How to Engage First- and Second-Year Students with Career Services (feat. Kelli Smith and Lexie Avery)

Kelli Smith and Lexie Avery, both of Binghamton University, share how their team has successfully engaged more first- and second-year students with career services.In this episode, Kelli and Lexie talk about their four-phase strategy, why it’s so important to engage students early and often, and how they’ve increased first-year engagement from 28% to 71%. The four-phase engagement strategy includes two phases for freshman year and two for sophomore year. The first two phases are all about building awareness around career services and exposing students to career early and often. The second two phases put more of the onus on the students. The four phases include:Phase 1: AwarenessIn phase 1, the career team works to build awareness (outside of normal things like speaking at orientation or being a stop on an admissions tour). They leverage partnerships with academic advisors and groups like Residential Life. They have Student Career Influencer interns who weave career services into fun, creative experiences on campus. Phase 2: ExposurePhase 2 is about career services going into student spaces to meet students where they are and expose them to the career center. The career team goes into classes, presents to student organizations, participates in Residential Life programming, and more.Phase 3: EngagementPhase 3 is about encouraging students to engage with career services in some capacity, whether that’s coming into an appointment, reading blogs on Binghamton’s virtual career center (powered by uConnect), using Big Interview, or attending a program or event. It’s about students taking that step to initiate contact on their own.Phase 4: Career planningThe last step is all about career planning. Do students have an exploration plan? Have they taken a career exploration course? Have they met with a career consultant to talk about career planning? Have they attended a program around creating an action plan? It’s about encouraging students to enter their junior and senior year with intentionality and a plan.“We all know it can be very overwhelming when you think about all the different steps that are really important to take your time, to be thinking about your choices, doing the things that you need to do to be marketable over time. When we’re able to connect with students earlier, that's going to alleviate that anxiety but also help them become more successful,” Kelli said.Resources from the episode:Kelli’s LinkedIn profileLexie’s LinkedIn profileBinghamton University’s virtual career center (powered by uConnect) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community