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Career Connections
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Career Connections: A Best Practices Guide for Strengthening Career Development and Community Engagement
Higher education has shifted to make career readiness a strategic priority across many campuses. Additionally, some colleges and universities have made explicit the linkage between how civic and community engagement directly contributes to students’ career readiness. Some institutions are building on existing courses, collaborating with career services, and designing and implementing innovative programs to guide students in identifying and articulating how their high impact practices like service learning, internships, collaborative projects contribute to their career preparation, development, and readiness.
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In response to these emerging priorities, in the summer of 2024, The Bonner Foundation developed a new resource: Career Connections: A Best Practice Guide for Strengthening Career Development and Community Engagement to serve as a tool and inspiration for institutions to explore and develop innovative approaches to address the career readiness challenges facing higher education. Abria Doe, 2024 National Bonner Intern and Stetson University Bonner Alum and Bryan Wood, 2024 National Bonner Intern and The College of New Jersey Bonner Alum, led the development of the guide, supported by Liz Brandt, Director of Community Engagement, and Rachayita Shah, Director of Community-Engaged Learning, and other Bonner Foundation staff members.
The guide is structured around three key areas: Academic Integrations, Career Services Collaboration, and Bonner Program and Student Led-Initiatives. Through research and conducting nine interviews with career services and community engagement professionals, the guide serves as a compilation of best practices and approaches that have been effective at a diverse set of colleges and universities across the country.
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Collaborating Across Campus and with Career Services
Another key partner in the effort to expand and deepen integrative pathways are higher education associations. For Career Pathways, NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, is a key contributor in this space (www.nace.org). Many institutions’ Career Services offices (including at institutions that are part of the Bonner Network) have adopted the set of NACE competencies which include many that overlap with the Bonner Student Learning Outcomes:
- Communication: Clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization.
- Critical Thinking: Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.
- Equity and Inclusion: Demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures. Engage in anti-racist practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism.
- Leadership: Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.
- Professionalism: Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace.
- Teamwork: Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.
- Technology: Understand and leverage technologies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals.
Essentially, institutions are using a combination of communication strategies (such as videos and webpages), technology (such as e-portfolios), advising, and other components to create and make more visible examples of career preparation pathways. Visit the Campus Examples page in this section for additional examples of ways that institutions are highlighting career pathways.
NetVUE Conversation Cards & Facilitation Guide
The NetVUE conversation cards serves as a tool for vocational discernment and exploration. These cards invite students and educators to reflect upon personal strengths and perspectives, professional aspirations, religious and ethical commitments, civic responsibilities, and the dispositions and habits that constitute a life well lived.
Faculty and staff will benefit from having these rich and compelling questions at the ready for a variety of campus contexts—with individuals, small groups, or large gatherings:
- Classroom discussions
- Private journaling
- Academic & career advising
- Leadership development
- Team-building exercises
- Professional development for faculty, staff, & community partners
Refer to the Facilitation Guide for suggested uses.
Job Sector Guides
We know that Bonner students and alumni want to find career and vocational pathways through which they can both earn a living while making a difference. With this context in mind, the Bonner Foundation developed "Job Sector Guides" as a resource for students, staff, faculty, and campuses. These resources, designed to point out potential professional pathways for students and alumni, have been written to include sector research, typical jobs and positions, salary information, considerations, and where to learn more.
With the work and leadership of the Bonner Foundation staff team and the 2018 National Bonner Interns, four sector guides were developed to:
- Provide undergraduate students and alumni with a useful, concise resource about the job sector and careers in it that might interest them
- Provide Bonner Programs on campuses with a practical resource to integrate into Bonner Meetings, trainings, and reflections
- Incorporate relevant information and point to places that student and other users can learn more
- Not recreate other existing and much more comprehensive sources (like books, graduate school guides, and career services resources)
- Incorporate the wisdom, perspectives, and advice of Bonner Scholar and Leader alumni who have made their way into these sectors and give current students a way to connect with their alumni peers, especially to enhance their professional networks
Each job sector guide includes a similar structure with the following headings:
- Overview and Careers in the Sector: this is an introduction to the sector and a listing of some of the prominent jobs and positions in it that might attract Bonner graduates. This information has drawn on research and interviews.
- Average Salaries: the sector guides includes a table with average salaries for a few of those prominent jobs in four locations - nationally, in New Jersey, in North Carolina, and in Colorado. We chose these locations based on the composition of the Bonner Network and to illustrate regional differences in the cost of living and salary structures. This information is obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a link in the guide will allow students and users to access the national database of information to perform their own specific position and location searches.
- Preparation Required: this section points to the type of educational and experiential preparation typically required to advance in the sector.
- Connection to Bonner Values: this section points to key themes and insights generated from talking with Bonner graduates and other engaged professionals about how they attempt to live out the Common Commitments in their careers.
- Considerations: this section highlights a few of the advantages and disadvantages that alumni or other employees in the sector report. Such considerations may include income, working demands, wellness, and other related themes.
