• BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & Other People of Color): In this Plan, you will see BIPOC used interchangeably with FGEM and high-priority students.
• Cultural Wealth Model: “Cultural wealth includes the assets, strengths, and capital of of marginalized groups” (Garriott, 2020, p. 87). This Plan seeks to build upon the cultural wealth of our students and help them grow their potential for career mobility.
• DEI: For the purposes of this Plan, DEI is a collective term that refers to an elevated awareness of difference (Diversity), the promotion of justice and fairness within systems (Equity), and the act of welcoming diverse others (Inclusion).
• DSA: Departmental Student Advisors help answer K students’ questions about classes, majors, minors, and academic concentrations.
• FDS: The CCPD administers the First Destination Survey each year to learn about graduating seniors’ plans after college.
• FGEM (First-Generation/Economically Marginalized): “First-generation students tend to be members of economically and racially marginalized groups” (Garriott, 2020, p. 80).
• GLCA: Kalamazoo College is one of 13 liberal arts colleges affiliated with the Great Lakes Colleges Association, Inc.
• High-Priority Students: Historically, certain groups have been excluded from mainstream life. The intent of this Plan is to focus on students who may have experienced inequity due to race, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, and/or immigration status.
• NACM: The Career Leadership Collective administers the National Alumni Career Mobility Survey to better understand graduates’ return on their higher education investment.
• SWOT Analysis: The process of identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• White Supremacy Culture: A philosophy by which organizations proliferate certain standards and norms, specifically around professional behavior and expectations. These can be damaging because they prohibit marginalized people from advancing (Jones & Okun, 2001)).

Curricular & Co-Curricular Programs

The College is committed to advancing all elements of the K-Plan and preparing students for life after K. Participation in high-impact experiential education is key to building a strong educational foundation and the CCPD’s Strategic Plan amplifies the K-Plan, making opportunities more equitable to high-priority students.

Community

Engaging alumni after K and fostering an inclusive and supportive campus align with the CCPD Strategic Plan because access to our services don’t expire for K alumni. We hope to strengthen our relationship with alumni specifically through a formalized mentorship program to support students of color.

Campus

An ambitious goal of the CCPD’s Plan involves rebranding and relocating the Career Center. By rebranding the work as helping students tell their unique K-Plan stories and by positioning the CCPD in a more visible, centralized location, accessibility and equity will be enhanced.

Endowment

Sustaining a high-quality College experience requires support from all partners. Ensuring that K-Plan elements such as internships, externships, and student employment are appropriately compensated allows more students, especially high-priority students, to engage and connect those experiences to life after K.

Communication

“Learning to successfully articulate one’s ideas is a critical skill that sets our students apart in the workforce and empowers them to be pioneers in their field.” One of the eight NACE competencies, communication is described as the ability to “clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization.”

Address Complex Problems

“Developing critical thinking is a central tenet of a Kalamazoo College education; we want our students to creatively innovate and envision solutions to today’s most pressing problems.” Critical Thinking, another NACE competency, is the ability to “identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.”

Collaborate Successfully

“At K, we want our students to learn how to cooperate with people of all beliefs and backgrounds so that they can go on to become team players, coalition builders and community organizers.” Designated as Teamwork, NACE describes this competency as the ability to “build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.”

Demonstrate Intercultural Fluency

“It is central to our mission that students expand their sense of community to become conscientious global citizens who can empathize with and appreciate richly diverse cultures.” Identified by NACE as Equity & Inclusion, the ability to “demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures.

Strategic Actions

• Complete a data audit to identify gaps in information and knowledge about and for high-priority students
  • Colleague /Handshake data
  • Focus Groups (student workers, DSA’s, student organizations, faculty, campus partners, alumni)
  • Peer Career Centers
  • Industry Trends
• Train Campus Career Delegates to infuse content pervasively

Data Points

• Appointments
• FDS Response Rates
• Identity-Based Resources
• Staffing Structures
• Budgets
• Alumni Reflections
• Internship Program Stats

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• Can we compensate students for emotional labor involved in identity-based assessment?
• Can we earmark funds specifically for students of color?
• How do we incentive high-priority student engagement?
• Key partners to engage: Counseling Center, Admission, Advising, Alumni Engagement
• Can we get info from the Common App if personal information is removed?

