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The University of Virginia’s (UVA’s) new Career Design and Discovery initiative in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (the College) is a human-centered approach to career exploration and preparation that positions career readiness as a journey of discovery rather than a single decision-making moment.
Integrated into the undergraduate experience from day one, Career Design & Discovery is focused on building a connected ecosystem that supports both self-discovery and career learning for all undergraduate students in the College (approximately 12,000).
The initiative will be embedded across the student experience through:
- Academic integration;
- Personalized advising;
- Expanded access to experiential learning; and
- Intentional connections with alumni, parents, and other partners.
“The goal is to ensure that every student, not just those who opt in, can meaningfully connect who they are with how they want to contribute to the world,” explains Julia Lapan, executive director of Career Design and Discovery.
“Career Design and Discovery is part of a broader effort in the College to create an undergraduate experience that supports every student in exploring their curiosities and developing their capabilities.
“It also addresses a longstanding challenge in higher education: Career development has traditionally been optional and siloed, which limits both access and impact. By embedding career design into the curriculum and advising infrastructure, we are shifting from a model that serves some students to one that serves all students.”
Rather than defining career readiness as a checklist of skills or competencies, Lapan and her team see it as a student’s ability to recognize their capabilities, explore their curiosities, and build meaningful connections.
“As the job market continues to evolve, our students’ greatest strength will be their ability to adapt—to make sense of new situations, respond to change, and articulate how their experiences connect to what they can contribute,” she points out.
“Career readiness, in this sense, is less about preparing for a single job and more about building the capacity to navigate the world of work.”
The initiative, which builds on the College’s successful pre-major advising system, was announced in February and is in the early stages of implementation. Although Career Design and Discovery is based in the College of Arts & Sciences, the team is working closely with the UVA Career Center and other partners across the university to leverage existing strengths and connections.
Lapan says the NACE Career Readiness Competencies are a helpful organizing framework.
“We plan to integrate them into this work. At the same time,” she continues, “we are working toward developing College-wide learning outcomes that situate those competencies into more specific contexts.”
For example, she explains that terms like “leadership” can encompass capabilities such as self-awareness, perspective-taking, empathy, and initiative.
“Our goal is to help students not only develop these capabilities but also find the language to articulate their own growth and development over time,” Lapan says.
Through the initiative’s career design framework, students are encouraged to explore their intellectual curiosities through coursework, co-curricular involvement, research, and experiential learning.
“A student might take a course that sparks an interest, pursue that interest through a related club or research opportunity, and then test it further during an internship or project,” Lapan says.
“Advisors help students reflect on those experiences, identify patterns, and refine their direction. The emphasis is not on making early, fixed decisions, but on learning through exploration and iteration.”
Other features of the program that will make it successful include that it is a fully embedded model, with key elements integrated throughout the undergraduate experience. Lapan explains that students encounter self-discovery early through required first-year coursework.
“They are supported by a strong advising infrastructure that helps them reflect on their curiosities and values and connect those insights to academic decisions,” she says.
“We are also developing disciplinary hubs that will bring together students, faculty, alumni, and employers to make career pathways more visible and accessible. Together, these elements ensure that career design is not an add-on, but part of how students experience their education.”
Faculty are central partners in the Career Design and Discovery initiative and will be trained to support student career exploration. Lapan points out that faculty often want to support students in connecting their academic work to future opportunities, but don’t always feel equipped to do so.
“Career Design and Discovery provides a shared framework and language for those conversations,” she explains.
“Academic departments are also interested in building stronger connections with alumni to support student exploration, and our hub model will help make those connections more intentional and accessible. For employers, this approach leads to more engaged conversations with students and graduates who are better prepared to articulate their interests, motivations, and capabilities.”
Lapan and her team are actively developing a multi-faceted approach to measuring the effectiveness of Career Design and Discovery. Some of the metrics they are considering include:
- Creating shared learning outcomes;
- Tracking not only how many students engage in high-impact practices, but also who is participating;
- Mapping experiential learning opportunities in the curriculum;
- Surveying student satisfaction with advising; and
- Tracking career outcomes, including first destinations and longer-term pathways.
“We are also exploring validated instruments such as the Career State Inventory to assess students’ career certainty, clarity, and satisfaction with their career direction,” she adds.
For others looking to create, implement, and manage an initiative such as UVA’s Career Design and Discovery, Lapan offers several suggestions. She advises that:
- Senior leadership must make this work a visible institutional priority. Career design needs to be part of the core strategy, not a peripheral initiative.
- Institutions should leverage existing structures, such as curriculum, advising, and experiential learning, rather than build entirely new systems.
- This work should be grounded in a broader view of student success. Career development is not just about employment outcomes but about helping students develop a sense of purpose and the ability to design their lives with intention.
Lapan has learned several lessons through her work on the Career Design and Discovery program. One early lesson is the strong appetite across campus for a more integrated approach.
“Faculty and staff are eager to contribute to these efforts,” she says.
“At the same time, this work requires a significant cultural shift, from a model where career development is centralized in one office to one where it is a shared responsibility across the institution. That shift changes not only what we do, but how we work together.”
She also understands the importance of access in this work.
“When career development is optional, it tends to benefit the students who already know how to navigate the system,” she says.
“By embedding career design into the core student experience, we are working to ensure that every student has access to the kinds of opportunities and support that enable them to explore, grow, and make informed decisions about their future.”
