Bridget Burns

And 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 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 no surprise, there's nobody at the end of the day who's responsible for career services or career outcomes for students. It's just very distributed. And that's a formula for chaos. So that gives us... So already we're wrong in our design, but we've learned a ton.

And no surprise, there's nobody at the end of the day who's responsible for career services or career outcomes for students. It's just very distributed. And that's a formula for chaos. So that gives us... So already we're wrong in our design, but we've learned a ton.

We also then get all the career services folks together and we engage in a series of empathy sprints where we interview hundreds of students across all these campuses about what success in college would look like, what kinds of experiences have been most valuable to that end, what they've been struggling with, all that kind of stuff. And use those empathy insights to then generate...

We also then get all the career services folks together and we engage in a series of empathy sprints where we interview hundreds of students across all these campuses about what success in college would look like, what kinds of experiences have been most valuable to that end, what they've been struggling with, all that kind of stuff. And use those empathy insights to then generate...

create design charrettes and design thinking sprints where we actually came up with prototypes of what would it look like if we actually designed this part of the higher ed system around the needs of students and came up with seven different prototype models that are then our next step was you could not implement your own idea. And so Ohio State had to implement another campus's idea.

create design charrettes and design thinking sprints where we actually came up with prototypes of what would it look like if we actually designed this part of the higher ed system around the needs of students and came up with seven different prototype models that are then our next step was you could not implement your own idea. And so Ohio State had to implement another campus's idea.

Riverside, University of Central Florida, they all had to implement someone else's idea. And that was a way for us to not fall in love with our own idea. And then COVID happened. Despite that, much of that kind of calibrated it down a bit. But despite that, we did end up developing a robust playbook and a clear picture of how you should design that whole space.

Riverside, University of Central Florida, they all had to implement someone else's idea. And that was a way for us to not fall in love with our own idea. And then COVID happened. Despite that, much of that kind of calibrated it down a bit. But despite that, we did end up developing a robust playbook and a clear picture of how you should design that whole space.

And the spoiler is there are several of the models that actually still live today. In fact, University of Central Florida just announced a $10 million gift to match COVID. their initiative that came from that project. Now it's several years later, and they're just continuing to expand it. The outcomes have been improved.

And the spoiler is there are several of the models that actually still live today. In fact, University of Central Florida just announced a $10 million gift to match COVID. their initiative that came from that project. Now it's several years later, and they're just continuing to expand it. The outcomes have been improved.

But again, it was hard for us because we couldn't baseline because it turns out nobody captured that data. It wasn't as scientific as we expected it to be, but... What we figured out is the only place that all students go is the classroom.

But again, it was hard for us because we couldn't baseline because it turns out nobody captured that data. It wasn't as scientific as we expected it to be, but... What we figured out is the only place that all students go is the classroom.

And so instead of an office shoved in a basement, the answer is that career services people, professionals, they should be reimagined as instructional designers. And they should be coaches for faculty to embed career readiness into every single classroom, starting from the first class a student takes. They should have a career readiness experience, activity or exercise.

And so instead of an office shoved in a basement, the answer is that career services people, professionals, they should be reimagined as instructional designers. And they should be coaches for faculty to embed career readiness into every single classroom, starting from the first class a student takes. They should have a career readiness experience, activity or exercise.

They should engage and learn from alumni who are working in the field. They should be doing team-based learning. They should be doing work where we actually use what is called NACE competency language, which is like language that you could use in a job interview to describe what you did in a class. And so it's things like that. It was also paid virtual and in-person internships, micro internships.

They should engage and learn from alumni who are working in the field. They should be doing team-based learning. They should be doing work where we actually use what is called NACE competency language, which is like language that you could use in a job interview to describe what you did in a class. And so it's things like that. It was also paid virtual and in-person internships, micro internships.

We implemented those. It was a variety of other suite of solutions. You can download the playbook on our website. So that's what we've done thus far. I would say COVID was a disruptor for us in a significant way because building change management was really hard during that time. But now

We implemented those. It was a variety of other suite of solutions. You can download the playbook on our website. So that's what we've done thus far. I would say COVID was a disruptor for us in a significant way because building change management was really hard during that time. But now