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HANDSHAKE STUDENT SUPPORT:
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Katie Rothfield
Director of Experiential Learning + Career Services for CARTA
Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Interior Architecture
krothfie@fiu.edu
PCA 385A
Office: (305) 348-1884
Katie Rothfield is an award-winning educator, licensed interior designer, and champion for student success. Born and raised in midcoast Maine, she earned a BA in Clinical Psychology and a minor in Studio Art from Tufts University while taking courses at several renowned institutions, including the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Maine Media Workshops + College, and Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia. Katie combined her education in creativity and systematic analysis to earn an MFA in Interior Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Graduating at the top of her class, she found passion and inspiration when exploring the deep connections between the interior environment and human psyche.
Rothfield’s professional practice experience spans over seventeen years, including more than seven years in the hospitality and high-end residential interior design industries with noted firms such as The Gettys Group and blue, a design company, inc., and as a freelance interior designer, where she expanded her practice to include the corporate and institutional sectors. While Project Manager at The Gettys Group, she was a key contributor to the revolutionary Hotel of Tomorrow™ (H.O.T.) Project, a thought leadership forum spearheaded by The Gettys Group and Hospitality Design magazine to conceptualize the future of the hospitality industry.
At Florida International University (FIU), she currently serves as the Interim Director of Career and Talent Development for the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts (CARTA) and Associate Teaching Professor and Internship Coordinator for the Department of Interior Architecture. She facilitates the Festival of the Trees annual interior architecture scholarship fundraiser and organizes local and national field trips to design firms, trade shows, museums, and architecturally significant sites each year. In addition, she managed the Interior Architecture Master’s Thesis Mentor Program, Super Jury + Celebration for seven years.
Katie is the creator and past chair of the highly successful FIU School of Architecture annual conference, D3E (formerly Emerge), an event that brings together design students, professionals, educators, and manufacturers’ representatives for a variety of informational sessions, portfolio and resume reviews, and cutting-edge workshops that encourage students to rethink the way they design. She also originated the FIU Interior Architecture Department’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Associate Exam Achievement Award, which reimburses students who successfully pass the exam.
Over the past decade, Katie has developed and taught a wide range of graduate and undergraduate curricula, including hospitality, experimental, and mixed-discipline studios, and courses in sustainable practices, building systems, project programming, professional practice, and personal branding. She is National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) Certified and LEED Accredited in Interior Design + Construction (ID+C). She is also a Professional Member of the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) and served as the Educational Representative for the Network of Executive Women in Hospitality (NEWH) South Florida Chapter as well as the Vice President of Forums for the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Florida Chapter.
Recent accolades include the 2017 FIU CARTA Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching, the 2016 FIU Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 2016 NEWH South Florida Chapter Silver Star Award, and the 2015 IIDA South Florida Chapter Educator of the Year Award. Katie is a published chapter text contributor to 100 Architects and Interior Designers, by Damir Sinovcic, and she has presented at numerous conferences.
Crediting her mother, an accomplished artist/educator, and father, a witty jack-of-all-trades, Katie values ingenuity, authenticity, humor, and grit. Never one to slow down, she dabbles in podcast production, copyediting, writing, UX and UI design, and filmmaking, and she unwinds by listening to nonfiction narrative podcasts, discovering new alternative music, and searching for vintage and antique treasures while summering with her family in Maine.
Ashley Rizzotto
Career Specialist, Assistant Director
Visual + Performing Arts
arizzott@fiu.edu
PCA 384A
Office: (305) 348-2423
Google Voice: (786) 471-3115
Ashley Rizzotto has worked full-time in the field of college career development since June 2017 across multiple colleges and currently works at Florida International University where she is the Career Specialist for Visual & Performing Arts in CARTA. Ashley is a native of Brooklyn, NY where she had the pleasure of attending Edward R. Murrow, an arts high school where she was selected and graduated from the inaugural theater student track. She has performed in musicals, served as an assistant director in multiple productions, and once as a stage manager while in college. Her coursework ranged in playwriting, production review, and jazz dance. Ashley attended Stony Brook University and UNC Greensboro and traveled a winding road of career paths before finding her professional home in the world of career and talent development.
