Impact of First-Year Career Workshop

“It helped me understand that I should get more involved with Salem State University…” (first-year participant)

Research and trends related to first-year student success show that engagement early and often has a positive impact on student progression, integration, and performance.  Many institutions are beginning to explore integrating career development into their first-year student experience. 

For the last three years, the first-year experience office has collaborated with career services to require that first-year students attend a career prep workshop during the fall semester to (1) introduce them to resources at the university that support their career/major exploration and decision-making and (2) assist in mapping out a four-year plan designed to help them build the skills and experience to land the job they want post-graduation.

This past fall, students were invited to attend one of four workshops led by Joe Santacroce (career services) and Mathew Chetnik (first-year experience).  As expected, the online environment had an impact on student attendance, however, the results continue to demonstrate a strong impact on the participants.

For the fall 2020 workshops, 270 students provided feedback on their experience with 94% of the students agreeing/strongly agreeing that they learned something helpful during the workshop. At the end of every session, students remained to discuss how to schedule appointments with career services demonstrating the immediate impact on getting students into the office.  Overall, qualitative feedback demonstrated that students found the content and information valuable to their university experience. Examples of comments included:

• “It was an eyeopener, definitely didn’t think of any of the things mentioned before coming to this workshop.”
• “The most helpful aspect was being introduced to resources available from such an early start that will help me get a head start on my journey to a career I will like.”
• “Hearing helpful tips and steps on what I should do next in my four years of college helped me.”’
• “I think it was helpful that it was so interactive, so not only did I think about the questions, but I could see how others responded.”

Want to see the full assessment summary? Visit the first-year experience Polaris channel.

Interested in discussing the workshop details? Contact Joe Santacroce (career services) or Mathew Chetnik (first year experience).

A special thank you to Megan Rogers (student success coach, first-year experience) for analyzing the data and preparing the assessment summary.