“When I got hired to come here, I had never worked in a career office,” Mount says. “But lifespan developmental psychology is about learning and changing over time, which is what careers are about.”

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Mount says she plans to focus on developing a more holistic approach to organizing opportunities in international study, public service, and research.

This priority is in line with Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds’s plan to develop research opportunities in the humanities, as well as University President Drew G. Faust’s goal for more students to engage in public service, according to Mount.

Mount says she also hopes to employ the “crystal ball approach” to career advising.

She says that OCS will be working with intellectual leaders among alumni to try to determine what emerging sectors will offer more career opportunities in the future.

According to Mount, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, in a recent visit to OCS, quoted former National Hockey League player Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Mount says the quote can be an analogy for her work.

“We don’t want to help students skate to the puck,” Mount says. “We want to help students skate to where the puck is going to be.”

Staff writers Melody Y. Hu and Eric P. Newcomer contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Jillian K. Kushner can be reached at kushner@fas.harvard.edu.