In Flux: How Career Services Professionals Navigate Changes in Higher Education and Serve Immigrant-Origin Students

• In Event: 41021 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 17: Higher Education

Abstract

A range of changes in higher education and the economy mean that there are growing demands on career services across U.S. higher education institutions; yet we know very little from a research standpoint about how these changes are playing out and impacting career services professionals. Through semi-structured interviews with 45 career services professionals, this dissertation study documents the challenges and opportunities these professionals face in scaling and improving the impact of their work at public institutions in states that enroll the highest shares of immigrant-origin students nationwide (i.e., a) Arizona; b) California; c) Connecticut; d) Florida; e) Hawaii; f) Illinois; g) Maryland; h) Massachusetts; i) Nevada; j) New Jersey; k) New York; l) Texas; and m) Washington). Specifically, the study is guided by the following research questions: 1. How do university-based career services professionals make sense of ongoing changes in higher education and how these changes impact their work?, and 2. How do university-based career services professionals make sense of their call to do DEI work and the growing number of immigrant-origin students on their campuses? Potential benefits of this study include raising awareness of the complex nature of career services work, including the needs of career services professionals, as well as informing institutional decision-making around career services resources and accessibility for immigrant-origin students.

Author

• Fanni Farago, George Mason University