Strategy/Project Name:
Supporting student success through career preparation and leadership opportunities
Momentum Area:
Purpose
Mindset
Strategy/Project Description:
Promoting Career Readiness and Student Leadership by:
- Engaging first-year students in the Focus 2 Career Assessment and career option discussions with career advisors.
- Introducing first-year students to the NACE Career Competencies so that they are aware of the skills employers want to see them build before entering the professional workforce.
Planning and implementing a centralized process for promoting and preparing students for internships (both credit and non-credit) to increase the number of students participating in internships.
Summary of Activities:
- Career and academic planning is a major focus of the student success content in Area B courses. Assignments include completing the Focus 2 Career Assessment, registering for a Handshake account, attending a career event or meeting with a career advisor, and completing readings and quizzes about career exploration and planning.
- In the Area B student success module, students are exposed to content, assignments, and quizzes for the following career competencies: communication, critical thinking, self-awareness and career management, and professionalism.
- Knights LEAD has students who participate in sessions led by community, faculty, and staff leaders who discuss how career competencies have impacted their professional and leadership journey. Students will put these skills into practice through service projects and case studies.
- In fall 2023, between Macon and Cochran there are 26 students who meet to complete interactive role-play sessions that focus on the NACE Career Competencies. Student retention for these sessions has improved this fall due to the new interactive format. Students will also complete their resume this fall. In the spring, students who were active in the fall will be invited to participate in a corporate tour. Other activities for the spring include the Student Leadership Conference in Macon, the Leadership Challenge in Cochran, and a Leadership & Service Day.
- During fall 2022, the Assistant Director (AD) for Internships & Career Readiness launched the Experiences portal in Handshake to provide a way to collect information on student internships. In 2022-2023, 75 students completed internships. Students who report and meet with the CCLD staff to complete a reflection survey receive an honor cord. The AD also launched a new virtual Internship Series where employers share information about their internship program. In 2022-2023, 17 employers and 55 students participated. In Fall 2023, 10 sessions have been scheduled with 50 attendees so far. The session with Google resulted in 42 attendees. Going forward, the plan is to track how many students are applying for, interviewing for, and/or being selected for the internships they are connecting with during the series. Internships have also been included in the All Industry Career Fair. Including graduate schools as well, 189 students attended in fall 2023, which was a record number of attendees.
Activity Status:
Evaluation/Assessment plan:
KPIs:
- Number of students completing Focus 2 Career Assessment and a quiz.
- Number of students actively participating in Knights LEAD and in Emerging Leaders.
Baseline measure (for each KPI):
- Number of students participating in Knights Lead in 2021-22 was 24
- Number of students participating in Emerging Leaders in 2021-22 was 23
Current/most recent data (for each KPI):
Goal or targets (for each KPI):
- Increase the number of students participating in Knights Lead by 10%
- Increase the number of students participating in Emerging Leaders by 10%
Time period/duration: 2023-24 academic year
Progress and Adjustments:
- Knights LEAD program started in fall’22 to allow new students to engage with each other and the institution early on in the semester. All students were assigned a faculty/staff mentor. There were 19 students in Knights LEAD in 2022-2023 and there are 26 students in fall’23. In 2023-2024, the focus is on retaining the students who join Knights LEAD. In the summer of 2023, the Coordinator for Student Leadership Programs revamped the leadership curriculum to make the sessions more engaging.
- Fall 2023, Knights LEAD students have participated in interactive role-playing sessions led by the Coordinator for Student Leadership Programs. With a more engaging format, students have been more consistent with their participation. Students will also complete a resume activity in the fall.
- Emerging Leaders launched in fall’22. Emerging Leaders is a co-curricular leadership development program for upper-level students that helps them expand their campus, civic, and professional involvement within the context of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development. Twenty students participated in Emerging Leaders in fall’22 and there are 18 students in fall’23. Participation is the highest in Macon. For Cochran, finding upperclassmen to participate is challenging. CCLD staff is discussing the option of moving Emerging Leaders to Eastman.
- Students in Knights LEAD and Emerging Leaders participated in sessions with community and university speakers in fall’22. During Spring 2023, students participated in a resume writing workshop focused on career competencies and worked in groups to complete case studies in leadership.
- During fall’22, Focus 2 career assessment was included into the academic success module associated with Area B courses. 771 students completed at least one career assessment in Focus 2 as a result of intentionally including this assessment in summer orientation and the Area B academic success content.