Assessment Metrics

• Formal Audit Report completed
• Gap Analysis completed
• Industry Trends Assessment completed
• Focus Group Analysis completed
• Your K Story Guide expansion completed
• Updated Internship Stipend Model Proposed

Strategic Actions

• Create public dashboard to display knowledge from data audits and progress made
• Locate, assess, update, and create resources that attend to the specific needs of high-priority student populations
  • Update existing links and resources
  • Use peer-reviewed content to design identity-based, K-branded guide
• Expand CCPD reach
  • Studio Expansion
  • Career Delegate expansion

Data Points

• Dashboard Metrics
• Website Audit
• Print/Virtual Resources
• Identity-Based Guide Content
• Career Studio Engagement & Forecasting

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• What have we learned from our audits? Where are the gaps?
• What needs to be addressed in our virtual presence to be more equitable?
• What metrics need to be displayed on a public-facing dashboard?
• What content do we already have and how might it need updating?
• What content must we create to serve our students better?
• How might we consider folding DEI Champions into Parker Dewey?

Assessment Metrics

• Dashboard Skeleton completed
• Website Audit completed
• Identity-Based Resource Audit completed
• Creation of Identity-Based Guides project
• Career Studio Evaluation completed
• Your K Story Guides for majors/departments plan created
• # of FGEM, BIPOC, international students engaged in experiential education increases
• Increase in Internship Stipends for high-priority students

Strategic Actions

• Officially market identity- based resources, services, and initiatives
  • Infuse into K curriculum via Shared Passages Seminars
  • Make content available to faculty via Moodle content/on the CCPD website
• Solidify recruitment strategy
  • Hire more diverse CCPD staff
  • Increase Career Delegates

Data Points

• Shared Passages Seminar Strategy
• Faculty Moodle
• Course Modules
• Recruitment Strategy

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• How do we think developmentally about the content that should be infused into each Shared Passages Seminar?
• What content should be elevated to make it easy for faculty to integrate into their courses?
• How will we encourage use of the faculty Moodle modules?
• How does the current recruitment strategy need to be updated to ensure equity?
• How can we ensure all students access experiential education equitably?

Assessment Metrics

• Shared Passages Program Infusion Strategy completed
• Identity-Based Guides Project Phase II completed
• Faculty Moodle Content completed
• Your K Story Guides for Majors continued
• Formal recruitment/hiring strategy completed
• Career Studio expansion plan complete

Strategic Actions

• Identify opportunities for a structured professional development program for staff/students
  • Partner with HR for pro staff
  • Pilot student employment program
• Identify, generate, and curate content to support professional development efforts
  • Navigation Series Guides
  • Your K Story Guides
  • Webinar Series

Data Points

• Student Employment Survey Data
• HR Offerings
• Content Audit

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• How might we consider assessing levels of DEI knowledge as we build out professional development content and structures?
• What staff group(s) might we consider for piloting professional development ideas?
• Who else might we partner with to identify professional development gaps that exist across campus?
• How might the creation of student employee resource groups be beneficial to these efforts?

Assessment Metrics

• Formal Content Audit completed
• Student Employment Program Plan drafted
• DEI Guides/Webinar Series Plan drafted

Strategic Actions

• Formalize Student Employment Program
  • Create hiring plan for AD, Student Employment
  • Institutionalize professional development for student employees
  • Institute tiered compensation model
• Formalize Partnership with HR for Staff Professional Development Program
  • Institute model to compensate staff for professional development engagement

Data Points

• Budget
• GLCA Benchmarks
• Compensation Modeling
• Professional Development Compensation Modeling

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• What budget barriers exist when it comes to creating a scaffolded wage model for student employees?
• What budget barriers exist when it comes to creating a compensation model for professional staff to engage in paid staff development opportunities?
• How can we arrive at an institutionalized definition of professional development that overtly centers identity and inclusion?
• How might Arcus’s professional development model be a helpful template for our own?

Assessment Metrics

• Hiring Plan for AD, Student Employment
• Staff Development Plan drafted
• Updated compensation Models drafted for pro/student staff
• Increase in student employment opportunities & participation
• Institutional definition of professional development

Strategic Actions

• DEI Certification Series
  • Pro/Student Staff
• Student Employment Program
  • Implemented AD hired and onboarded
  • Professional development program implemented in all positions
  • Updated compensation model
• Content infusion across campus
  • Faculty, staff, & students

Data Points

• Certification Criteria
• Compensation Models
• Content Strategy/Plan

Key Questions

• What all comprises an effective and thoughtful certification series?
• How will we assess the student employment program?
• How will we assess the professional development program for staff?
• How might infusion and marketing strategies/content differ for student, faculty, and staff audiences?

