“What’s your major?”

“What kind of job will you get with that?”

“It’s nice you want to follow your passions, but you need to be realistic and choose a major that will actually help you pay bills.”

The “foundational decade” is a term to describe the twenties of an individual’s life. It’s the “adulting” process where a person embarks on a path of self-discovery, personal growth, and decision-making. The twenties is certainly a decade that will drastically shape the course of a person’s life. It’s often marked with the new beginnings of lifelong friendships, marriage, career, and so forth.

But this decade is also marked with predicaments and obstacles. College students face stressful decisions over which area of study to commit to, which professional field to pursue, how to manage finances and afford their education, and overall, how to navigate life’s complexities. We become conflicted between what we “love” and what we “need” to survive. This is all amid pressure and daunting expectations, often imposed by the American Dream’s promise of financial security and happiness.

Perhaps the most daunting expectation is the notion that from ages 18-22, we must have our lives already planned out like a published book ready to be sold and read.

If your journey as a young adult is like what I just described, then it’s okay. It’s okay if you’re a freshman or transfer student who has no idea what to do with your life. It’s okay if you’re currently following a path that you love despite discouragement from other people. It’s okay if you’re a junior who is still undecided about your major. It’s okay if you’re a senior who is terrified of what the next chapter in life holds, or even a recent graduate who is still navigating a new season in life!

The good news is that the Career Center – yes, that pretty and mysterious little workroom across Nurse Alison’s office – was made for you.

As part of the University’s mission statement, the Career Center exists to transform students into professionally competent members of society. The Career Center accomplishes this goal through a series of three assessments: 1) Career Planning Scale, 2) Work Readiness Inventory, and 3) Strong Interest Inventory. These three assessments enable students to build a strategic career plan.

First, the Career Planning Scale serves as a foundation for freshmen to discover their current standing point and how they can use it to map out their career plan. CPS is a brief scale assessment that shows students where they stand in their knowledge of the world of work and more. Second, the Work Readiness Inventory follows up with sophomores and juniors to identify how far they have moved forward in their career plan and determine specific areas that need to be strengthened. Third, the Strong Interest Inventory provides an in-depth analysis of students’ field and occupations according to their personal interests and strengths.

The Career Center provides a wealth of valuable resources in the transformation from college freshmen to professionally competent men and women of character. As a student who has visited the Career Center, I encourage you to stop by and realize you have a unique story that is yet to be written, but it does require intentional planning and a step of faith to reach out to us.

– Written by Jennica Mendoza, a junior, English major working as a public relations assistant in the Career Center