Career Planning and Development by ShaRae

Career Planning and Development by ShaRae - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

The academic subject that I would teach would be a Career Planning and Development course. In the course, I believe it will be vital to prepare the student for their transition from being a college student to working within the career field. Therefore, the focus and aim of the course would be in motivating the student to develop their career identities before they graduate from college, teaching them how to search and research different positions (dependent upon their major), and providing them with valuable resources for career navigation like the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Teaching a course that will help the student with their future career prospects will not only assist the student, it will also support the Career Services department at the University or College service the student better. Moreover, it is inevitable that the student will have to transition into the career field post-college. The course is needed and is the type of course that should be a requirement at every University or College at the undergraduate and graduate level because students who do not receive the needed career guidance may have stagnated careers.

Lastly, student transitioning, career planning and development is a calling for me, and my current dissertation deals with the psychological factors that a student undergoes when they are transitioning from the student identity to the career identity. This is a very valid and current topic and teaching a class related to it would serve the purpose of changing a student’s life for the better, just as my dissertation is intended to.