Utilizing career exploration to encourage retention: How helping students explore can lead them to stay

11-11:50 a.m.

Location: Cassatt B

Type: Facilitated dialogue

Audience: Linked Courses, Coordinated Studies, Living-Learning Communities, Residential Colleges

Presenters: Keely Floyd, Indiana University - Indianapolis

Can encouraging students with declared majors to engage in career exploration actually lead to better retention? It may seem counter-intuitive, but we suggest that it can. This informal, discussion-based session will describe our initiative to utilize career exploration within a first-year seminar to generate an improved sense of identity, better community, stronger academic performance, and overall better persistence among our matriculated first-year students. Attendees will learn how empowering students to fully explore their major and career opportunities through targeted service-learning, cross-curricular faculty engagement, and intentional career reflection can generate improved persistence and "stickiness" to their chosen degree program or general field. This session will discuss how this approach was utilized in a stand-alone course and offer suggestions for application in full learning community settings.