Members of the Spelman College Career Pathways committee met for the first time on Friday, April 29 to celebrate the planning grant success and begin to share ideas. Below are the notes from our brainstorming session about research questions. Send YOUR feedback to CareerPathways@spelman.edu.

Many thanks to Margaret Farrow for recording the notes.
What do we want to know?
- What are the pathways to career/ employment?
- What are the current intersections between students/career services/faculty?
- How is the curricula aligned with career readiness?
What do we want to know… from alumnae?
- What do you wish you had done while at Spelman to prepare for your career?
- Are you in position to secure internships for current students?
- Are you working in your field of study? Why/why not?
- As a student, how did you secure your internship?
- Is there an adequate mechanism/ assistance to current students seeking jobs? How would you improve the connection?
- How do you assess your Spelman preparation in terms of soft skills and technical skills for your job?
- Do you think graduate studies would have better prepared you for the workplace?
What do we want to know… from seniors?
- When did you start preparing for life after Spelman?
- Do you feel Spelman has prepared you for your next step career wise?
- How many internships did you have while at Spelman?
- What do you wish you had known prior to obtaining your internship?
- Is your post Spelman placement related to your major?
- Would you have chosen a different major? If so, why?
- Did any faculty/ staff/ alumnae assist you with career planning?
- How helpful was the senior exit plan? Anything not covered that should be?
- How helpful was the Career Planning and Development office? Did you use it?
What do we want to know… from students?
- When do you first start thinking about jobs/career?
- Have you visited the Career Planning and Development Office? If not, why?
- Are you preparing for a job or a career?
- How did you select your major?
- Is your career/job choice based on money or passion?
- What service do you wish Career Planning and Development offered that is currently not available?
- How did the information you learned in class prepare you to function in an internship setting?
(Essentially, how are classroom core competencies directly related to success in internships?) - Did you investigate career options before selecting a major?
- How does your career path align with your values?
- Is career prep an important part of the Spelman experience?
What do we want to know… from employers?
- Where are our students falling short?
- What are our students’ strongest points?
- What type of preparatory training would you recommend?
- When do you begin to engage with students? (First year, second year, fourth year)
- What is your strategy for recruiting African American women into a workforce that may be mostly male and non-minority?
- What is your interest in hiring a Spelman student?
- What value do you place on diversity? Why?
What do we want to know… from faculty?
- Do you ever discuss career/life after Spelman in the classroom?
- Do you feel any responsibility for preparing students for careers (other than graduate school)?
- What have you heard from your former students about their career pathways?
- How often do you refer students to Career Planning and Development?
- How familiar are you with Career Planning and Development?
- How do you disseminate career opportunities that come directly to you?