Assessment Metrics

• Onboarding of AD, Student Employment completed
• Professional development plan implemented in student employment
• Professional Development assessment plan drafted
• Campus content infusion strategy drafted and deployed

Strategic Actions

• Perform a SWOT analysis
  • Identify topics where staff may need additional support, learning, and content
  • Clarify topics that align with the needs of high-priority students
• Seek out consultation experts to guide staff in immersive experiences to further develop our DEI competencies
  • Justice at Work
  • Professional association

Data Points

• Self-Assessment Data
• DEI Competencies
• External Expertise

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• How much time, how many resources, and what energy will the staff commit to this work?
• How do we determine different levels of knowledge to appropriately acquire new skills and information?
• Who are the experts in this field and how can we connect with them?
• How can we infuse concepts of White Supremacy Culture and the Community Cultural Wealth Model prominently into our trainings and resources?

Assessment Metrics

• SWOT Analysis completed for pro staff and student staff
• DEI Competency Self-Assessments completed for staff and students
• Staff Commitment Contracts completed

Strategic Actions

• Collect and curate resources and information to enhance staff training practices
  • Identify books, articles, and classes that focus on identity and career
• Organize collected resources and information prominently in training and professional development practices
  • Infuse resources developmentally into student employment training modules
  • Infuse resources into staff meetings

Hire expert consultant to offer guidance on next steps

Data Points

• Resource Audit Data
• Staff Data Mine re: Training Topics
• Moodle Content
• Staff Meeting Structure

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• What resources and knowledge do our student and professional staffs have, and what of it can be compiled and curated to assist with trainings?
• What is the status of our Moodle content for students and staff? How can it be enhanced and made more efficient for training and professional development?
• How can we fully transform our staff meetings/professional development to be centered around identity and career development?
• What does our budget look like to invite experts to work with us as a team on transforming our work in an identity-centric manner?
• How can we leverage CAs/DSAs in this work?

Assessment Metrics

• Resource Archive created
• Identity-Based Moodle modules created, organized, and assessed
• Staff meeting strategy created and implemented
• Expert consultant identified and hired

Strategic Actions

• Assess quality of training content
• Hold staff accountable to personal development related to DEI work
  • Require yearly trainings/updates on knowledge acquired
  • Require DEI commitment in position descriptions/work
• Infuse knowledge gained into all aspects of the CCPD

Data Points

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• What assessments need to be created in order for us to adequately evaluate our extant trainings and content?
• How can we develop a staff-centered approach to evaluating staff on DEI work, and appropriately holding people accountable on a regular basis?
• How are we actively infusing knowledge gained through expert consultants and our own professional development into all aspects of the CCPD’s work?

Assessment Metrics

• Assessment Instrument(s) for content evaluation created
• Job description statements created to include identity-based professional development and infusion
• 360 review of CCPD’s work toward full integration completed

Strategic Actions

• Employ Data Audit results to
  • define career wellness
  • determine content gapsin curriculum
  • assess FDS to mine identity, usage, outcomes

• Identify, create, and update career readiness resources
  • Develop identity-based grab-and-go classroom assignments

Collate information on diverse alumni

Data Points

• Data Audit Results
• Curriculum Audit
• Alumni Engagement

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• What is the CCPD’s official definition of career wellness?
• What enhancements can be made to the FDS to make it more useful in assessing identity specific outcomes?
• What kinds of tools, assessments, and resources exist or need to be created to provide quality identity-based career readiness assignments to faculty?
• How do we identify, recruit, and invite alumni from high-priority populations to engage with current students?

Assessment Metrics

• Formal career wellness definition
• FDS as graduation requirement
• Gap Analysis results Create Career
• Readiness Assessment
• Begin identity-based grab-and-go classroom assignment project
• Creation of Career Champions program

Strategic Actions

• Collect information regarding summer internship/job/other participation for high-priority students
• Build collection of identity-based classroom assignments focused on identity and values
• Assess Hornet Huddles program to include more of an identity focus
• Revisit the required CCPD component in Sophomore Seminars to include identity-based career readiness

Data Points

• Internship Participation
• Hornet Huddles Engagement
• Sophomore Seminar Expectations

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• What data exists regarding student internship participation, and how can we learn more about which students participate and which do not?
• How do we assess the Hornet Huddles program? In what ways can it be enhanced to better center identity? How can other partners assist?
• What are the expectations for faculty teaching Sophomore Seminars? How do we hold them accountable to engaging the CCPD in their courses?

