Keely Floyd, the career consultant in IUPUI’s Health and Life Sciences Advising Center, has been awarded the Nan Bohan Community Engagement Award, which is given to an employee who has made outstanding contributions to the culture of service on IUPUI’s campus. Floyd was nominated by co-workers, and she explains that knowing this makes the “award that much more meaningful.”
Floyd has been at IUPUI since 2014 when she was hired by Academic and Career Development in the Health and Life Sciences Advising Center (HLSAC). Her job as the office’s career consultant is to facilitate the career exploration process for students interested in the health care industry. Using a variety of approaches, including one-on-one advising sessions and classroom outreach, Floyd gives students a wealth of information on career and educational opportunities available in the health care field, and she uses students’ individual interests and personalities to help them determine their career paths at IUPUI.
Part of Floyd’s mission as a career consultant is to inspire students, especially freshmen and sophomores, to explore the possibilities of community service while in college. Moving forward, she wants to continue helping younger undergraduates to think critically about their potential roles in the world and to encourage them to expose themselves to a multitude of life experiences to help them recognize their unique talents and interests. Floyd thinks that IUPUI’s engagement culture can be enhanced by showing students that they, as individuals, can seek out and participate in volunteer activities now rather than waiting for a classroom outreach assignment or until they’re older. “Being honored with this award as a career services professional will, hopefully, help students see a link between service opportunities and career exploration and development and encourage them to more actively pursue the opportunities available to them,” says Floyd.
Floyd, who received her bachelor’s degree in music, participates in local arts programs as a sitting member on the Young Professionals Board of Arts for Learning and as a frequent volunteer in the Indianapolis Symphony’s education department. Her background in civic engagement began shortly after high school when she worked at the Terre Haute Housing Authority through AmeriCorps. The experience expanded and enhanced her worldview through interaction with a more diverse population. The spirit of service is widespread in HLSAC with various members participating in off-campus civic engagement activities, including ministry, grief counseling, and service missions abroad.
As Floyd puts it, “We [at HLSAC] take great pride in helping our students identify the ways in which they will give to their communities, whether that’s today through volunteering and service learning or when they graduate into career fields that make their communities healthier, safer places.“