Provide an array of career services and develop collaborative career programming through alumni involvement in disseminating the career information.
- Provided a series of career related workshops
- Workshops created specifically with AAMI
- Revised SGSC career services website
Adjustments had to be made late in the Fall 2022 semester as our full-time Career Services professional. We are currently integrating and finding new ways to apply our goals more broadly utilizing multiple departments.
Evaluation Plan and measures: Tracking the number of students attending Career Services events and activities.
Student satisfaction surveys
Baseline measure: 2021-2022 data
Goal or targets: To provide programs/services to create connections with potential careers
Time period/duration: ongoing
Loss of SGSC Career Services Coordinator and update on academic year 2022-2023:
The SGSC Senior Coordinator for Career and Academic Advising left us at the beginning of spring semester (January) 2023 to assume a position elsewhere and has not been replaced. Because of enrollment declines and related budget considerations, there are at present no plans to refill that position. While our student career workshops and career connections guest speakers, career planning components of our freshman orientation course, STEM career services programming, workshops on resume writing and soft skills development and career related activities carried out in the student center and residence halls continued through most of academic year 2022-2023, loss of the Senior Coordinator position has created the need for an alternative mechanism for addressing student engagement in career and goal setting. Since summer of 2023 we have been engaged with the services afforded through “Steppingblocks” digital career exploration and student success software.
- We are relying heavily on Steppingblocks digital career exploration software to provide a self-service experience for students. Student Success staff have been trained on how to refer students in need of career or pathway exploration to Steppingblocks. It was added to the website in Spring 2023 and to SOARs (new freshman orientation and registration programs). Student Success staff conducted faculty training on how to find Steppingblocks on the SGSC website and how to refer students to it. SGSC’s usage data from Steppingblocks shows that in the past month 19 active student users have logged on for 36 sessions with a most common area of interest in education careers. Examples of the kinds of data we can obtain on student usage are numbers of web sessions and topics; user activities; personality tests; sessions by location, weekday, time, module, and top searches.
- Deans, chairs, and the Vice President of Enrollment Management have been added as administrators to see data on our alumni workforce.
- The SGSC Associate Vice President of Student Success is now the contact person for general career services information. This fall she conducted a resume workshop for the pre-med club and helped several members afterward with one-on-one help with portfolios, resumes and graduate school applications.
- The Associate Vice President of Student Success has connected students to financial aid and HR for work study positions.
- Student Success staff talk to SGSC 1000 orientation students about purposeful choice, career services help, and career exploration.
- During the current academic year, we will continue to provide workshops, alumni speakers, field trips, connections with local employers, job fairs, and volunteer opportunities; to complete revision of the career services information on the SGSC website; and to explore connecting career choices with curriculum in first-year courses.
- With no plans for the foreseeable future to fill the position of Career Services Coordinator, we will continue to employ and communicate with the Steppingblocks career exploration and student success digital resources company.
- As with other SGSC operations, the main challenge is resources—funds and staffing—to develop, implement, and assess activities, as well as to provide career choice-related training for faculty and staff.
