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Water Cooler – April 2020

For over a year now, we’ve been compiling career resources, news and info while also highlighting some of the Jayhawks who really rock their 9-to-5. The Water Cooler is a monthly email newsletter for alumni, students and friends of the University. If you’re interested, be sure to subscribe here.

To our Jayhawk community,

The coronavirus pandemic has caused daily disruptions and uncertainties in our professional and personal lives that have put us all on our back foot. In the pages of Kansas Alumni magazine, in the streams of our digital communications, across our virtual networks and here in the Water Cooler, we are putting our best foot forward.

We’re celebrating and supporting Jayhawks by highlighting resources and opportunities for you. We strive to unite KU Alumni – even though we must physically be apart for now.

Also, to keep you up-to-date on career resources across the University and our alumni community we are pleased to start bringing the Water Cooler to your inbox monthly.

Howard Graham, g’08, PhD’19

Director of the Jayhawk Career Network

We’re celebrating and supporting Jayhawks by highlighting resources and opportunities for you. We strive to unite KU Alumni – even though we must physically be apart for now.

Coping during COVID-19


What to do if you’re feeling lonely during the Coronavirus

As the current crisis unfolds across this country, and around the world, the typical first human instinct is to fold inward — to protect those closest and hunker down for the long haul.

But we must resist this urge. We must be proactive in our efforts to connect with others, even as officials order social distancing. If we don’t, this tragedy unfolding before our eyes will be far worse.


Working from home? 12 guides to help navigate the remote life

With options to work from home on the rise globally, companies have been forced to reckon with the fact that remote work, works.

According to Owl Labs 2019 State of Remote Work report, remote workers are not only happier at work, but they’re 13% more likely to stay at their current job for the next 5 years than their onsite counterparts.


3 tips to avoid WFH burnout

Lots of research suggests that drawing lines between our professional and personal lives is crucial, especially for our mental health. But it’s difficult, even in the best of circumstances. In no small measure, that’s because the knowledge economy has radically transformed what it means to be an “ideal worker.”


Bring campus home with Zoom backgrounds from The Hill

If you’re spending a lot of time on Zoom these days (like we are), we’re here to help.

Our team has put together a set of KU-themed custom Zoom backgrounds— so instead of seeing your home office (or lack of!) your colleagues and friends can see beautiful views of your beloved alma mater.


5 tips on landing a job during the coronavirus pandemic

From surging unemployment numbers to the sudden shift to remote work, the coronavirus pandemic makes landing a job right now even more complicated. But that doesn’t have to stop you. Here are five tips on how to set yourself up for success when this is over.


18 companies hiring remote workers amid the Coronavirus pandemic

Responsible for leading a group into a new world of working from home? Read these four strategies for remote work to keep your team secure, productive and positive in these new circumstances.


Your unemployment resources by state

This list of resources and links is originally based on a Reddit submission but is constantly being updated as more information becomes available.


Five lessons to help you move your conference online

University of Kansas Professional & Continuing Education (KUPCE) staff members were forced to make quick decisions regarding a host of conferences and events, including the 800+ attendee Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference (SPPAC) scheduled for March 18-20 in Dallas.

Learn how KU Professional & Continuing Education turned a 50-year-old, on-site conference into an engaging online event in less than a week.

Jayhawks in the News


Medical resident draws on international missions in battle against global pandemic

Zach Krumsick’s international sojourns to Peru, Belize, Mexico and Kenya have stood in good stead throughout his medical education. Working in the emergency medicine department of the only state-verified Level I Trauma Center in middle Tennessee, Krumsick, m17, is on the front lines of the region’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve been told by administrators that we were probably one of the most well-prepared hospitals in the area,” Krumsick says, “but [Nashville’s March] tornado set us back really far.”


Hawks to Watch: Kiel Johnson, Artist

To say that Kiel Johnson enjoys the creative process is something of an understatement. He’s positively enamored with it. On any given day, you might find the LA-based artist fashioning an old-timey Western stagecoach out of cardboard, sending sparks flying from metal sheets, or constructing a miniature cityscape from cut-outs, equipped with a winding river and steamboat.

He is, admittedly, a bit obsessed with building and inventing. But don’t call him a workaholic. The way he looks at it, work and play are one and the same.


Young alumna lives girlhood dreams with chic KC bridal boutique

Paige Albert can still remember growing up in Andale and falling in love with fashion and love stories while drawing sketches of what her future wedding gown would look like.

Now 25, Albert, c’19, owns Something White Bridal Boutique, a premier bridal shop in Kansas City’s Crossroads District that features gowns created by designers from around the world.

Albert was still a KU student when she bought Something White Bridal Boutique—Kansas City’s bridal shop of the year for 2020—which she describes as “simple, chic and unique.”


Events

First Annual Virtual Destination Talent: Find, Showcase, and Connect with Talent in Kansas City

Shape your organization’s talent pool, gain critical insight into trending workplace topics and earn SHRM credit all within one conveniently online conference.

9 a.m.-4 p.m. CST
Friday, May 1

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Welcome to the University of Kansas Alumni Association

Your membership in the KU Alumni Association is the single most powerful way to make all of KU stronger, including the value of your own degree. Through your membership, the Association: