The Urban Institute conducted an implementation and participant-outcomes evaluation of the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program (ANSEP). ANSEP is a multi-stage initiative designed to prepare and support Alaska Native students from middle school through graduate school to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)…

Originally designed for students who test into at least two levels of developmental education in a particular subject area, FastStart is a compressed course program model launched in 2005 at the Community College of Denver (CCD). The program combines multiple semester-length courses into a single intensive semester, while providing case…

Typical career planning courses assist students with the self-assessment process, career exploration, and decision making. Although this assistance is helpful, college students are increasingly concerned with issues of meaning and calling (P. Braun, 2005). The authors describe and test the effectiveness of the Let Your Life Speak course, a program…

SPIRIT is a three year project designed to increase high school students' interests in and their desire to pursue IT careers. This paper examines the results of the project during its second year of implementation. All student participants, and in particular female students, experienced a positive change in perception of gender stereotypes in IT…

The iDREAMS project aims to reinvent Computer Science education in K-12 schools, by using game design and computational science for motivating and educating students through an approach we call Scalable Game Design, starting at the middle school level. In this paper we discuss the use of Computational Thinking Patterns as the basis for our…

This study investigated the level of congruency between scores on the Self-Directed Search--Form R (J. L. Holland, 1994) and scores from an online instrument, both of which measure Holland types (J. L. Holland, 1985, 1997). A reasonably high level of congruence was found. Implications for career counselors are briefly delineated.

This article examines the concept of career exploration in adult populations. In contrast to the prevailing positive view of career exploration, the authors present a more complex and balanced perspective of this process, addressing some of the barriers to career exploration and the applicability of this concept to different populations. They…

ACT has been a leader in measuring college and career readiness trends for decades. Each August, ACT releases "The Condition of College & Career Readiness" (www.act.org/newsroom/data/2013), our annual report on the progress of the ACT-tested graduating class relative to college readiness. Nationally, 54.3% of the 2013 graduating…

The present study compared the effectiveness of two online career exploration systems in increasing the career decision self-efficacy and decidedness of 960 students enrolled in a program for undecided freshmen students at a large public university. Results indicated that both systems led to significant increases in career decision self-efficacy…

An Electrical Engineering Summer Academy for Pre-College Students was held at the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, during the summers of 2007 and 2008. The Academy participants included students having just completed 7th to 11th grade and teachers from middle school through high school. The students and teachers participated in team-building,…

This paper summarizes the findings of a five-year study aimed at improving the retention rates of female students pursuing careers in engineering. The study analyzed a series of programs implemented at the University of Toledo. The programs involve hands-on design projects, research experiences, communication tools geared towards females,…

A growing body of work in relational theory and career decision making explores how relational processes, not just people's relationships but more broadly their connections to self, others, and society, inform career development and counseling. This article presents the results of a qualitative research study of midlife women in career transition…

The author describes the relationship between self-knowledge and career confusion among university students and discusses strategies to enhance career and academic planning. The multiple intelligences profiles of typical university students are compared with those of 82 students enrolled in 3 sequential semesters of a course titled Career…

Developed for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Career Exploration Program, the Find Your Interests (FYI) inventory was designed to help students learn about their career-related interests. The FYI is a 90-item interest inventory based on Holland's (1973, 1985, 1997) widely accepted theory and taxonomy of career choice. The…

This study examined the relation of religious support to social support, career exploration, and career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) in a sample of 133 undergraduate students involved in religious organizations. Religious support correlated significantly with social support and CDSE but not career exploration. Regression analyses indicated that…