Centering Student Success with Career Awareness

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Moderator: Paula Rees, UMass Amherst

Mentoring and Research Infrastructure: Customizing a Road Map for Student Success Planning

Verleen K. McSween, University of the Virgin Islands

Lawanda Cummings, University of the Virgin Islands

The Mentoring and Research Infrastructure (MRI) component of the Virgin Islands Institute for STEM Education Research and Practice aims to build strong research infrastructure and promote effective workforce development at the University of the Virgin Islands for both faculty and students by supporting the pre- and in- service STEM workforce. This initiative is funded by the Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VI- EPSCoR). MRI initiatives promote customization of a road map for student success planning to promote a more robust mentoring culture at the university, and positively impact STEM student mindset and skill development that promotes successful STEM degree completion and future entry into the STEM workforce for URM students. The proposed report highlights the findings from an evaluative needs assessment of primarily URM STEM students at an HBCU and describes an iterative process used to address workforce preparation needs of students. The proposed process involves the use of data to facilitate targeting and customization of structures for student success planning and goal attainment among the pre- service STEM workforce.

Teaching Career Readiness for STEM Students: Finding Joy in the Sharing of Social Sciences with Non-Majors

Colby King, University of South Carolina Upstate

Justin Travis, University of South Carolina Upstate

Even for non-majors, college courses in the social sciences help students develop a better sense of their current and future contexts and opportunities, as well as the pathways leading to their goals. This is especially true of social science courses which examine issues related to work and careers, including sociology of work, organizational psychology, labor market research, and other work-related topics. Both co-presenters here have independently developed and instructed career-readiness courses primarily for students majoring outside of our social science disciplines, and often as part of S-STEM scholarship programs (including NSF-DUE 1643475) or STEM major programs. In these courses, we help students explore the complexities and challenges of understanding and navigating their labor market opportunities, preparing students to overcome inequities in the landscape of opportunities, and realizing how their college experience is preparing them for life after graduation.

We have found joy in developing and teaching these courses, which we have implemented more than a half dozen times across two regional comprehensive universities. We have learned about our students as individuals, including their unique backgrounds and career aspirations. We have also come to better appreciate the complimentary role social sciences can play in a broader liberal arts education. In this 15-minute presentation we will identify practical lessons about teaching career-readiness especially for STEM majors, reflect on career readiness education as informed by and part of liberal arts education, and celebrate the joy we found in teaching non-majors through these courses.