Founded in 1794, Bowdoin has maintained its commitment to the liberal arts for more than 225 years. Bowdoin’s reputation as a preeminent liberal arts college rests on the excellence of its faculty, students, and staff; intimate size; strong sense of community; and connections to the people, history, and natural beauty of Maine. Bowdoin’s student body is vibrant and intellectually engaged. Admission to Bowdoin is highly selective.
Bowdoin embraces diversity in all forms, and the College is home to talented students—including first-generation college students—with a variety of racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds; religious beliefs; and gender identities, among other factors. The Class of 2022 at Bowdoin College is, by several measures, the most culturally diverse and socioeconomically representative class in the College’s history. The College enrolls approximately 1,800 students representing 50 states and two US territories, and 42 foreign countries. Fifty percent of the Class of 2022 receives financial aid at Bowdoin; 35 percent are students of color; and 14 percent are members of the first generation of their family to attend college. Nine percent of the class has international citizenship, or a non-US home/school address and ten percent are from Maine.
The College’s commitment to providing an inclusive and equitable experience for all members of the campus community is evident in the significant investments it has made in programs and personnel. Bowdoin recently launched THRIVE, a college-wide initiative designed to foster achievement, belonging, mentorship, and transition in support of low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color following a generous gift from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ’83. In addition, in 2017 the College completed the search for its first Senior Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity. As Bowdoin continues to build a more diverse student body and a more inclusive experience, Career Exploration and Development (“CXD”) must anticipate and respond to their changing career development needs. To best serve the entire student body, the Associate Director will collaborate with colleagues on the advising team and with the Executive Director to ensure that CXD offers inclusive services and programs that meet all students where they are and are appropriate and valuable for all students with a broad set of career interests.
Bowdoin’s campus is situated in a beautiful natural setting. Located in Brunswick, Maine, a town of approximately 20,000, the College is a short drive from the Maine coast, twenty-five miles from Portland and 120 miles from Boston.
Housed in the Division of Student Affairs, CXD is responsible for all aspects of career development, from advising on career and graduate study to fostering employer and alumni connections that lead to internships and jobs. The strength of CXD lies in the supportive, individualized advising and programming it provides to students over four years of study; the real-world expertise of staff; deep and broad connections to alumni, parents and employers; and the post-graduate success of students who pursue traditional and non-traditional career paths as varied as arts, communications, consulting, finance, education, law, policy, marketing, medicine, science, engineering, advocacy, research, and technology, among others.
