Connecting College and Career in First Year Advising

Elizabeth Polzin, Concordia University Wisconsin & Ann Arbor

The value of a degree in higher education is under scrutiny by students who find it challenging to connect careers and the world of work to the requirements of their degrees. Additionally, the cost of a degree has only increased since even the previous generation was in college (Tretina, 2023). Given this scrutiny, connecting students’ college experience and academic plan to their vocational goals through Purpose First thinking is critical.

Purpose First, initially coined by Complete College America, is a strategy institutions deploy to engage students in career exploration alongside academic planning early in their higher education experience. Fostering the college and career connection helps students avoid “spinning their wheels” in a variety of majors and aids in understanding how their academic plan aligns with their interests and future career.

Approaches to academic advising and career engagement can be intertwined to aid students in self-discovery and promote Purpose First thinking. While universities have moved to the advisor support model for academic and career engagement more recently due to limited resources and budget constraints, this model is not new. Terry O’Banion suggested this model over fifty years ago within a community college setting. O’Banion (1972) states that the following are the critical dimensions of advising students, (1) exploration of life goals, (2) exploration of vocational goals, (3) program choice, (4) course choice, and (5) scheduling courses. These dimensions are just as pertinent to advising today. Students who know themselves and understand the purpose of attending college are more likely to retain and graduate (Complete College America, 2019). Failure to connect a student’s goals for life and work with an academic program will continue the scrutiny as to the relevance of a degree.

Institutions can increase the likelihood of students building momentum in their first year, as well as staying on track to graduate with a clear pathway toward a career, by utilizing Purpose First thinking through several means:

• Establish advisors that serve students both in academic and career planning. Training advisors to help students with academic and career planning may seem daunting, but the benefits to students can be significant. From the point of initial contact with advising, students engage in conversations about their interests, talents, and strengths in relation to career goals. Advisors assist students in identifying their motivation for a degree in higher education and explicitly link their academic program to specific careers. Furthermore, as advisors interact with students uncertain about their reason for pursuing a degree or direction for a career, they can leverage tools to help students in selfdiscovery. With academic and career advisors, a one-stop shop is created for academic planning and career services, eliminating the need to track down resources toward a single end from multiple places.

• Explore student interests, talents, and strengths. Most undergraduates entering college are not familiar with their natural interests and abilities. While adults returning to earn a degree may have a general idea of their strengths, they may be just discovering the connection between their interests and career. Tools like the Focus 2 Career, Pathway U, and Career Coach guide students through a self-assessment and provide personalized results that can be used to explore career options further. These tools also direct students to majors available within an institution and connect them seamlessly with sites like Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to help them explore career growth projections and potential salaries based on locations. Inventory results can serve as excellent groundwork for conversations surrounding why the student is pursuing a degree and their desired outcomes.

• Connect career exploration early in the admissions process. Career exploration or purpose-first thinking may sound impractical in the admissions process. However, its value for students is vital to help them build momentum in their first year. Engaging students in Purpose First thinking to ensure that they make informed decisions about their career choice based on their “interests, skill set, and financial goals.” It leads to an increase in student success and completion rates (Completed College America, 2019). The Purpose First strategy also allows students the opportunity for career exploration, possibility eliminating the number of students who have an undeclared major for long periods. Complete College America (2019) offers implementation guides for institutions that may consider the best way to develop this strategy on their campus.

For most, integrating a career interest assessment tool (Focus 2 Career, Pathway U, and Career Coach) in the admissions process is a feasible step toward implementing this strategy more fully and relatively inexpensively. Using assessment results, admission counselors and academic advisors can engage the student in conversation and intentionally connect college courses, experiences, and opportunities to careers. Orientation for first-year and transfer students is another place to embed the connection between college and career. Hence, students start to see how decisions in college can aid them in their career trajectory. This may be accomplished by ensuring students have time to process what they are learning about themselves and how it links to their desired major/career path. This can be accomplished in groups during an in-person orientation day or one-on-one with an advisor before course registration. Leveraging this strategy allows for early contact with academic and career advisors for self-discovery, career exploration, and academic planning. It also helps students and their families identify tangible means by which the institution commits to preparing students for the workforce.

• Link academic pathways to careers with key milestones. Advisors are crucial in linking academic and career planning, especially within a student’s first year. Advisors have a depth of knowledge specific to the programs they serve. The advisors can recommend internships, help students find internships, share undergraduate research opportunities, seek out clubs and organizations students could join that would benefit their goals, connect students with faculty mentoring, and help the student understand the connection between course requirements and future outcomes. These connections become key milestones for students as they progress in their degrees and help build momentum toward degree completion.

Purpose First thinking benefits not only students but institutions as well. By connecting college and career with Purpose First thinking, institutions retain more, and students graduate with a degree relevant to their career, providing student success measures critical to an institution’s health. Connecting college and early career development at The University of Oregon, within the School of Journalism and Communication, led to an increase in retention and student satisfaction (Complete College America, 2019). Utilizing academic and career advisors at Concordia University Wisconsin has led to a steady increase in the number of students who have completed an internship, clinical experience, practicum, or field placement within their discipline while enrolled as a student, as well as an increase in graduation rates (First Destination Survey Results, 2021-2022, 2023). Connecting careers with degree requirements explicitly demonstrates the value of the investment in higher education. Early and frequent intervention through the Purpose First strategy at the junction of college and career leads to positive student and institutional outcomes.

References

Complete College America. (2019, March). College, on purpose. http://completecollege.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/03/PurposeFirst_ Report_Full.pdf.

Career Dimensions (2023). Focus 2 career. https://www.focus2career.com/ Focus2Career.cfm.

Concordia University (2023). First Destination Survey Results. https://www. cuw.edu/academics/services/student-academic-resources/caace/ employer-engagement/_assets/first-destination-survey.pdf?v=052522

O’Banion, T. (1972). An academic advising model. Junior College Journal, 42(6), 62-69.

Tretina, K. (2023, January 3). Is college worth the cost? Pros vs. cons. Forbes. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/advisor/studentloans/is-college-worth-it/#:~:text=Despite%20the%20rising%20 cost%20of,only%20a%20high%20school%20diploma.

Contact

Elizabeth Polzin
elizabeth.polzin@cuw.edu