Integrated Career Education: Midpoint Career Reflection Frequently Asked Questions

Across the nation and right here at Boise State, students and graduates identify career interests among the top reasons for investing in a college education. In our most recent alumni survey, our graduates identified career success, career aspirations, and financial gain as the top three motivations for choosing to pursue a bachelor’s degree. Yet only 36% of those graduates felt that Boise State engaged them in planning for a career. By integrating career reflection throughout the academic experience, we can ensure that a baseline of career education will be easily accessed by all students. 

One of the president’s key areas of focus is career education and post graduate outcomes.. The Deans met in the Fall of 2021 to consider ways in which to integrate career readiness education into the curriculum. After discussing multiple options, they landed on the idea of integrating a career readiness reflection into a required course in each major. A faculty representative from each college was asked to join a working group which vetted and provided feedback as Career Services built the inventory process and resources. 

The midpoint reflection is part of a campus-wide effort spanning Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to address Goal 1) Improve Educational Access and Student Success; Strategy 2) Integrate career education and experiential learning opportunities into the curriculum and the student experience to improve career readiness and post-graduation outcomes. It is part of an intended career reflection continuum for students: 

First Year → Course in Major → Finishing Foundations

The core elements of this midpoint career reflection tie directly to the Finishing Foundations reflection. Our next steps will be to integrate and connect a career reflection in the early stages of our students’ academic experience. 

The reflection components in the classroom are the baseline of integrated career education at Boise State. They ensure that all students have access to basic career education. Other components throughout curricular and cocurricular experience will enhance the career readiness and success of our students.  

Determining where the midpoint reflection best fits into the curriculum is up to the faculty and leadership of each individual program.  You may include a reflection activity at one point within one course, in multiple places within one course, or within several required 200 or 300 level courses. 

It depends, the midpoint reflection must include three key components- looking forward, looking back, and identifying next steps. How that is accomplished to best meet the needs of your students is up to you. We have provided many resources that you can use, or you can create your own. This may mean taking an existing assignment and including the three key reflection components. It may also mean keeping the existing assignment and adding in the three key reflection components elsewhere in your curriculum. 

The reason we are integrating career reflection into the classroom is so all students will be exposed to it in a place we know they will be. Optional activities are excellent add-ons to the integrated career baseline in the classroom, but unless they are required of all students in your department or program, they would not count toward the midpoint reflection assignment. 

Minors will be required to include a midpoint reflection. Given that certificate programs are usually taken as an addition to a degree, they will not need to have a midpoint reflection component. However, if you are responsible for the curriculum of a certificate program, we would encourage you to consider how you might incorporate career reflection as a means of enhancing the certificate. 

The only requirement of the midpoint reflection are the three key components- looking forward, looking back, and identifying next steps. How this is implemented is up to each individual program. The Canvas module or the written assignment have been developed so that you could drop them into a course or courses. You also can use them and customize them to better meet the needs of your students. (See the available resources here.) The specifics of the career reflection activity (and how these elements are incorporated) are at the discretion of each major and department.

We are relying on academic departments and programs to determine the effectiveness of their career reflections and adjust as they see necessary. The university recently added questions about career preparation on the Graduating Student Survey. We would expect that as departments implement the midpoint career reflection and related activities, the “Strongly Agree” and “Agree” responses to career preparation-related survey questions will increase. 

The first phase of the midpoint reflection initiative is an inventory to collect all of the great work already being done across campus. The inventory will take place during the months of November and December 2022. Each department chair will receive a request to complete an online inventory for each program within their department. You will be asked if you have a midpoint reflection within the required curriculum of your program. If you do, you will include what course it is in and be asked to attach the assignment/activity. If you do not yet have a midpoint reflection, you will be asked to identify a program contact responsible for integrating one. Career Services will then reach out to support the integration of a midpoint career reflection.

Career Services will be responsible for collecting all of the responses. 

• If your department or program reports a midpoint career reflection activity that includes the three key elements, that will be recorded. Career Services will be looking for unique reflection activities and best practices and will ask permission to share those with others.  
• If your department or program does not currently have an assignment that contains the key components of the midpoint reflection or if you have no career reflection assignment, Career Services will reach out to you to see how you would like support. 

The Spring 2023 semester will be used to consult with departments and support their work of integrating a midpoint career reflection into their curriculum.

In Fall 2023, Deans and university leadership will be provided with a status update that will include inventory response rates by college, best practices, and implementation highlights.

You will simply state that in the inventory and identify a program contact that will be initially responsible for integrating within the required curriculum. Career Services will reach out during the Spring 2023 semester to support the work of integrating a midpoint career reflection. 

We expect that departments will implement the midpoint reflection at different times. Some may already have it in their curriculum, some may be ready to implement in the Spring of 2023. At the latest, we anticipate that departments will be able implement this reflection at sometime throughout the 2023/24 academic year.