Campaign Expands on Bold ‘CUNY Beyond’ Career-Success Framework for Undergraduate Students; Features Chancellor and Industry Leaders Urging Others to Collaborate with CUNY to Hire Students
The City University of New York has launched a campaign to build connections with New York’s leading employers, expanding the landmark CUNY Beyond career-connected learning initiative launched last fall.
“We’re opening the spring semester with a call to employers to hire our graduates,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “CUNY students offer formidable skills, and we are turning up the volume to show employers just how much they stand to benefit from collaborating with us to meet their need for talent.”
The new campaign, “Power Your Business with CUNY,” highlights the many ways that New York employers benefit from their collaborative relationships with CUNY, whether it involves finding and hiring top talent, tapping the expertise of CUNY’s world-class faculty or making use of facilities across the University’s 26 campuses.
Calling All Industry Partners
The campaign connects industry leaders to the CUNY Industry Support Hub, a central conduit that enables businesses of all sectors and sizes to easily navigate the system and access the wealth of opportunities available within CUNY. Over the past year, the hub engaged hundreds of employers to create opportunities for students, including paid internships, part- and full-time roles and other career experiences that pay competitive wages. The coordinated support helps employers identify top talent and build sustainable talent pipelines. At one recruitment event coordinated by Queens nonprofit New York Edge in the CUNY@Amazon classroom, 93% of interviewed students received employment offers. CUNY students are already being recruited by more than 30,000 businesses across the New York region.
Engaging employers is part of the University’s broader effort to ensure positive career outcomes for its graduates. Chancellor Matos Rodríguez announced the launch of a signature initiative, CUNY Beyond, in his State of the University address last fall as a commitment to integrate career-connected learning into every aspect of a student’s experience from the day they begin college. In her proposed executive budget for fiscal year 2027, released last week, Governor Hochul allocated $6.8 million in financial support for CUNY Beyond. The initiative’s success stands to generate an estimated $3 billion in future wage growth and yield a $700 million return on public investment.
The “Power Your Business with CUNY” campaign includes a video message from Chancellor Matos Rodríguez and testimonials from industry executives who affirm the great value of their companies’ engagement with the University. Those featured so far include John Waldron, president and COO at Goldman Sachs; Jocelyn Weyrauch, senior manager for human resources at TD; and Jeff Aronson, co-founder and managing principal at Centerbridge Partners.
“We have been partnering with CUNY since 2018, and it has been what I would describe as a win-win,” said Aronson in his testimonial video. “We love working with CUNY students. They are smart. They are hardworking. And most importantly, they have grit. CUNY is a great engine of social mobility in New York City. And I think the private sector has to play a hugely important role in promoting social mobility. So it’s good for New York City and it’s good for you as a businessperson.”
Engagement with CUNY allows employers to leverage more than CUNY’s vast and diverse talent pool. The University’s Office of Careers and Industry Partnerships (OCIP) also enables employers to utilize campus facilities such as theaters, auditoriums and galleries across all five city boroughs, provide upskilling opportunities for their current employees and partner with faculty on research or to provide curriculum input.
“‘Power Your Business With CUNY’ puts a spotlight on what employers gain when they work with us — exceptional talent, world-class expertise and a true New York partner,” said CUNY Vice Chancellor for Career Engagement & Industry Partnerships Lauren Andersen, who leads OCIP. “By building on CUNY Beyond, this campaign will also strengthen our efforts to turn career-connected learning into real opportunity, boosting career outcomes for students and strengthening New York’s workforce and economy.”
The digital campaign started running last week and will be visible throughout the semester across digital platforms such as LinkedIn, Google, TaxiTV and YouTube, and across CUNY’s social media accounts.
