the spotlight and now I feel that I am on my way to bigger and better things....It is wonderful to know that my name is out there and that I am being considered, thanks to the Workforce Recuitment Program.”