Developing your Students' Career Awareness

Monday 1:30pm-4:00pm Student Union: Acoma A and B
Afternoon Mini Workshop

Convener

Sue Ebanks, Savannah State University
The undergraduate university years are a time for academic development; but also they are a time for transition from classroom education to self-driven learning in a career of one's choosing. However, the path through which students make this transition can be strongly directed by their awareness of the various options within and in addition to academia. As advisors, mentors, post-docs, and other support staff, we all can play a role in shaping students' awareness of career options. By learning how to spark these discussions early during the undergraduate matriculation and by nurturing the conversations throughout their development, a support person can help a student be proactive in their decisions along the way, selecting internships, career fairs, May-mesters, alternative Spring Breaks, an others as opportunities to test their areas of curiosity in lower stakes programs. Thus by the time they are preparing for graduation and applying to their first job, post-baccalaureate program, or graduate program, they will likely be more confident that they are applying for a position that truly suits them and better prepared to fulfill that role. In this workshop we will discuss and share with each other approaches to these conversations, resources to share with students, as well as how we can establish relationships with those outside of academia to increase our spheres of knowledge to better serve the students in the transition to their best-suited career.

For your consideration before the workshop...

When you think about the students with whom you interact at your institution and the nature of your interaction, have you been successful in helping them prepare for their future beyond graduation? What are some examples of that success?

Also, if you have a laptop that you can use to connect with the campus wi-fi, please bring it so that we may work on enhancing our resource lists more efficiently through the EER 2017 site.

Goals

During this session we will
  • identify the stakeholders and discuss some of their roles in a student's development during matriculation
  • critically evaluate issues that may be in-common and unique contributors to the career awareness of students at the various institutions that we represent
  • discuss existing resources and begin to build a network through which participants of this mini-workshop can continue the exchange of information beyond the EER 2017

Working Program

1:30 Welcome and scope

1:35 Introductions including affiliation and position/role in student development at your institution. Form breakout groups, if necessary (exclusively teaching institution, some research, 2YC, research intensive?).

1:50 Brief presentation/activity with discussion of the challenges in, stakeholders in, and opportunities for meeting students where they are and cultivating their career awareness

2:20 or 2:35 Working groups: What is the format for materials that most effectively reach students overall? How can they be modified to address the career awareness challenge?

3:00 Working groups to start to compile tools that can be shared with your students as you start a new academic year at your specific type of institution (exclusively teaching institution, some research, 2YC, research intensive, etc.)

3:45 Sharing final thoughts and debriefing, as necessary

3:55 End of Workshop Evaluation

4:00 Adjourn

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