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Constructing a Comprehensive Career Curriculum in the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Description:
Delivering effective career services to undergraduates is difficult, in part because the process of career education is handled simultaneously by so many distinct groups. In a recent graduation survey at our institution, graduates reported that they sought career advice from their academic department faculty much more often than from a career counselor or adviser, and both groups were sought nearly five times less than either family and friends or internet sites (2019-2020 Student Destination Survey). This is not particularly surprising. Students often feel more relationally and intellectually connected to their professors and faculty advisers than they do to more direct institutional support structures like career counselors and also report that traditional faculty give more valuable advice (Gallup, 2018). Additionally, family and friends are nearly always central to students’ identity development, and the subject-area focus of most classroom experiences often causes students to view their intellectual experience within their academic discipline as distinct from their process of career development (Williamson et al, 2014). Thus, two problems for career services have emerged. The first is that students are more likely to engage with faculty members than career services professionals on the topic of the career development, and the second is that they engage with both groups at such a low level that they miss out on powerful resources and rely too heavily on sources of career support that may be incomplete. As a response to these realities, in 2018 the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at our institution created a program called Beyond120, which facilitates personal and professional development in undergraduate students by directly providing opportunities to engage in high-impact practices (Kuh, 2008) such as internships, global engagement, and undergraduate research. Crucially, to ensure the success of student participation in these high-impact practices, the Beyond120 program constructed a series of for-credit courses with the explicit goals of preparing students to engage as effectively as possible in these experiences to improve both their cultural competence and career readiness. To date, the program has developed nine courses across a wide variety academic levels and career topics that enroll roughly 250+ students per semester. By taking ownership of both constructing and delivering these courses, the Beyond120 program has mitigated the challenges of limited student engagement with career services. First, by providing a comprehensive curriculum of for-credit courses that contributes to student degree requirements and that explicitly focuses on the career applications of disciplinary content, the student perception of instructors as valuable career resources has increased. Second, by positioning both career services professionals and traditional faculty as the instructors of these courses and framing the pursuit of career development as an intellectual process that is both parallel and symbiotic to their disciplinary studies, students recognize career services as a more meaningful component of their college experience. These courses have been incredibly well received by our students and many have reported that the preparation these courses provided helped them either obtain or more meaningfully engage in a high-impact practice experience such as internships, study abroad, or undergraduate research. Finally, these courses have also become powerful pathways of connection for alumni as guest lecturers, mentors, and donors. This has been a crucial element because using alumni in coursework enhances student engagement (Finney & Pike, 2008) and because it has generated a substantial increase in charitable giving to the program, which allows for the further development of even greater student resources and support. This session will discuss the origins of our career curriculum and cover practical advice for institutions looking to implement their own career curriculum, such as training, marketing, budgeting, and course design, pedagogy, and alumni relations. Attendees will leave with an understanding of a successful curricular framework at a large, four-year, public institution as well as the data to help integrate these practices into their own institution or program.
Audience:
Career Services
Level:
Advanced-Level
Track:
Coaching & Advising
Type:
Traditional
Main Speaker:
Ryan Braun, University of Florida
Additional Speakers: