An email sent to the Chapman community on Jan. 22 by the Career and Professional Development department detailed that a new networking website would become available to students soon. The website, called The Panther Network, was launched on Jan. 29 for students and alumni to connect with one another. 

In addition to networking and mentoring, students are able to look at different possible career paths as well as find job and internship opportunities on the site. The goal of the website is to help students transition from the classroom to their desired career of choice.

The Panther Network is exclusively offered to the Chapman community and helps connect current students to over 50,000 Chapman alumni. 

To sign up, students must go to The Panther Network website and sign in with their Chapman email address. They are then asked to click on a series of interests that they have in order to help connect mentors and students through common interests. The final step of signing up is when the student is asked what they hope to get out of their experience on the website. The more a student fills out their profile, the better The Panther Network will be able to match a student to possible career paths and alumni. 

Jennifer Kim, the associate vice president of Chapman’s Career and Professional Development department, shared her thoughts on how students can best take advantage of the new networking website.

One notable feature of the website is the ‘Career Pathways’ tab. In Jerry Price’s weekly email announcement from Feb. 5, he explains more about what students can expect from this system.

“The ‘Career Pathways’ feature in The Panther Network allows you to discover career opportunities if you are unsure of what you want to do after graduation,” Price wrote. “This feature provides position overviews, a ‘favorite’ button that allows you to explore various fields and opportunities to apply for positions in your field of interest.”

Although The Panther Network shares some traits with other sites, such as LinkedIn and Handshake, there are some notable differences. 

“Every member of The Panther Network is a member of the Chapman community,” Kim said. “This shared identity and experience helps create a safe environment for students to reach out to alumni for career guidance and insights.”

However, as the knowledge of this website is still spreading, many students have expressed interest in looking into what The Panther Network has to offer.

Junior psychology major Kaylee Scott spoke with The Panther regarding her thoughts on the new website.

“I have not heard about the Panther Network, but it seems like a good platform to connect with other Chapman students, especially with the strong alumni network that the school has,” Scott told The Panther. “I will definitely be looking into using it.”

Clarification: A previous version of this article used the term “job hunt” in the headline; this has since been clarified to “career journeys.” The previous version also named The Panther Network as the Panther Network; this clarification has since been made as well.