Leveraging Life Design to Promote Parallel Planning Among First Year Students
From marc hunsaker…
BACKGROUND: Over the past few years, Michigan State University (MSU) has been experiencing a season of transition within our senior-level leadership. As this transition has unfolded, we have found ourselves in a ‘holding pattern’ for many major campus-wide initiatives. However, I and some of my colleagues, have viewed this season of change as an opportunity to employ a grassroots approach for weaving life design and purpose development into the fabric of our campus. To this end, we have sought to demonstrate the value of life design to our colleagues and students by using the Designing Your Life (DYL) methodology and tools to address some of the major challenges we are experiencing on campus. One of those challenges - helping first-year students to engage in proactive parallel planning, is the focus of the case study.
PROBLEM: In recent years, the majority of incoming MSU students enter college declaring their interest in a limited enrollment major (e.g., Business preference, Pre-Nursing, Pre-Engineering, etc.). However, the majority of these students will not be admitted into their desired major, which creates major challenges for students who have not considered the possibility that their ‘plan A’ might not work out exactly as they expect. Often, when these students learn that their original plan is no longer an option, they struggle with feeling stress, anxiety, and even depression. Many of these students are often surprised by and unprepared for this rejection and will re-apply (unsuccessfully) to the same major, transfer to another school, or even drop out of college altogether.
STRATEGY: To address this problem, key staffers from MSU’s Career Services Network and Undergraduate Education Office have partnered to promote proactive parallel planning for first-year students, especially those in limited enrollment majors. Life design and purpose development frameworks have functioned as the primary foundation for a wide range of parallel planning initiatives, which we refer to as ‘Designing Your MSU’ (DYMSU) programs.
Over the past 8 months our team has prototyped a parallel planning curriculum with 3,000+ students in 60+ different DYMSU programs, ranging from 1-hour studios at New Student Orientation, to 3 hour-long workshops within select first-year seminars. Over this time, we have refined a wide range of parallel planning materials, tools, and activities which can be utilized within a wide variety of contexts and formats. Although the scope and scale of a particular DYMSU program impacts the specific tools, activities, and approach we will use, we have learned 3 primary things from our prototypes: a) Odyssey Planning is an incredible tool to promote proactive parallel planning for students, b) many first-year students benefit from a more scaffolded/iterative approach to effectively engage with Odyssey Planning, and c) a basic 4-step process undergirds the foundation of almost all of our current DYMSU programs.
Below, I will outline some of the key lessons we have learned, tools we have developed, and steps we follow to more effectively promote parallel planning for first-year students at MSU.
STEP 1: Help students to identify and reframe 5 common ‘College/Career Myths’. We began our DYMSU initiative by attempting to empathize with first-year students’ perspectives about college and life after college. Through this process, we learned that many incoming college students unknowingly hold one or more dysfunctional beliefs about college and careers that prevent them from fully engaging in proactive parallel planning. This summer, we surveyed 1,500+ students at New Student Orientation and identified 5 primary ‘college/career myths’ that keep students stuck and/or stressed out when exploring potential majors and careers. We also developed a series of evidence-based responses to these myths, which we refer to as ‘college/career facts’. All of these are articulated below:
College/Career Myths v. College/Career Facts
Myth: Major = Career. Fact: Major ~ Career. 73% of workers in the US are working a job / career field that is not directly related to their undergraduate major (Federal Reserve, 2018)
Myth: First job = forever job. Fact: Average job tenure in the US = 4 years. Average job tenure for workers under 28 years old = 2 years. BLS, 2019)
Myth: I will have less than 5 jobs after college Fact: Most workers in the US will have 10-14 jobs before retirement (BLS, 2019). Fact: Because of workforce disruption (A.I. / automation), many of these jobs do not exist yet…
Myth: There is 1 perfect major/career for me (and if I don’t find it…soon…I’m screwed!) Fact: There are LOTS of ‘good fit’ majors/careers out there for every student!
Myth: You should have it all figured out by now. Fact: You could be exploring now. In fact, 70% of MSU students change their major at least once, and you will be exploring throughout your career…so, let’s help you develop your wayfinding skills now!
Working with students to identify these career myths helped us to a) empathize with students’ perspectives on the purpose of college and their ideas about the future, and b) figure out creative ways of helping them to identify and re-frame these dysfunctional beliefs with perspectives that align more closely with reality. Depending on the context/timeframe we have with students, we will draw upon a number of different experiential learning activities (e.g., ‘30 Circles’, Kahoot quizzes, testimonials from alumni/staff, etc.) to help students identify and re-frame these common myths. Doing so, lays the groundwork for students to see the value and importance of engaging in parallel planning to design the kind of life they most want to live. *We have also found that if we skip over this step, or present these career myths/facts primarily in a lecture-based way, first year students often lack the motivation/freedom to fully engage in effective parallel planning.
STEP 2: Help students to explore and articulate some of the core components that make up the kind of life they most want to design. Throughout our prototyping, we found that many first-year students struggle to identify alternative lives that they might want to live, especially within a single 1-hour DYMSU studio. So, instead of jumping right into Odyssey Planning, where we ask students to identify different majors or careers they might want to pursue, we start with a more basic/fundamental form of exploration that focuses on some of the core elements of ‘the good life’ that students can more easily identify. To frame this exploration process, we draw upon a compass metaphor as a way to help students articulate the components that make up their ‘true north’, so they can be confident that they are moving in the right direction towards a life / career they most want to have.
