The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) has announced an upcoming professional development event tailored for educators, administrators, and institutional leaders seeking to enhance student success outcomes in higher education. As part of its ongoing HACU-member webinar series, the association will host a virtual session titled "Measuring What Matters: Embedding Career Readiness Assessment into the Undergraduate Business Curriculum and Student Experience."
The scheduled webinar is set to take place on November 19, 2026, beginning at 1 p.m. Central Time. Higher education professionals and faculty members interested in attending can secure their spot by accessing the online registration portal provided through HACU’s communication channels. The session is designed to address a growing demand across colleges and universities for empirical methods to evaluate how effectively academic programs prepare students for the modern workforce.
Modern higher education faces increasing scrutiny regarding the return on investment for undergraduate degrees, particularly in professional disciplines like business. Institutions are continually challenged not only to deliver rigorous academic content, but also to ensure that students develop the tangible competencies, professional networks, and adaptive mindsets required to navigate complex and rapidly evolving career landscapes. In response to these pressures, academic departments are exploring innovative ways to weave career development directly into the fabric of daily coursework rather than treating professional preparation as an extracurricular add-on.
The upcoming HACU webinar places a specific spotlight on the pioneering work being conducted at the Dominican University of California. During the virtual event, presenters will explore how the institution is successfully implementing a comprehensive pre- and post-assessment strategy within its undergraduate business curriculum. This evaluation framework is designed to capture measurable growth across several critical domains, including overall career readiness, professional relationship building, the adoption of life design mindsets, and long-term career mobility.
By establishing benchmarks at the entry point of a program and evaluating students again at subsequent milestones, educators can gain a clearer, data-driven understanding of how the academic experience contributes to professional evolution. Participants who tune into the November webinar will be introduced to practical, real-world strategies for embedding these kinds of assessments directly into existing courses. Furthermore, attendees will learn how to leverage the resulting data to evaluate student progress, pinpoint institutional areas that require enhancement, and inform future strategic decisions regarding curriculum design and resource allocation.
Guilia Welch, director of internships and professional development and an adjunct professor at the Barowsky School of Business at the Dominican University of California, will serve as one of the featured presenters for the session. Welch brings direct, frontline experience in bridging the gap between theoretical business education and practical career execution for undergraduates. Her perspective as both an administrative leader overseeing professional development initiatives and an instructor in the classroom positions her to offer valuable insights into how faculty members and career services professionals can collaborate more effectively.
Joining Welch as a co-presenter is Marieli Rubio, partner and vice president of impact at Career Launch. Rubio brings an external, partnership-oriented perspective to the discussion, focusing on the broader implications of measuring student impact and career readiness across higher education institutions. Career Launch specializes in helping organizations and educational entities assess and scale impactful career development programs, making Rubio’s expertise particularly relevant for administrators looking to quantify the value of their academic offerings to prospective students, accreditation bodies, and external stakeholders.
The inclusion of both institutional leadership and external impact expertise ensures a well-rounded exploration of the topic, bridging the gap between daily classroom instruction and high-level institutional metrics. As colleges and universities nationwide continue to adapt to shifting employer expectations and economic realities, discussions centered on measurable student outcomes have taken on heightened urgency.
This educational offering is organized specifically as part of the broader HACU-member webinar series, reflecting the association’s ongoing commitment to providing valuable professional development resources, collaborative platforms, and innovative strategies to member institutions. Through these webinars, HACU aims to foster dialogue and share best practices that support the academic and professional success of students across diverse higher education landscapes.
Registration for the November 19, 2026, session is currently open through the designated Zoom registration portal linked in the association’s announcements. Higher education professionals, business school faculty members, academic advisors, and career services personnel are encouraged to attend to gain actionable insights into measuring and enhancing undergraduate career readiness.
