Goal #8: Carleton will support the career exploration of students through every dimension of the Carleton experience

Action 23

We will create a campus-wide network for career exploration that will help students chart a pathway to the future that incorporates all the learning that takes place at Carleton: in the classroom, through co-curricular activities, and through student employment.

A comprehensive career framework will connect academic departments, student life, civic engagement opportunities, and alumni relations with the Career Center, creating a continuous pathway that begins with admission and continues through one’s alumni years. The program will foster early student engagement through expansion of the existing Sophomorphosis program into a winter break program for all sophomores.

A task force will be established to explore new models of advising that intentionally lead students to make connections across the curriculum, their co-curricular activities, and their professional development. Team-based models that bring together students with faculty and staff might facilitate establishing such connections. Introduction of either an expanded e-portfolio program or a co-curricular transcripting option will help students document how they have grown as individuals through curricular and experiential learning opportunities.

Action 24

We will reimagine Johnson House and the Alumni Guest House as a Career and Alumni Center, giving greater visibility to the Career Center and facilitating alumni engagement in student career exploration.

Johnson House and the Alumni Guest House were renovated in 2017 to accommodate the Career Center while maintaining their traditional hosting function. Reconfiguring or expanding this space will allow us to move some of the Office of Alumni Relations staff currently at 200 Division Street into close proximity with the Career Center. This will be both a symbolic and substantive step toward advancing a key insight of the strategic direction: that our alumni are an indispensable asset to current students and faculty as they navigate current or imminent professional choices.

Carleton alumni — whether working in business, academia, medicine, the arts, the nonprofit arena, or elsewhere — are eager to be of help to current students. We recommend studying models that other colleges have used, such as the creation of small alumni advisory groups made up of alumni in specific fields or industries, or use of new technology platforms, to deepen opportunities to take advantage of the ways in which Carleton alumni exemplify the infinite number of pathways that extend outward from a liberal arts education.

Action 25

The Career Center will work closely with academic departments to track graduate outcomes among their majors, and to help illuminate the abundant success stories that demonstrate the different pathways taken by graduates in every major.

Many academic departments currently work closely with the Career Center to help students explore career pathways, share information about their alumni on department websites, or bring alumni back to Carleton to talk about how their major informed their varied career trajectories.

The Provost’s Office will work with a new program director for academic partnerships in the Career Center, as well as the Career Center Advisory Committee, to support faculty and departments in partnering with the Career Center to illuminate career pathways and build confidence that every major at the College provides a strong foundation for the future. The creation of a Career Center Faculty Fellows program, with a fellow for each academic division, could aid in this effort.

Action 26

We will redesign the student employment program to make it an intentional part of student career preparation.

There is an opportunity with every campus job, from working in an administrative office or tutoring to working in dining, to highlight job skills and help students connect those skills with career aspirations and create a more meaningful employment experience for students.

As recommended by the Student Employment subcommittee of the Financial Aid Working Group, Carleton will increase the administrative resources to support the student work experience; create an expectation for mandatory supervisor training and student employee feedback; prioritize equitable outcomes for students in their campus work experiences; and introduce a tiered wage structure, as discussed in Action #6, to enhance the value of the most demanding jobs.

Goal 8 Metrics:

  • Status of graduating class one year later/ first destinations (full-time employment to equal or exceed COFHE average)
  • Competitive admissions to graduate programs
  • Number of alumni supporting Career Center programs (increase)