I would be willing to lead this group.

rcooper@tesu.edu.

Josh Morrison; jmorrison@uindy.edu

I want to help the students matriculate to college to better understand how to make it through college and the options that are available to them.

(Cathy Day)

Career Discovery (Sophomores) - 1 credit course

If you'd like to look at my syllabus, let me know

https://bsu.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2025-2026/undergraduate-catalog/courses/eng-english/200/eng-269/

And then there's something similar in Canada created by Linda Parady. Career Mapping website.

https://www.cael.org/what-we-do/credit-predictor-pro. Building on this tool, TESU's PLA 1010 course captures experiential learning that the student gets credit for, while also getting credit for the course itself, as well as introduced to an instructor w/that expertise who reviews their portfolio.https://www.tesu.edu/admissions/methods-of-earning-credit/prior-learning-assessment.php#accordion-cc5b1d7e-e632-4ed9-906f-5507d2978e51-0.

• Parents and students are concerned about the cost of college and want proof of its value in leading to a career.

• High-achieving students are also often interested in how to graduate early rather than explore other options.

• There is a lot of wanting to fit into a slot and get a certification rather than students making their own path.

• To work against this, higher education needs to tell stories about what their graduates have done and the outcomes of a college degree can be.

• Higher education can be confusing to students and send mixed messages, wanting them to choose majors while telling them about the importance of critical thinking, interdisciplinarity, etc.

• We need to also do a better job listening to the stories students tell us. Their stories are the best recruitment tools and can show how education is never a linear path.

• Sometimes having parents talk about their own paths can show how often people end up doing something very different from what they thought they would be doing entering college.

• For some families, the peer pressure to get their children into the most elite schools drives a lot of recruitment conversation, so other schools need to help tell the success stories of their students to work against this.

• We should also reach out to the "influencers" who students are listening to. They can play a major role in helping make the case for higher education.

• The impact of AI is also going to be an issue in the future. AI is increasingly "interviewing" potential employees, and so how can we use it to focus on graduates skills and capabilities rather than on their major and degree?

• Also, ow can we reframe higher education to "AI-proof" students' careers, by emphasizing not majors but skills like creativity, critical thinking, community engagement, collaboration, etc. that resist being replaced by AI.

Beth Mansfield-Griswold, Ph.D.

bethmg2021@gmail.com