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.
