Christa Acampora and Julia Lapan on How Career Design Enables Student Success

How can career design transform student success when integrated directly with academic courses and advising, starting in the first year? How can higher education institutions shift student mindsets from passive box-checking to true agency and self-discovery where every experience is an experiment or prototype they can reflect on and learn from? How will AI change the “products” of career development like a LinkedIn profile or a project portfolio and what does that mean for students? We talk through these with Christa Acampora the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Julia Lapan the Director of Career Design and Discovery at University of Virginia.  Episode highlights include:  [5:56] Redefining Success Beyond Graduation Statistics - True student success focuses on human formation and life authorship rather than just employment data. [9:36] Scaling Career Design via First-Year Curricula - Integrating self-discovery directly into mandatory first-year courses provides equitable access for all entering students. [14:57] Shifting Mindsets from Box-Checking to Agency - Helping high-achieving students move past rigid, linear plans by framing the future as a series of prototypes. [21:22] Utilizing the Commonplace Book for Self-Reflection - Introducing practical tools that help students track their curiosities, values, and real-world experiments. [25:54] Human Formation in the Generation of AI - Recruiting students into their own learning by focusing on human capabilities that machines cannot replicate.