Tracy Lungrin
Director - University Career Services
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
How did you gain experience when you were a student?
In my junior/senior year, I served as the Panhellenic Council President which led four sorority chapters and chaired a ten-member executive board. This role was very similar to the role I play in Career Services in I had to understand the unique qualities and needs of each group and facilitate partnership and collaboration among the community as a whole. I learned so much about how to develop trusting relationships and how to inspire and communicate vision to motivate the team to work for the greater good of the community.
How did you become a career development professional?
My undergraduate major was Organizational Communication with an emphasis in Sales and my Master’s Degree is in Counseling-Student Affairs. I feel like I was preparing to work with career development my whole life, without knowing it exactly. I was the aid to my junior high school counselor and the only books that interested me were on birth order, personality typology, and my favorite, How To Win Friends and Influence People (by Dale Carnegie). My first job out of college was working as an Admissions Counselor, where I recruited and encouraged students and their families to attend college, which naturally led me to the field of student affairs and career development.
Who is someone who impacted your career development?
The person that has influenced my professional and career development the most is my Dad, and I feel so fortunate that I was able to work at his men’s clothing business while I attended college. My Dad has been a lifelong educator, coach, mentor and leader; and while he’s applied most of those roles to a career in sales. He modeled for me how to quickly develop trust and rapport with others, how to engage others and listen, and how to take initiative and problem-solve. I feel very fortunate to have had a mentor who modeled these incredible soft skills for me at the beginning of my career.
