Judi, You have mentioned some wonderful best practices! Inviting speakers to your graduations is an ideal way to let professionals in your community become acquainted with your Academy and your students/graduates. Graduation is such a positive event and provides a great networking opportunity for your staff and the new graduates. I have seen Career Services Team Members pick out two specific students to introduce to each speaker. They do the introductions based on what they believe would be a good employment match. You also mentioned having HR speak to your students before they graduate. At our institution we strive for a 50% placement rate at graduation. The only way to achieve this is to have students interviewing and conducting real job searches before they graduate. Having employers or hiring managers on campus prior to graduation serves several purposes. The graduate can gather information about the industry and available jobs and also interview for those jobs. Sheri Leach