Bridget Burns

Yeah. In 2017, we partnered with Strata Education Network to, as a next, we do a big change initiative. So like predictive analytics, chatbots, proactivizing, our whole thing is scale. So we take a model from one place and scale it on other campuses and we learn a method for scale. Like how do you need to adapt that idea so that it survives and thrives in a different ecosystem? And then...

Yeah. In 2017, we partnered with Strata Education Network to, as a next, we do a big change initiative. So like predictive analytics, chatbots, proactivizing, our whole thing is scale. So we take a model from one place and scale it on other campuses and we learn a method for scale. Like how do you need to adapt that idea so that it survives and thrives in a different ecosystem? And then...

We create playbooks for the rest of the sector to learn from us. So that's been our model, scale. But we ran into this issue in 2017 of this issue of college to career, there's nothing to scale. There are lots of little tiny things out there, but we recognize that the entire, we've come at this work thinking with the baseline belief that higher education was never designed around students.

We create playbooks for the rest of the sector to learn from us. So that's been our model, scale. But we ran into this issue in 2017 of this issue of college to career, there's nothing to scale. There are lots of little tiny things out there, but we recognize that the entire, we've come at this work thinking with the baseline belief that higher education was never designed around students.

And that's the problem. And it was especially not designed around the students that we need to serve. low-income, first-gen students of color.

And that's the problem. And it was especially not designed around the students that we need to serve. low-income, first-gen students of color.

So then we get to college to career and it's, oh my gosh, if we thought we had bad design once, watch out because when you look at career services and just that model and that approach, it became very clear that was a manifestation of what we're talking about. And we agree with you about the students measure their success by, it's much more nuanced and complex, but they want a job, of course.

So then we get to college to career and it's, oh my gosh, if we thought we had bad design once, watch out because when you look at career services and just that model and that approach, it became very clear that was a manifestation of what we're talking about. And we agree with you about the students measure their success by, it's much more nuanced and complex, but they want a job, of course.

So we did a multi-year initiative to actually come up with, instead of the scale, it was about innovation, which was how should this be if we were to design it based around the needs of students and specifically use design thinking

So we did a multi-year initiative to actually come up with, instead of the scale, it was about innovation, which was how should this be if we were to design it based around the needs of students and specifically use design thinking

If you could reimagine that whole college to career handoff around the needs of students where you could actually make up for privilege, meaning if you looked at the data that a student from a low income background would have the same kind of results or outcomes as a high income student who comes in with a deep social network.

If you could reimagine that whole college to career handoff around the needs of students where you could actually make up for privilege, meaning if you looked at the data that a student from a low income background would have the same kind of results or outcomes as a high income student who comes in with a deep social network.

And so we got seven universities together to first we started with process mapping, as always, to understand just how bad is this because the system seemed really dysfunctional for students. Do you have a office in some basement somewhere with like. a tiny budget that nobody wants to go to other than to get their resume looked at. And so we first started with this false assumption.

And so we got seven universities together to first we started with process mapping, as always, to understand just how bad is this because the system seemed really dysfunctional for students. Do you have a office in some basement somewhere with like. a tiny budget that nobody wants to go to other than to get their resume looked at. And so we first started with this false assumption.

We quickly checked, which was let's see all the things that Career Services is responsible for and then let's like map those things and let's look at their KPIs and then we would be able to benchmark against those and try and improve those. That's what we thought. It turns out Step one is we didn't have any KPIs because nobody was actually tracking any data.

We quickly checked, which was let's see all the things that Career Services is responsible for and then let's like map those things and let's look at their KPIs and then we would be able to benchmark against those and try and improve those. That's what we thought. It turns out Step one is we didn't have any KPIs because nobody was actually tracking any data.

We had no idea that if you wanted to measure the number of students who go into career services from certain backgrounds, they don't have that data. They don't even know how many people come in. Depending on who you're talking to, like they just they're overwhelmed. One of my institutions had 70,000 students and they had two people in the office of career services. And so that was a bust.

We had no idea that if you wanted to measure the number of students who go into career services from certain backgrounds, they don't have that data. They don't even know how many people come in. Depending on who you're talking to, like they just they're overwhelmed. One of my institutions had 70,000 students and they had two people in the office of career services. And so that was a bust.

And we also mapped all of the things that campuses did around career services. And we found out the vast majority had no relationship with career services. Oh, man. So if we were trying to fix career services, we were in trouble because it turns out most of these things report to the deans or they're over here in this other office.

And we also mapped all of the things that campuses did around career services. And we found out the vast majority had no relationship with career services. Oh, man. So if we were trying to fix career services, we were in trouble because it turns out most of these things report to the deans or they're over here in this other office.