From the corporate recruitment of college students to retirement, the articles in our annual careers special report truly come full circle.

Those of you who are creeping toward retirement will be encouraged by our cover story, “Second Acts.” Diverse correspondent Kendra Hamilton caught up with former NASULGC vice president Dr. N. Joyce Payne and Kimberly Camp, who was the president and CEO of the Barnes Foundation.

Payne recently retired after 25 years at NASULGC, but she’s not even close to slowing down. She’s working on several pet projects but at the same time enjoying a slower pace, as she relocated from the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C., to rural North Carolina. Camp, who had long been an administrator in the arts world, relocated to eastern Washington state from Philadelphia not long after stepping down from her position with the Barnes, but she has not veered far from art. In fact, she is getting back to her first love — making her own.

I think you’ll agree that Payne and Camp serve as inspiration to those close to retirement and even to those who may be contemplating pursuing a particular passion or interest full time.

For higher education professionals, the good news, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s “Retirement Confidence Survey of College and University Faculty,” is that 35 percent of college faculty are “very confident” that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years, compared to 25 percent of all working Americans. In addition, 95 percent of all college faculty have begun to save for retirement, compared to 69 percent of all working Americans.

But before one can start thinking about retiring, one first has to get a job, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund is making sure that students from its member institutions of public historically Black colleges and universities will be prepared when professional opportunities come knocking. Diverse staff writer Michelle Nealy profiles TMCF’s Talent Sourcing Program in “From the Classroom to the Boardroom.”