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The University of North Texas Career Center has been named a recipient of the 2025 Handshake Career Spark Award, ranking in the top 2% of over 1,500 higher education partners.

Presented annually by Handshake, the leading career development platform for college students, the Career Spark Awards recognize top-performing institutions in three key areas: student engagement, employer engagement and job curation, and data reporting and analytics, including the First Destination Survey. The Career Center was recognized for its strategic use of analytics, commitment to enhancing student engagement, and efforts to curate high-quality job opportunities.

“This award reflects our team’s dedication to helping students successfully transition from college to career and highlights our commitment to student success beyond the classroom,” said Melissa McGuire, associate vice president for Student Affairs.

Over the past year, the Career Center hosted 25 on-campus career fairs and facilitated more than 1,400 events, workshops, and presentations. Career coaches, 26 of whom are embedded within academic colleges, logged over 14,500 one-on-one meetings with students to offer guidance and help navigate their career paths.

The Career Spark Awards are based on a comprehensive evaluation of platform engagement, employer activity, and reporting practices. UNT Career Center is ranked among 40 career centers, including Brandeis University, Dallas College, Georgetown University, The Ohio State University, University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Tech. The university now joins a select group of institutions nationwide recognized for their outstanding contributions to student career development.

The Career Center, located in Sage Hall, is part of the Division of Student Affairs.