Ashley has been actively involved with the Southern Association for Colleges and Employers (SoACE) as the Marketing and Communications Chair for the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, Social Media Committee, and Scholarship Committee. She is passionate about supporting students in understanding their strengths and finding creative strategies to discover their dream career.
John Sotham
Career Specialist, Assistant Director
Communication + Journalism
jsotham@fiu.edu
PCA 273A
Office: (305) 348-0552
Mobile: (305) 962-3892
John Sotham began his journalism career in 1992 as a general assignment reporter for the daily newspaper the Columbia Missourian. While there, he was also assigned to the city housing beat and wrote feature stories on local events and history for The Weekender, the paper’s Saturday magazine. While finishing his studies at the University of Missouri’s Graduate School of Journalism, he interned in Washington, D.C., with one of The Smithsonian Institution’s two magazines, Air & Space Smithsonian, which is also the magazine of the National Air and Space Museum and has a worldwide print circulation and digital audience of 1,480,000. From 1993 to 1995, he reported for the Mid-Missouri Business Journal, and in 1996, he returned to Washington, D.C., as an associate editor of Air & Space Smithsonian, where he developed and assigned stories, edited stories for publication, was the researcher and technical editor for special edition posters, and also served as the magazine’s book reviews editor. He traveled nationally and internationally for Air & Space, reporting from Moscow, Russia and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the Soyuz launch carrying the first crew to populate the International Space Station, toured England and Scotland writing about obscure airports and aviation museums, and flew with the U.S. Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol to the wreck site of the RMS Titanic aboard a mission to conduct a burial at sea of one of the ship’s last living survivors. His reporting was featured in four cover stories during his tenure. John was recalled to active duty in the U.S. Air Force after the September 11th 2001 attacks, and ultimately blogged for Air & Space about his experiences while deployed to Afghanistan as a squadron commander in 2008. While stationed at U.S. Southern Command in Miami, he wrote for Unitas, a periodical covering U.S. military and civilian partnerships with militaries and governments in Latin America. He was appointed a contributing editor of Air & Space Smithsonian in 2013, continued to write and edit stories for print and online, and had his own blog, “The Window Seat” featured on the magazine’s website and digital edition. One of his investigative pieces for the print edition, “The Truth about the MiG-29,” about U.S. efforts to secretly obtain aircraft from the former Moldovan Air Force after the fall of the Soviet Union, featured new reporting from sources within the National Air Intelligence Center, interviews with former Soviet Air Force MiG pilots living in Germany, and the first U.S. Air Force pilots to test the aircraft for the West. The story was re-published in the Russian aviation press. John retired from the Air Force in 2016 and still writes about aerospace subjects for Air & Space’s “The Daily Planet” blog and reviews books for the print edition.
WELCOME CARTA EMPLOYERS!
Thank you for your interest in our talented CARTA students and alumni; we greatly appreciate your partnership! When you hire our in-demand Panthers, they bring the proven value of their CARTA education, making them an outstanding asset to your team.

+ FIU
Connect with us on Handshake! With your Handshake account, you can directly search for and connect with CARTA students and alumni, participate in career fairs, conduct interviews and more!
CONNECT WITH FIU STUDENTS + ALUMNI
NEED HELP?
Handshake employer FAQs
HANDSHAKE REGISTRATION
Under normal circumstances, it typically takes three to five days to process pending employer approval requests. If your request has not been approved after seven days, please log into Handshake and check your messages for any comments on your registration. If the registration is incomplete, e.g., there is no website address or the email domain does not match your company, there can be a delay in approval, or your registration may be declined.
Handshake has an article on best practices for getting approved at schools.
If you have an urgent need to post a job or internship listing for FIU students, please contact us.
The owner of your company profile will receive an email once you have registered and can approve you. If that person is no longer with the company, contact us for assistance.
JOB POSTINGS
We want to help you find the CARTA talent you’re looking for.
To start, make sure you have a descriptive job title, e.g., “Customer Service Assistant,” instead of just “Assistant.” The job duties and qualifications should be clear and specific.
Still need help?
Contact our Career Specialists, John Sotham and Ashley Rizzotto, who can help you promote your position and send a targeted email to your intended audience.
Yes! We are happy to help you promote your job to specific groups of FIU students by request. For help with Handshake and promoting your positions to our students, contact our CARTA Career Specialists, Ashley Rizzotto, Assistant Director Visual and Performing Arts and John Sotham, Assistant Director Communication + Journalism, at cartacareers@fiu.edu.
HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
Review Handshake’s support article

FAIRS, INTERVIEWS & RECRUITMENT PLANS
If you don’t see “Request an Interview” on your Handshake home page for FIU, and/or need assistance, contact us to request access to the service.
Our many virtual and in-person options include:
- Participating in a Career Fair
- Hosting an information session about your company
- Leading a workshop
- Meeting with student organizations
- Conducting interviews with targeted groups of students
Learn more about our recruitment options, and contact our CARTA Career Team today to start recruiting top FIU talent.
HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
Review Handshake’s support articles
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Handshake or CARTA Career Team success stories?
Ideas for how we can better assist you?
SHARE them with us!


Ashley Rizzotto helped me with my resume, and…she made me realize that I have done so much during my time here as a student that can be reflected on my resume. It was a mind blowing and made me realize that I need to give myself more credit. Ashley made me feel very confident by the end of our session. I never really had someone see my potential in anything except for Ashley. I am grateful to have this type of resource available to me.
Within my last semester, Handshake has provided me opportunities to look for jobs and stay connected with peers and mentors. By making an appointment through the Career and Talent Development Center, I was able to get professional critiques on improving my resume and cover letter and how to do a proper interview.
I recently met with John Sotham for a resume and cover letter review and it was super helpful.
Loved how the career counselors automatically checked my resume and helped me improve it!
I had a good experience with Handshake while looking for a job related to my major in early 2020. The firm responded to me through Handshake… The feedback given on my resume before I sent my application was very useful.
It’s easier to target the jobs you are looking for and not run into scams or jobs that don’t apply to you.
[Handshake is] very straightforward and easy to use.
I love the number of opportunities gathered on one platform!
FACULTY + STAFF
INVITE A NEW EMPLOYER
We value the relationships that faculty and staff have built with employers in the community and around the globe. To maximize opportunities for students, alumni and employers, and to facilitate the dissemination of job opportunities, we ask that you welcome new employers to Handshake to post employment opportunities, sign up for career fairs and provide workshops.
CARTA’S CAREER CONCIERGE REFERRAL
If you already have a VIP employer and want to ensure that they continue to receive a personalized experience, our Career Concierge is here to help.
Our customizable high-touch approach is sensitive to specific needs and requests. We are happy to assist you with any request, large or small!
FAQs
Handshake can also link employers with FIU as a whole to meet employers’ recruiting needs company-wide, and it provides opportunities to engage our students through professional development workshops, virtual and on-campus interviews (post-COVID-19), and visits to targeted departments on campus.
When you welcome an employer to Handshake, that employer will start by creating an account. Within 48-72 business hours, their account will be approved, or FIU’s Career and Talent Development team will provide detailed feedback on how to gain approval. Once approved, employers are able to post jobs and internships and register for events with Career and Talent Development and the CARTA Career Team.
Once an employer posts a position on Handshake, you can email your students a link to the job post. You can also reach out to your CARTA career liaisons, John Sotham and Ashley Rizzotto, who can help amplify the job posting to all or targeted groups of CARTA students and alumni on Handshake.
The more students actively use Handshake, the more applicants employers will receive. You can assist employers by promoting Handshake to your students: Remind students to activate their Handshake account, upload their resume for approval, and complete their profile prior to their internship/job search.
You can reach out to your CARTA career liaisons, John Sotham and Ashley Rizzotto, to verify if the employer is active and connected with FIU on Handshake and if they have any pending or active job posts. We can confirm the number of applicants once the job is closed.
Students who present professional resumes to employers are more likely to successfully secure internships and employment and best represent the quality of FIU talent, thus attracting more employers.
CARTA’s career specialists, Ashley Rizzotto and John Sotham, review resumes that are submitted through Handshake from all CARTA majors (undergraduate, graduate, and alumni). Within 2-3 business days of submission, students will receive notification whether or not their resume is approved. If it is not approved, students will receive details regarding which areas to address and a recommendation to seek resume assistance by scheduling an appointment with a career specialist. We highly recommend that students get their resumes approved early in the internship/job search process because not having an approved resume can delay a student’s ability to apply for a position.
HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
HOW CAN WE IMPROVE?
We are constantly striving to bring the most useful career resources to CARTA students, faculty, staff, and employers. Our job is to make the CARTA Careers initiative and Handshake work for you.
Not finding what you need?
Please let us know how we can better tailor our program to your needs and let us know what we missed.
Love something we are doing and want us to keep it up?
Let us know what is working for you!
Thank you for your time. We appreciate it!

INVITE US TO YOUR NEXT CLASS!
Faculty and staff can request workshops led by CARTA’s career liaisons, Ashley Rizzotto and John Sotham, or FIU’s Career and Talent Development Department for classes and student organizations. Choose from a multitude of topics or customize a workshop to assist students in their career journey. Our career team is here to support you!
We offer many different types of career workshops including, but not limited to:
- Introduction to Handshake
- Career Readiness
- Cover Letter Writing
- Resume Writing
- CV Writing
- Portfolio Production
- Brand Yourself
- Job Search Strategies
- Researching Employers on LinkedIn
- Networking Skills/Elevator Pitch
- Interviewing Skills
- Salary Negotiation
- Prepare for a Career Fair/EXPO or Conference
- Considering Graduate School
- OR Customize a workshop to match your needs!
MORE FACULTY + STAFF CAREER RESOURCES
CLASSROOM TOOLS
- Go to Settings
- Click the “App” tab.
- Scroll to the “Redirect Tool” (it’s a big blue arrow going in a circle)
- Click “+Add App”
- Change the name from “Redirect Tool” to “Handshake”
- Paste the Handshake web address: fiu.joinhandshake.com/login?ref=app-domain (retain https://)
- Make sure all of the boxes are checked.
- Click “Add App”
- Make sure the App is enabled.
- Click the save button and refresh the page.
- Voila!
Dean Schriner and the CARTA Career Team request all faculty to include the following Handshake verbiage in their course syllabi:
Handshake
Handshake is FIU’s portal to employment opportunities. Each student is required to activate their Handshake account by the end of the semester. Visit CARTA’s career website to activate your account, schedule a career advising appointment, search for jobs, and more.
*Note to faculty:
Students can submit proof of completion to the faculty as a screenshot, or faculty can submit a list of students to our career specialists, John Sotham and Ashley Rizzotto, who can confirm that each student completed the requirements.
Faculty can also choose to require sophomore, junior, and transfer students to have an approved resume on Handshake and can require junior and senior students to have 100% completed Handshake profiles.
Dean Schriner and the CARTA Career Team request all faculty teaching capstone and/or professional practice courses to include the following post-graduate course verbiage in their course syllabi:
SDS 4320 | Career Development Post-Graduate Course
FIU offers all of its graduates a free, 1-credit, 5-week online career preparation course that is designed to help you refine your career goals and personal portfolio, prepare for graduate school, and connect with career coaches and employers. This self-paced course has both general and discipline- specific pathways from which you can choose. Seniors in their last semester at FIU can register for the course before graduation.
CAREER TRAINING & HANDSHAKE ACCESS
Ashley Rizzotto and John Sotham conducted Handshake tutorials for CARTA faculty and staff during the week of December 1-4, 2020. Missed it or need a refresher?
All CARTA faculty and staff play an important role in the professional success of our students. In Career Partners Training you will learn how to maximize your impact on the future of our students.
Career Partners is a 2-hour training to equip FIU faculty and staff with the necessary tools to have meaningful conversations with students about their career development and planning. The Career Partners training covers Handshake, best practices for engaging employers, career developmental theories, assessment tools and NACE guidelines.
As a CARTA faculty or staff member, you can access Handshake by requesting a student account. This will allow you to view your students’ profiles and resumes and help your students find jobs and internships, including those posted by your employer partners.
We all want to help students achieve professional success, however, occasionally, assisting students in their job searches can result in unanticipated illegal or unethical actions.
HOW CAN WE IMPROVE?
We are constantly striving to bring the most useful career resources to CARTA students, faculty, staff, and employers.
Not finding what you need?
Please share your suggestions for ways we can improve our offerings.
Love something we are doing and want us to keep it up?
Let us know what is working for you!
Thank you for your time. We appreciate it!
General questions: CARTA Career Team
Additional career resources: FIU Career and Talent Development