LiberalArtsOnline Volume 4, Number 11
December 2004
When you were a senior in college, what did you think you were going to do with your life? Are you doing anything remotely related to that now? I certainly am not; in fact, most of my jobs have involved roles I could never have imagined when I was 21. Moreover, the "ideal" career that I envisioned while in college turned out to be a terrible fit. Thinking about it now, I’m not all that surprised that my original plan failed miserably. When I graduated from college, I did not know that determining a career path is an evolving and ongoing process. I felt overwhelming pressure to figure out what I was going to do with my life, yet had very little guidance aside from the opinions and concerns of other students who were just as confused as I was. This month’s author argues that liberal arts colleges have a responsibility to help their students make the transition from classrooms and dormitories to meaningful lives after college. After reading about her experiences, and reflecting on my own, I can’t help but agree.
--Kathleen S. Wise, Editor
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You’ve Got a Liberal Arts Education—Now What?
by Debra Gentry, Research Fellow
Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts
Wabash College
I was sitting in my office about ten minutes ago talking to a student, a senior here at Wabash College, and our conversation stirred up some long-submerged memories. This particular student was sharing his difficulty at staying motivated for his senior year, combined with growing concern that he does not know what he wants to do after graduation. I remember having those exact feelings, even though they occurred over 15 years ago. As I talked with this Wabash student, I reflected on my own experiences at Indiana University and wondered, "How well are we preparing our students for life after college?"
While many colleges and universities promote the value of a liberal arts education and declare in their mission statements that they are preparing students for life after college, is this evident? This sounds good in theory, but does it actually happen in practice? Institutions of higher education must be responsible for helping their students cross the bridge from graduation into the world of work and life outside the campus environment. The responsibility should not rest simply on a career services office; rather, it should also involve faculty, advisors, and staff. After all, who better suited to guide students than those people students see on a regular basis? I certainly could have used this sort of input as I tried to connect my college experience with life in the work world.
Back in the 1980’s I headed off to Indiana University in Bloomington because I had it under good authority that the journalism program there was top-notch and so was the social life. My initial focus in college was based on career choice. I had every intention of graduating in four years, becoming a news writer and reporter, and getting a fabulous job at the Chicago Times. A little more than midway through my undergraduate studies I discovered that I did not particularly like the courses in my major and did not feel the mental challenge that I had assumed was the hallmark of a university education. I had expected to think about new ideas, wrestle with tough issues, and even question my values. Instead, I found myself taking "how to" courses which taught me specifics about preparing for a career in journalism. I was disappointed in my education but not sure what to do because I had no back-up plan and really had no one to talk to about it. My parents were not that helpful because they just wanted me to graduate. To make a long story short . . . I dropped out of school to figure out my back-up plan. I traveled a little and worked to make ends meet. A year later I returned to Indiana University for a fresh start.
Upon my return, I decided to change my major to English, partly because I liked to write papers and read and partly because I was looking for the chance to think about some of the larger philosophical issues of life. I was not sure what the end goal was going to look like in the work world but I wanted the opportunity to take a variety of classes in areas that interested me, like English, psychology, religion, and philosophy. This was the first point at which I felt like my college education was how I had originally envisioned it—learning about the world, and myself, in ways that made me think about, and even question my values, biases, and sense of where I fit in the world. When I started on this path I felt that I was finally learning what it meant to be educated—not necessarily for a job, but educated to shape, and live, a meaningful life.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my major, I was anxious my entire senior year because I had no idea what I planned to do in the working world. I thought long and hard about how I was going to translate my major into finding a job after college. This was difficult. I had little understanding of myself at that point in life and was still trying to determine what a meaningful work life would look like. And, I had little real world experience beyond working odd jobs on a part time basis. I was prompted to take a two-credit, eight-week, "career course" offered in the College of Arts and Sciences, but this proved to be of no help beyond how to write a resume and cover letter, and I already knew how to do that. What I did not know how to do was figure out how and where to conduct a job search. I had no idea whatsoever of how to match my interests with possible jobs.
The real frustration came after college. Not only did I not know what I wanted to do, but I didn’t understand what my options might be. I saw my other friends, who had been more focused on specific careers after college like nursing, business, and education, get jobs rather easily because their job placement offices were well developed, and they had clearer visions of what they wanted to do in the work world. While I was able to get jobs that would pay the bills—I worked in a retail-management-training position for a major department store, and then at a bank—I found them a poor match for my skills, interests, and even personal values.
After several frustrating and unfulfilling years in the work world, I made the choice to return to school for an advanced degree in education. Currently, I conduct research on college assessment and look at ways in which the liberal arts prepare students for life and the world of work. Now I look back and am able to reflect on the value of my liberal arts education. I can see that it prepared me well for the work I have chosen. Yet years ago, in the midst of my frustration, I did not see the value at all because the job search process was so agonizing. If it was difficult and frustrating for me, and for the student sharing his concern with me, could this process also be frustrating for many other students who graduate with a liberal arts background? If so, what are some possible answers to this problem?
