UC Irvine Giving Day

UC Irvine’s Division of Career Pathways (DCP) works with campus and employer communities to position students for career success. We provide a comprehensive portfolio of career discovery, internship, employment and graduate school admissions services to engage students from freshmen through PhDs and alumni in their career development.

LinkedIn is a mainstay of employment recruiting, and our Anteaters need to make a strong showing there. The profile photo is a large part of their first impression.

This Giving Day, we are raising funds to support the operational costs for the Iris Photo Booth including the annual equipment renewal cost, staffing, marketing and outreach. These gifts will allow the DCP to offer professional quality head shots to the UC Irvine community – including students, faculty, staff, alumni and guests. This no-cost resource is offered on a self-service, drop-in basis.

Offering a free professional headshot booth significantly boosts student engagement, drives foot traffic and enhances employability by providing instant, high-quality and equitable access to essential branding tools. It serves as a modern “gateway service” that increases LinkedIn profile views by 21x and helps student stand out in a competitive job market.

The Iris Photo Booth increases student awareness of DCP career services. The booth acts as a “hook” to get student sin the door, which increases engagement with other services like resume reviews and employer information sessions.

During the 2024-25 academic year, 3,100 students, alumni, faculty and staff captured professional-looking headshots using the Iris Photo Booth. This represented a 29% increase from the year before.

And interest in the Iris Photo Booth continues growing with a 47% increase from last year!

The Iris Photo Booth also complies with the photo guidelines for the ZotKey Digital ID. This allows incoming students a chance to take their photo while on campus during Student-Parent Orientation (SPOP) to get their digital ID for accessing campus services.

I loved working at the Division of Career Pathways because the work environment fostered growth. . . Everyone had my best interest at heart when it came to my plans after college and the career path I wanted. If it were not for working [with] the Division of Career Pathways, I would not be in the PhD program that I am in now.
- Yadhira Garcia, Class of 2023 and PhD student

“Having a professional headshot may be more important than ever given that more interviews and jobs occur remotely. Every company wants to hire professionals who will represent their organizations properly, and this booth removes one of those barriers so more of our students will have professional headshots than ever before.”
- Jennifer Benz, Miami University in Ohio

Your Giving Day gift to the Division of Career Pathways fund will support the annual equipment renewal costs for the Iris Photo Booth including staffing, marketing and outreach. We THANK YOU for allowing Career Pathways to continue offering this service at no cost to the UC Irvine community.