As Brandeis implements its Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts, the administration is making numerous organizational and structural changes to the institution’s operations, emphasizing a focus on career readiness. A significant aspect of this plan is to open a new Center for Careers and Applied Liberal Arts in the fall of 2026. The center will serve as a hub that integrates academic and career advising, experiential learning, emerging technologies and much more. 

Brandeis currently has four career centers on campus, including The Hiatt Career Center, the International Business School, The Heller School’s Career and Development Center and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The new center aims to merge the purposes of each career center with a focus on preserving their best attributes — some focus on connecting students to possible employers and alumni relevant to their disciplines, while some focus on mentoring programs. 

“We can combine the best of all of them — it’s sharing the wealth,” Lewis Brooks ’80, Ph.D. ’16, explained in a March 30 interview with The Justice. In August 2025, President Arthur Levine ’70 asked Brooks to become the center’s founding director, citing his extensive history with Brandeis as an alum and his experience on the Alumni Association’s board of directors. Brooks also brings his relevant career experiences as a former Chief Information Officer for a global advertising agency, managing thousands of employees in offices across the world. He continued, “I’ve been using the expression that this career center will be consolidated, but distributed.” Brooks stressed that the center’s resources will not live under one building. Instead, there will be administrators associated with the center around campus. This organization will ensure that the resources are as accessible to students as possible. 

Furthermore, distributing the center across campus will help employ career counselors across all disciplines and serve the new schools founded under the Brandeis Plan, which include The School of Arts, Humanities and Culture, The School of Business and Economics, The School of Science, Engineering and Technology and The School of Social Sciences and Social Policy. Merging these career centers will help the University determine how many more counselors it needs to hire this summer, considering that the center plans to offer each incoming student an advisor, regardless of being declared or undeclared. Currently, Brandeis is in the process of refining how the center will pair students with their counselors. Additionally, it will offer career guidance classes, which counselors will teach. 

“Things are changing,” Brooks said. He stressed the importance of preserving and encouraging the “agility” that comes with a Brandeis education through the center’s programming and advising opportunities. Through this approach, he hopes that students will have the skills to adapt to new circumstances and technology that they might encounter later in their careers. “What artificial intelligence [is] today is going to be something else tomorrow. It may be some flavor of AI, but we have to make sure that we are ready to pivot to whatever’s next,” he continued. As the president of the Alumni Association during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brooks recalled how quickly the University shut down and adapted to online learning. 

Another foundational aspect of Brandeis’ plan is its implementation of the microcredential program, which consists of certifications for employable skills attained outside the classroom. The center will manage the version of microcredentials geared towards undergraduates, while the Rabb School of Continuing Studies manages the microcredentials associated with its online classes for professionals.

On March 24, the registrar announced that registration for Brandeis’ five pilot microcredentials will remain open for graduating seniors until April 30. These undergraduate microcredentials include Applied Statistical Analysis, Foundations of Data Analysis, Person-Centered Research and Analysis, Policy Analysis and Implementation and lastly, Sound and Video Media. Five days after this announcement, 130 students registered, which Brooks described as “phenomenal.” He shared that the second round of microcredentials is currently under review by a designated committee, as many faculty members have submitted proposals. At present, Brooks does not know how many more microcredentials there will be in total, but he assured that the center aims to have a diverse group of offerings across all schools. 

The center’s undergraduate microcredentials will also feature certifications from experiential learning, which students can earn through their extracurricular activities. For example, Brooks said that three of the microcredentials in development are Leadership in Emergency Medicine, Foundations of Financial Operations and Procurement Management and Foundations of Strategic Budget Analysis and Allocation. These microcredentials are closely associated with students involved in the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps and the Student Union’s Allocations Board. However, he specified that involvement in these organizations will not be the only means to attain these certifications. 

The center’s next steps will be to further clarify the assessment process for these microcredentials. Given the diversity of skills the microcredentials encompass, there is no standardized approach that would be relevant to each one. Instead, there will be a variety of assessment techniques that depend on the discipline, such as an oral presentation or portfolio review. The center is currently finalizing the assessments for the first five certifications to ensure graduating seniors can attain them before commencement. 

“The second transcript is that piece of paper — literally or figuratively — that you can take on an interview,” Brooks shared. “It’s a speaking tool, and our goal is to have students be able to … have a conversation about their accomplishments.”

These microcredentials will appear on students’ second transcripts, alongside their completed internships, fellowships, study abroad and research experiences as part of the center’s emphasis on experiential learning. Brooks highlighted that this additional transcript is “unique” within higher education. Moreover, these opportunities are vital for students’ career preparedness — the center will be prepared to connect students with both these opportunities as well as alumni working in relevant fields. One such resource is Be Connect, a database that Hiatt offers to students. Brooks said that the center intends to expand its functionality, allowing students to connect with alumni based on geographical location and career. The University is also partnering with ETS, an educational assessment firm, to help the organization refine Futurenav Compass, a tool that aids students in personalized career planning. 

The center is also partnering with the Innovation Lab, the MakerLab, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Center for Entrepreneurship to keep Brandeis’ curriculum up to date on the latest technologies. 

“These first pilot cycles are teaching us how we can do this better,” Brooks said. He stressed the importance of student feedback as the University refines the center’s procedures. He continued, “There are many more elements that have to come together as the process goes along.” The University is prepared to adjust elements as needed and encourage student input by holding focus groups. 

Along with highlighting Brandeis’ agility, Brooks also emphasized that closeness within the community is also unique to the institution, particularly among alumni. He said, “The Brandeis experience is something that’s tangible, that alumni can all relate to, and there’s a sense of camaraderie.” Brooks shared that Levine recognized his interconnectedness within many of the community’s subgroups as a graduate, a parent of a graduate, a former Board of Trustees member and Alumni Association president. As an alum, he expressed that he “couldn’t be happier” with the plans for the center and the speed at which the University is implementing them. 

Brooks also shared that he experiences this sense of supportiveness within the center’s leadership, which has guided administration through complications with technology like Workday and consolidating resources for students. “That’s all been challenging, but there’s no one against what we’re trying to do here. I love the fact that I’m working with supportive colleagues, and it’s great.” 

In the process of introducing the novel aspects of its Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts, Brandeis considers the needs of its students to prepare them for the working world. In doing so, the University is catching the attention of other institutions and influential figures in higher education, setting a new precedent in combining career readiness alongside traditional education.