To help guide this initial exploration process, we developed a “Life/Career Compass” tool that students can use to identify some of their primary a) skills and abilities, b) interests and passions, c) work and life values, and d) some of the societal needs they would most like to address (i.e., who / how they would like to help others through their life/work). While ‘societal needs’ are not commonly emphasized within traditional career assessment models, research shows that having “beyond-the-self” motives for our goals is an important factor for experiencing deeper purpose and meaning in one’s life and work (Damon, 2008; Bronk, 2014). Throughout our Life/Career Compass activity, we guide students with reflective questions and encourage them to identify their top 3 choices within each of the 4 categories listed above, and to move those 3 words into the center of their compass. We help students understand that these 12 words represent ‘true north’ for these students (for this moment), which they can draw upon to design the kinds of lives they want to live. (These 12 words also form the basis of our next activity, and a concrete set of criteria students can refer back to when assessing the ‘coherency’ gauge on each of their future Odyssey Plans).
STEP 3: Help students to ideate a wide(r) range of potential ‘good fit’ majors and careers. Once we have helped students to identify the core components that could make up the kind of life they want to live, we also want to help them to take the next step towards Odyssey Planning by gradually expanding the range of potential majors and careers they see as being connected to their ideal life. For this reason, we created a ‘Major/Career Brainstorm’ activity that helps students to inductively explore different majors and careers. This activity begins by asking students to identify a theme for their brainstorming sheet (e.g., ‘a dream job’, ‘a practical plan’, or ‘a wild idea’). Next, students choose 5 core components (from the center of their Career Compass) that would most align with and/or represent their chosen theme, and write those in the 5 sticky notes on their sheet (e.g., my dream job: art, social justice, teenagers, travel, education). Next, we ask students to add another layer of specificity to each of the words on their sticky notes (e.g., my dream job: art/graphic design, middle school/teens, international/travel, etc.). *Note - at this point in the activity, we do not have any specific majors, job titles, or career fields on the brainstorm sheet, we simply have 5 semi-specific ideas on sticky notes that would compose the core of each student’s ideal major, career, or life.
The next phase of the brainstorming activity leverages the design thinking principle of ‘radical collaboration’ - students are required to exchange their sheet with others in class and write down all of the different majors, job titles, and career fields that they see as being connected with the words in the sticky notes on their classmate’s brainstorm sheet. Students continue to exchange sheets with their classmates over several short brainstorming rounds, generating a wide range of ideas about how their lives and careers could be combined / expressed (We also encourage them to write down ideas that connect 2+ words, like ‘Middle school art teacher’). At the end of the brainstorming session, the sheets are returned to the original owner and students are encouraged to reflect on/assess the range of suggestions given to them (e.g., most familiar, interesting, and delightful ideas). *While this brainstorming activity is still early in the prototyping phase of development, we have found that it greatly helps first-year (and first-generation) students begin to expand their options by collaboratively and inductively ‘sneaking up’ on alternative careers and majors that could be connected to the kind of life they want to live.
STEP 4: Help students to imagine alternative lives and envision potential parallel plans. Here, we ask students to review some of the core ideas and components identified in steps 2 and 3, and reflect on the question: “how many lives are inside of you?”. After a few minutes of group discussion, we finally introduce Odyssey Planning to students as an opportunity to imagine three different meaningful lives they could live. For this, we typically have drawn upon the standard Odyssey Plan slides and worksheets developed by Stanford’s Life Design team. However, while these tried and true slides form the basis of our introduction of Odyssey Planning, we have also found that a number of first-year students continue to need help to imagine options beyond their original ‘plan A’. Therefore, we have created a series of illustrated Odyssey Plans to help students who need extra assistance to envision alternative pathways they could take to pursue their life/career goals.
So, this summer we worked with a student artist (Colin Corcoran @ muffinlandcomics.com) and wide range of stakeholders (e.g., academic advisors, career consultants, faculty, and students) to create a series of 12 illustrated Odyssey Plans for a wide range of colleges, meta-majors, and career clusters that are popular at MSU (e.g., careers in health, careers working with animals, careers in music, etc.). We often use these illustrated plans to help particular populations of students, particularly those in limited enrollment majors, to a) identify some common alternative options for majors related to their initial major or career choice, b) imagine non-linear pathways towards their desired career field, and c) to understand some of the most important opportunities and major milestones they could/should pursue within each alternative pathway. These illustrated Odyssey Plans have been shown to be particularly effective for first-generation students, student athletes (who often need to envision plans beyond a professional sports career), students who want to go into competitive professional fields (e.g., Pre-Med, Pre-Vet, Pre-Law), and students who are undecided (which MSU refers to as “exploratory majors”).
FUTURE PLANS: Heading forward, we have 3 primary plans for further developing the core DYMSU curriculum and parallel planning materials described above:
First, we have received rave reviews from students and staff about our illustrated Odyssey Plans, and they are being used by many academic advisors, career consultants, and faculty in a wide range of contexts including 1:1 advising, classroom presentations, and professional development workshops. Based on the positive response we have received, we will continue to explore and expand the number and uses of these illustrated plans across MSU.
Second, we are also currently prototyping an expanded version of the 4-step DYMSU curriculum within our first-year seminar courses. We are using other established DYL materials (e.g., Good Time Journals, Energy Engagement Maps, and SMART Prototyping activities) to provide additional levels of scaffolding for first-year students. This expanded DYMSU curriculum will be the focus of first-year seminars for 6 consecutive weeks in the middle of the 2019 fall semester.
Finally, I have recently accepted a new position as Dean of Personal and Professional Development at Berry College. My new president has charged me to further develop and integrate these purpose / life design curricula and parallel planning tools in my new role at Berry.
So, should you have questions and feedback on any of these materials, or are interested in partnering to further develop additional life design/parallel planning tools, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Marc Hunsaker, PhD
Dean of Personal & Professional Development at Berry College
Former Purpose & Career Design Consultant at Michigan State University
To learn more, contact Marc Hunsaker at mhunsaker@berry.edu