Illinois Wesleyan Career Center Wins Handshake Award

The Hart Career Center at Illinois Wesleyan University is one of 40 schools recognized by Handshake for student and employer engagement.

Updated on Nov. 11, 2026 in Job Fairs

Low red brick academic building with tall windows and a stone entry staircase, set among mature trees on a green lawn. — The Hart Career Center at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington was named one of 40 schools honored by Handshake for student and employer engagement. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

The Hart Career Center at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington received a Handshake Career Spark Award. The honor recognizes the top 2% of Handshake's higher education partners each year for excellence in student and employer engagement, and in reporting and analytics.

Why it matters

The recognition highlights how the Hart Career Center has expanded student use of Handshake, a platform connecting students with job and internship opportunities. For Bloomington-area students, it signals a university career office with an established digital pipeline to employers.

Illinois Wesleyan was one of two Illinois schools among 40 recognized, placing it in Handshake's top 2% of higher education partners. About 85% of current IWU students have activated their Handshake accounts, though the source does not provide a comparison with other institutions.

The players

Illinois Wesleyan University

A private liberal arts university located in Bloomington, Illinois, whose Hart Career Center was recognized for its use of the Handshake platform.

Handshake

A career networking platform that connects college students and recent graduates with employers, internships, and job opportunities.

The details

Hart Career Center staff have increased Handshake usage over the past four years, listing all career center events on the platform and sending targeted employer emails to students. Staff have also worked directly with students to build their Handshake profiles, and the center offers an AI resume review tool that gives students immediate feedback and links them to Career Center meetings.

Over the past four years, the Hart Career Center increased its Handshake usage.
Last year, staff began working directly with students to build Handshake profiles.
The award recognition was published November 11, 2026.

Market Landscape

Handshake has become a central channel between universities and employers for early-career hiring, and its annual Career Spark Awards single out the top 2% of partner schools. The Illinois Wesleyan recognition shows how individual career offices are competing on platform engagement as much as on in-person programming.

Students at Illinois Wesleyan can use Handshake to find events, employer outreach, and the AI resume review tool through the Hart Career Center. Job seekers elsewhere can look to this model of building individual student profiles as a way to get more targeted job matches.

The takeaway

Career offices that actively build student profiles and track which employers students are viewing can turn a general job platform into a targeted hiring tool. Students should activate their accounts early to take advantage of employer outreach and resume feedback.