Human connection and teamwork are among the many traits that Evan Kravitz has carried with him throughout his career transitions. As a career counselor at Arapahoe Community College (ACC), Kravitz relies on the prior skills he learned as a journalist to help students find their calling.

After graduating from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s in journalism, Kravitz started working at the Cable News Network (CNN) headquarters in Atlanta. His original plan was to be a part of the television production team, directing news segments.

“As I was exposed to more of the journalism part of CNN, that’s when I decided I wanted to be a producer and assignment editor,” Kravitz said.

Of the many stories that Kravitz worked on during his career as a journalist, there are three that stand out: the capture of Saddam Hussein, the Columbia orbiter explosion and the aftermath of 9/11. On each of these occasions, Kravitz was pulled into the newsroom along with 100-plus staff members to cover the breaking news.

When speaking of the 2003 National Headliner Awarded Coverage of the Saddam Hussein capture, Kravitz said, “[it’s] a total team effort, there’s no one person who can take credit for anything.”

The Columbia orbiter explosion coverage was another time journalists came together and relied on teamwork. Kravitz and his colleagues worked to get the video of the explosion, from a local station in Texas, over to the CNN newsroom for national coverage and use.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Kravitz got to speak with the family members of those who passed away. Getting a personal angle allowed the story to be localized and the human connection of the individual families to shine through.

Much of Kravitz’s role as an assignment editor at CNN centered around calling the right people into the newsroom to cover the story and gathering credible sources. “Of all the things I got to do, I really enjoyed being an assignment editor, that was a really great experience,” Kravitz said.

In 2013, life threw Kravitz a curveball when he was laid off from CNN. Kravitz, his wife and daughter all moved to Colorado for a fresh start. At the time, he didn’t have a job lined up, but knew he wanted to take a creative writing course. He registered for the class at ACC.

Hired first as an academic assistant, then writing tutor, e-learning staff member and finally a career counselor, Kravitz works directly with students to find their career path. In order to really help students out, “it starts with listening, it starts with making that student the center of my universe,” said Kravitz.

Much like his role as an assignment editor, connecting with the right people for the story and gathering sources, Kravitz helps students get in touch with the right people in their chosen field of work.

“In order for a student to really understand [a specific] career, they need to talk to people who work in that career, my specialty is connecting students with career professionals who can offer that perspective, [giving them] real world insight,” said Kravitz.

The human connection and teamwork skills Kravitz used as a journalist apply in his current job, which according to him, is like “investigative journalism, it’s [about] going deeper,” always asking why.