Christine Cruzvergara
Chief Education Strategy Officer, Handshake
Teaches:
Leading Change and Creating Buy-In
Good ideas don't matter if you can't convince those around you to follow. As you accumulate inspiration from the speakers before, don't forget to devise a strategy for how you'll implement these new ideas. Your success and your students' success relies on your ability to effectively lead change. Come learn 5 principles for creating the necessary buy-in across your campus or organization. Using behavioral psychology as a foundation, Christine will leave you with memorable stories and concrete techniques to use with your team, your colleagues, and even your children!
speaker reel
Program
Work-Based Learning
Even when the US economy is humming along, it contains a strange paradox. Employers have a hard time finding workers, yet simultaneously many workers have a hard time finding appropriate employment. WBL helps learners enter and succeed in their first or next career, yet it remains a tiny percentage of our student experience. We’re proud to feature the most dynamic and sought-after speakers who are true Industry Thought Leaders at the forefront of career-connected learning.
It is time to solve our workforce paradox once and for all.
Getting to Know Christine
1
What sparked your interest in work-based learning?
I‘ve always been interested
in working with students at transition points in their lives—first in the transition to college then in the transition from college to career. These transition points are pivotal to our learning, to our experience, and to how we view the world. I wanted to be a part of that process and to help anyone and everyone I could find some deeper purpose or enjoyment in what they chose to do.
2
Who do you look up to or follow in your field of work?
I have the great fortune of having many colleagues that I look up to for a variety of reasons—from their leadership to their ideas to their
execution—these people have continued to push forward and to support me in my own path. To name just a couple, I‘ll call out Andy Chan and Farouk Dey.
3
What missteps would you caution others to avoid as they work to promote or develop work-based learning opportunities?
Don‘t overcomplicate things and don‘t underestimate the amount of change management you‘ll need to do to get people on- board. The more simple you can make your program or process, the more likely you‘ll be able to „make it sticky“ and get others bought into your vision. And good ideas don‘t matter if you can‘t get people excited and moving in the same direction. Spend the time to involve others and bring them along. It‘ll be the difference between sustained success and failure.
“Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.“
Ruth Bader Ginsburg