New grant will help steer UHCL students toward best career direction

University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Office of Career Services has received a $5000 grant from the Enterprise Holdings Foundation. The Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Enterprise Holdings, which, through its integrated network of independent regional subsidiaries and franchises, operates Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, and Alamo Rent A Car brands.

Director of Career Services Chuck Crocker said that Enterprise has been an active recruiter at UH-Clear Lake for several years. The $5000 grant, he said, would be put to two uses to benefit students. “First, the money will be used to help pay for our Handshake career management system, which is where we post jobs and register students for job fairs,” he said. “Handshake will have a virtual career platform, which can be expensive. This gift will help with those costs.”

Career Services also offers students career testing and assessments to help students find the professional direction to which they are best suited. “These gifts enable us to give these assessments without charging students any fees,” he said.

Enterprise Talent Acquisition Manager Sandy De La Garza said since 2013, she has been recruiting at UHCL’s job fairs and enjoying her involvement with UHCL’s students. “I’m pleased that some of the students I’ve met have maintained contact with me. We are always recruiting for management training positions,” she said. “In my presentations to students, I like to teach them what I wish I would have learned when I was in college. It makes me feel so good to find that after I talk to them, they feel more confident and are able to practice all the things I told them. Then when I see them, they say they have done an interview and gotten a job.”

She added that it’s one of Enterprise Holdings Foundation's values to give back to the community. “Impacting someone’s career and life is why I do this,” she said. Career Services has been receiving gifts from Enterprise Holdings Foundation since 2016. “The partnership between UHCL, Career Services and Enterprise Holdings has been fruitful,” Crocker said. “They’ve obtained good talent from our students over the years.”

Jonathan Timm, who graduated from UHCL in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Finance, said that he benefited from UHCL’s high quality job fairs, made possible in part by Enterprise Holdings Foundation's financial support. “I’m now an Enterprise branch manager in Lake Jackson and Angleton,” he said. “I’m a Navy veteran and I utilized the resources offered by Career Services. I went to the job fairs and I saw the great quality of companies who were present.”

Timm said he went to several job fairs, talked to a number of company representatives he met, and ultimately got the job he wanted with Enterprise. “Without that support, I would not have had the opportunity to engage with employers and find out what kinds of jobs were out there when I graduated, and I wouldn’t have this job,” he said. “I didn’t know this job was what I wanted to do, but it steered me in the right direction.”

Learn more about the resources offered at UHCL's Career Services.