- The number of career advising appointments in the Center for Career and Leadership Development (CCLD) for AY2023 are set to surpass 465 students addressed in AY2022. For the 2022-2023 academic year, 643 students met virtually and in-person with the career advisors. There have been 188 student career advising interactions in fall’23 as of mid-October.
- A form for reporting internships through Experiences in Handshake was piloted in fall 2022 and used again in spring’23. 75 students reported internships in 2022-2023. Students who report and meet with a career advisor to reflect on the experience and update resumes receive a graduation honor cord. This initiative will continue in 2023-24. Moving forward, CCLD will seek additional opportunities to promote this program to faculty to increase participation.
- Stepping Blocks was rolled out in January 2023 through university announcements and social media. The resource was added as another option in the Area B academic success content, in addition to the Focus 2 assignment that already existed. As of September 2023, 436 students have created Stepping Blocks accounts and 202 have completed Personality assessments.
- Discussions were held on how to expand the Exploring Careers Workshop as an ongoing opportunity and as a way to educate Academic Advisors on the resources available in the CCLD. The CCLD and Academic Advising have had 6 career exploration workshops with 48 student attendees during Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. Vision Board parties and the Exploring Careers & Majors Workshop were also offered in Fall 2023 in Macon and Cochran. The use of Stepping Blocks was also promoted at these events as well as at the two Student Success Festivals.
- In Fall 2023, two groups of students in Emerging Leaders, Knights LEAD, and iLEAD participated in the MGA Day of Service.
- The Student Leadership Conference was held in March’23 to provide students with an opportunity to learn about leadership competencies needed for civic, professional, and campus life. The event provided students with another place to gain a sense of belonging at MGA. 58 students attended the conference. The next Student Leadership Conference will be on March 8, 2024. The Student Leadership Coordinator has also added a new event called the Leadership Challenge to occur in Cochran on April 12.
Plan for the Year Ahead:
- The initial plan for Knights LEAD to develop their own service project and track individual service hours through Presence for recognition at the annual student leadership programs ceremony has been modified whereby iLEAD will plan the project and service hours will not be tracked.
- Knights LEAD will participate in MGA Day of Service in the fall and a Leadership & Service Day planned by iLEAD students in the spring.
- Information is being created to help students better understand the internship search process as well as the process for receiving academic credit, if applicable. Information on the academic credit process is being added to the CCLD website.
- Student Leadership Programs will add the Leadership Challenge on the Cochran campus in April to expand leadership involvement with those students.
- A Career & Employer Development Coordinator for Aviation is now assigned to the Eastman campus. CCLD will study this model for effectiveness whereby staff will be aligned to the other Schools while also providing services to their specific campuses, no matter the students major.
Challenges and Support:
- The Executive Director has developed a proposal highlighting the resources needed to shift away from “campus-specific” career advising staff while still managing the challenge of providing career development support across multiple campuses. The “campus-specific” model is limiting as staff are given the opportunity to focus on a particular area and provide expertise to students. Many universities are also looking at aligning career advising staff to industries, which would require some staff to understand and work with multiple academic areas across Schools but focus on a specific industry. Staff continue to work as generalists who have to know how to direct students toward resources related to all MGA majors. CCLD has positioned a career advisor to focus on aviation. Going forward with more staffing, CCLD will be able to determine focus areas for the other career advisors; however, all staff would still have to be able to meet with any student.
- The academic success content built into the Area B course redesign has been a great opportunity to expose all students to career planning and the Focus 2 career assessment. In addition, the module is also scaling how students are introduced to the importance of critical thinking, professionalism, communication, and self-awareness/career management. These concepts are currently put in context of their education so the only other change would be finding a way to connect these back to their future careers. Since Area B academic success content is offered as an online module, a short video that discusses the career competencies followed by a quick assessment could be a possible addition in the future.
- Getting faculty to include the Handshake Experience reporting process in their academic internship process is a big challenge. In addition to finding one to take it on as a pilot, there could also be challenges with them enforcing it with students. The incentive of a graduation cord has attracted the attention of students and faculty which may help to build the program.
- Student participation in voluntary career activities continues to be a challenge. Students are not expected by the institution to engage in career assessments, resume building, internships, interviewing skills, and the career search process. Additional staffing that would align with Schools and resources such as a virtual Mock Interview platform and JobScan to help students improve their resumes for Applicant Tracking Systems would help CCLD scale current services.
Sharing ideas and resources used by other USG institutions related to career services
Primary Contact:
Mary Roberts and Heather McIntosh
