Ensuring High Quality Career Development for Every Hawkeye

Project Lead: Matthew Augeri

Funding Approved: Fiscal Year 23
Project Status: In Progress  
Funded amount: $407,040 over three years

The Pathways to Success program aims to increase the percentage of students who engage in ongoing and personalized career development by implementing a technological solution that can help address inequities in career pathway preparation. 

The project entails a unique, accessible, and integrated platform that broadens access and motivates students to engage in high impact career practices such as career advice and career planning assistance. 

Activities to date:

• Created and launched the My Career Path portal 
  • Includes a personal assessment tool 
  • Designed to identify and address gaps in career outcome achievement for undergraduate students 
  • Houses various self-paced ICON modules to give students resources on different career topics
  • Shares resources to support student career preparation, such as jobs, internships, student organizations or clubs, and volunteer opportunities
    • The tool has suggested 250+ career-building activities to students, with students marking 1,419 activities marked as completed by users. 
  • The platform has been used by more than 2,400 students in the 2024-25 academic year and is embedded into more than 75 academic courses
• Utilized the Iowa Landscape Analysis Report to determine four career milestones:  
  • Career Planning & Reflection 
  • Career Experiences 
  • Connections to Employers or Alumni 
  • Career Articulation  
• Identified gaps in career outcome achievements among various student populations and underserved majors 
  • Reviewed institutional data and conducted conversations with campus partners 
  • Utilized this information to develop the My Career Path portal personal assessment tool 
•  Worked to integrate the My Career Path portal with other student success platforms
  • Tested "Plan of Study" integration between MAUI and My Career Path
  • Created modules in ICON that students will be able to enroll in through the portal
• Tested My Career Path portal with 2-3 pilot populations in fall 2023
  • 226 unique student users across six academic colleges participated in the fall pilots
• Developed and implemented strategies to promote the portal across campus
  • Met with more than 75 collegiate and departmental stakeholders to identify partnership opportunities
  • Put together My Career Path webpage for career center website
  • Purchased giveaway materials for campus partners and students
  • Hosted "Refill Your Cup" presentation (more than 70 attendees) to provide updates to campus partners
• Provided training for faculty and staff on how to utilize the portal to track student engagement and monitor career trends.
  •  Completed four self-service training courses over the past year. The My Career Path team has presented to over 300 faculty and staff over the past two years. 
• Exploring external partnerships with sponsors to ensure long-term financial support for the program.
• Project has received national recognition, including the Innovation Award from the Career Leadership Collective and an Honorable Mention from the National Association of College and Employers. 

Next Steps:

In year three of the project, the Pathways to Success team fully launched the My Career Path portal. The team will focus on marketing and engagement strategies to promote the tool and work to fully integrate the portal with tools such as MAUI and ICON to enhance the user experience. The team also submitted a grant proposal that, if successful, will extend the development of the portal and establish new integrations with ICON, SWIPE, and the Student Engagement Record.