- Recommendations from Bonner Alumni and Bonner Alumni in This Field: this section highlights a few Bonner Alumni who have also participated in Bonner Profiles that can be read or work in the Bonner Network that may be contacted for more information. The Foundation's hope is to continue to build out this resource and list, especially as we launch a Bonner Alumni Directory in 2019.
- Literature: each guide highlights just a few (five or so) current and prominent books, articles, or resources you might want to read about the sector. Again, many of these sectors have published scholarship that students and graduates should consult.
- Journals: each guide highlights some professional journals and sources of current literature, studies, and scholarship about the field. These are the kinds of journals that students who pursue graduate study in the sector will find themselves researching and reviewing, or potentially publishing in.
- Professional Associations and Organizations: each sector guide highlights some prominent organizations that students and graduates might want to learn about through further internet research, outreach, job searches, and other avenues.
Given Foundation staffing and priorities, we do not imagine that we will update these resources often. Furthermore, with the help of Bonner Alumni, we may be able to expand them and their ability to connect students and recent graduates to alumni in these sectors via the Alumni Directory and other strategies.
The K-12 Education sector describes the industry invested in helping students learn in schools. This industry is comprised of careers associated with teaching or supporting learners in kindergarten through 12th grade. Though K-12 education typically refers to public schooling systems, which are funded by federal, state, and local sources, the sector also includes private schools, charter schools, virtual schools, technical and trade schools, and alternative education. Currently, there is a demand for educators who have background in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields, special education, foreign language, and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). The career that is most commonly associated with this sector is a school teacher, directly instructing and mentoring k-12 students in a classroom. However, like our Bonner service work, there are both direct and indirect opportunities to get involved. The indirect opportunities could involve work in consulting, curriculum development, instructional design, administration, and more. Here, you can find categories of jobs that fall within the field of K-12 education.
Drawing on the work of Ernest Boyer, civic engagement is defined as “working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make that difference” (Ehrlich, 2000). The civic engagement sector in higher education is a recognizable field offering professional employment and advancement opportunities. In roles such as center and program directors, leaders of engaged scholarship programs, and even deans, professionals manage the work of college and university constituents (i.e., students, faculty, and staff) with nonprofit and government agencies. While most of these partners are local or “place-based” in communities neighboring the college or university, these professionals also build sustained partnerships and projects in national and international contexts.
This sector offers professionals a complex mix of roles and responsibilities that bridge being an educator, visionary, manager, advisor, mentor, and more. Over the past three decades, in particular, the civic engagement sector within higher education has grown significantly. As documented by Campus Compact (a national membership organization for institutions that supports this work), in the mid 1980s few campuses reported dedicated centers and offices to coordinate and manage the engagement of students. Today, nearly 100% of the more than 1,300 institutions in its network report having at least one (and often multiple) dedicated centers, offices, and units. As a Bonner Scholar and Leader, you are exposed to this sector throughout your four years in the program. The staff that lead and manage your Bonner Program are considered professionals in this sector. These offices may be housed in Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, specific departments, the President’s Office or other units. Regardless, these positions are now recognized as professional educators requiring a complex set of competencies and even advanced training and graduate education.
This sector is now regarded as “Community Engagement Professionals,” requiring a sophisticated range of knowledge, skills, and professional competencies (Dostilio et. al, 2017). Many Bonner alumni may be inspired by the work of individuals in this sector, who seem to devote their professional lives to building and sustaining partnerships and projects, community change, and student success.
At colleges and universities, learning transcends classrooms. Opportunities for growth and development happen in residence halls, on athletic fields, and in social settings. Student affairs professionals provide services, structural and relational support to students engaging in learning both inside and outside the classroom. According to National Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), a few core values within student affairs are encouraging an understanding of and respect for diversity, believing in the worth of individuals, and supporting students in their development. Though most colleges and universities in the United States have a division of student affairs, the actual departments that fall under this division varies. Thus, careers in the field of student affairs vary greatly too. The Handbook of Student Affairs Administration and professional associations, NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and ACPA–American College Personnel Association, identify eight typical departments within a division of student affairs.
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation, “Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities.” These communities can range from local neighborhoods to an entire country or even the world. “Public health professionals try to prevent problems from happening or recurring through implementing educational programs, recommending policies, administering services and conducting research” (CDC, 2018). Public health differs from clinical professionals (i.e. doctors, nurses) that are concerned with treating individuals after they are sick or injured. Public health is a multidisciplinary, diverse and growing field. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects 15.6 million new healthcare positions by 2022 - in which research, education, and social work will see consistent growth in the next decade. Bonner alumni often are drawn to the field to combine their interest in health with their values of addressing disparity and contributing to the welfare of others. Careers in public health commonly fall into several key categories.
Career-Focused Training Guides
Higher education has shifted to make career readiness a strategic priority across many campuses. Additionally, some colleges and universities have made explicit the linkage between how civic and community engagement directly contributes to students’ career readiness. The following career-focused guides train participants for developing key professional skills to bolster their service experiences in conjunction with their career objectives.
We recommend sequencing the trainings developmentally, see below.
