Academic and Career Development is an excellent resource for your student at IUPUI. Staff understand you, as a family member and supporter, are a stakeholder in your student’s academic and career exploration journey. You can support your University College student by encouraging dialogue, promoting the use of free campus resources, and knowing who on campus to connect your student to for academic planning and career development.
In University College, many students are in the process of discovering the career goals and which academic path they want to pursue. Nationally, over half of all college students change their major at some point of their academic career. Together, academic advising and career development professionals support your student in finding the right fit for them. As family and friends, you also have an ability to foster your student’s ability to explore, discover, and affirm their path.
Ten Ways You Can Support Your Student’s Major and Career Exploration
- Talk about your student’s values, interests, personality, and skills rather than pushing a certain major or career.
- Point out what your student does well and how those skills can be used in a career.
- Encourage your student to try different jobs and explore as many careers as possible.
- Talk to your student about your own job and experiences.
- Help your student think about the long term, beyond jobs that are trendy right now.
- Encourage your student to get involved in campus life, like attending career fairs and other professional events.
- Give your student time and space to learn from their choices. Lessons come from experiences.
- If your student changes their mind about a major, be willing to listen and support through the change.
- Encourage your student to explore degree maps for various majors to ensure courses align with their expectations.
- Promote RISE (Research, Internships, Service Learning, and Experiential Learning) experiences to incorporate during their collegiate journey.
How Academic and Career Development Can Assist Your Student
Students are able to meet with the Student Success Advisor for academic advising as frequently as they deem necessary. During these appointments, students can plan courses, explore degree maps, drop/add courses, remove holds and accomplish much more. Drop-in hours are also available during the week for items that take less than ten minutes to complete.
Students also have Career Consultants available to them to assist with exploring majors and career paths. Likewise, students have a wide array of free resources available to them including career assessments, information on careers, Major-Career Connection sheets, and much more. The “Explore” tab of our website is where all exploratory resources are housed.