I have two solutions to assist students as they navigate the transition from the world of higher education to the world of work:
1) Help them understand, early on, the value of their liberal arts education in the working world. Forget lofty ideals; urge students to think about concrete ways their education is preparing them for life outside the academy and how they can articulate this value to future employers.
2) Help students from freshman to senior year think about, and plan for, their lives after college. This can be accomplished with assistance from valuable resources—faculty, administrators, and other staff on campus.
If we can help students understand the value of the skills and capacities they are developing as students of the liberal arts, then those students can walk away confidently after four or five years knowing how to articulate their skills in the marketplace. After the completion of my undergraduate degree, and out in the working world for two years, I discovered that companies were willing to hire me because I could write, communicate clearly, solve problems, and think on my feet. This was an "aha" moment in my life when I realized that some employers were not looking to hire the diploma, but the person! What a great moment it was to realize that my major did not matter. What did matter was that I was educated, could speak and write well, and had worked on developing personal qualities that employers like: adaptability, cooperation, moral character and integrity, a strong work ethic, and an interest in and concern for others in the workplace. I found that my college major only played a small role in why I was hired. Perhaps if I had understood this early on and been able to talk to potential employers about the personal qualities and skills I had developed as a result of my education, I might have had an easier time in the job search process.
One of our other important roles as faculty and staff members is to help students, beginning in their first year, think about and plan for their lives after college, whether this means attending graduate school or entering the workforce. And, while it is fine to have a career center on campus that offers a "career class" for seniors, this is not the integrated approach, nor is it the only approach, that is needed to help students as they develop personally and academically during their undergraduate years. Faculty, administrators, and other staff should be involved in the ongoing process of helping students think about, and plan for, their futures. There are many possible ways to accomplish this, from formal, structured activities to casual conversations. These could include creating faculty-directed course assignments that require students to synthesize information about a field they are interested in, talking to advisees about various work options and how to research them, or simply stopping to talk to a student on campus for a few minutes.
Special training isn’t necessary to help students in this process. We were all once in that same spot, asking the same questions and facing the same uncertainties. Keeping that in mind, we should seek out opportunities to describe our own experiences, struggles, and thought processes with current students. We can help them brainstorm ways to research their questions and accomplish their goals. We should consistently encourage students to reflect on who they are, what they value, and how their thoughts on these topics can relate to life after college. It’s not just a question of getting a high paying job, but of learning how work helps people lead meaningful and rewarding lives. Using ourselves as examples, we can show students that thinking about your life and your future does not go away with a first job or entrance into graduate school—determining what to do with your life is an ongoing process for everyone. With simple steps like these, the transition into work and life outside of the protected "bubble" of the campus environment can become more of a developmental and diversified process for students, beginning in the first year of college and continuing long after graduation.
Each year, as students make progress toward graduation, colleges and universities should make a concerted effort to integrate into their curriculums ways to help students reflect on, and shape, their career goals after college. This could mean offering immersion experiences such as classroom projects where students thoroughly research, present, reflect, and write about a particular career; cultural immersion trips; and service learning or volunteerism projects. Any of these can provide students with opportunities to obtain guided help in assessing their values, skills, and interests, and in figuring out how and where these match in the workplace. Students can also receive individual support in this self-examination through internships and co-ops, other extracurricular activities, advising appointments, and time spent with faculty.
As a student’s sense of self evolves, the process of preparing for the future should evolve too. To assume that it is enough to provide students with an eight-week course on how to find a job and prepare for life after college is ludicrous. As faculty members and administrators, we often think about how to help students develop intellectually, yet we may be neglecting another very important part of a liberal arts education—the translation into the practical world of work. And, to assume that our responsibility for students ends within the narrow confines of our disciplines is inadequate. They need our guidance, and care, as they synthesize their liberal arts experiences into personal values and goals that will shape their work lives after college. Just as we agree that a liberal arts education is for the development of the whole person, we must also understand, and act on, our responsibility to develop the whole student.
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Direct responses to lao@wabash.edu. We will forward comments to the author.
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The comments published in LiberalArtsOnline reflect the opinions of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Center of Inquiry or Wabash College. Comments may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author(s), LiberalArtsOnline, and the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College.
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Register Soon for the "Innovations in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at the Liberal Arts Colleges" Conference!
St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges invite you to join them for their "Innovations in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at the Liberal Arts Colleges" conference in Northfield, MN on April 1-3, 2005. This event will bring together faculty members from liberal arts colleges to share innovations in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The liberal arts colleges are widely recognized for excellence in teaching and learning. Yet, the specific instructional practices that contribute to such excellence are not frequently shared publicly, nor are they often well documented.
There are two keynote addresses for this conference. Charles F. Blaich, Director of Inquiries at the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College, will present "Do Liberal Arts Colleges Really Promote Better Teaching AND Learning?" Pat Hutchings, Vice President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, will present "Institutional Identity and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning."
Please visit the conference website for more information. The Early Bird registration deadline is January 14, 2005, with regular registration ending February 28.
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