Assessment Metrics

• Student internship participation assessment
• Phase II of grab-and-go faculty resources complete
• Hornet Huddles assessment complete
• Sophomore Seminar strategy complete
• # FGEM, BIPOC, international students engaged in experiential education increases

Strategic Actions

• Increase internship donors
• Assess K alumni along factors such as identity, career wellness, underemployment, etc.
• Assess staffing needs for crediting experiential education
• Develop additional sections of Real World: K-College

Data Points

• Donor Engagement
• Alumni Career Mobility
• Staffing Needs

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• How can we engage additional donors to supply stipends specifically for identity-based career-related experiential opportunities?
• How do K alumni fare when it comes to career mobility after graduation?
• What might it take to scale up internship engagement and provide additional sections of careers courses?

Assessment Metrics

• 50 additional donor-funded experiential opportunity stipends
• Partnership with the NACM
• Staffing prospectus for FY 2025-2028
• 2 additional career-related courses added to course schedule
• # FGEM, BIPOC, international students engaged in experiential education increases

Strategic Actions

• Continue work on an employer’s DEI rubric
  • Seek input from students to enhance rubric and train them on its use
  • Use FDS data to inform

• Use resources like Diversity Inc.
  • Label exemplary employers in Handshake and make viewable by students

• Update resources as appropriate
  • Create a page solely dedicated to DEI resources for employers 
  • Refresh digital content to educated students about using this rubric/guide 

Data Points

• DEI Employer Rubric
• FDS Data
• Student Feedback
• Extant Resources 

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• In what ways can we build upon the already great work done on our DEI rubric to make it more accessible and useful to students?
• What additional resources exist for us to evaluate companies and employers for their inclusive hiring practices?
• How might we consider refreshing our digital and static content to reflect the hiring practices of inclusive employers, and how do we elevate knowledge of these resources to high-priority students? 

Assessment Metrics

• Phase II of DEI Rubric drafted
• Student focus groups completed
• FDS data mining completed
• Employer Handshake labeling strategy drafted Digital resource refresh started
• Handshake signal boosting strategy refined and implemented 

Strategic Actions

• Reassess CCPD staffing structure to determine scalability of employer-focused efforts
• Deploy next phase of student implementation
• Design a full-scale marketing plan focused on companies committed to inclusive hiring

Data Points

• CCPD Staffing Structure
• Student Implementation Plan
• Marketing Plan

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• In what ways is the CCPD staffing structure prohibiting us from adequately scaling up this work to educate, engage, and promote employers who commit to inclusive hiring practices?
• How are we assessing our efforts related to promoting this content to high-priority students?

Assessment Metrics

• Staffing structure assessment completed
• Student implementation plan drafted and implemented
• Marketing plan drafted and implemented

Strategic Actions

• Reassess DEI Guide
• Assess education efforts
  • Student education
  • Employer education

Data Points

• DEI Guide
• Student Engagement
• Employer Engagement

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• In what ways is our DEI Guide working or not working? How are we assessing its efficacy?
• How are we defining ‘student engagement’ and ’employer engagement?’
• In what ways can we better promote our efforts related to employers with inclusive hiring practices?

Assessment Metrics

• Phase III of DEI Guide drafted
• Assessment of DEI Guide for student engagement completed
• Assessment of DEI Guide for employer engagement

Strategic Actions

• Evaluate employers and expand access to DEI Champions
  • Form Employer Advisory Board 
  • Establish Employer Relations Student Team

• Coach students & connect them to DEI Champions
  • Craft strategy for providing greater financial assistance to FGEM students for experiential ed 
  • Improve K-Connect curriculum
  • Provide ongoing support for students and DEI Champions 

Data Points

• Employer Engagement Data
• Industry Gap Analysis 

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• What is our definition of DEI Champion, and how do we refine it?
• How are we engaging with employers to determine how they champion DEI efforts?
• How are we identifying gaps in employers/industries of interest to K students?
• What is our strategy for engaging employers and high-priority students, remotely and in person?
• How can we communicate to students the value of working for DEI Champions? 

Assessment Metrics

• Employer Advisory Board strategy created and implemented 
• Industry Gap Analysis completed
• Employer Relations Student Team structure created
• # of  connection events planned
• # of K-Connect employers
• % of DEI Champions in K-Connect employers
• # of employers hiring international students 

Strategic Actions

• Evaluate employers and expand access to DEI Champions
  • Refine resources
  • Create Options Menu
• Coach students & connect them to DEI Champions
  • Reallocate CCPD staff responsibilities to include DEI Champion connections
• DIY externships paid for FGEMs

Data Points

• Identity-Centric Resource Audit
• Marketing Strategy
• DEI Menu Data Points

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• How can we publicize successful connections between DEI Champions and K students?
• How can the extant K-Connect program be expanded to include identity-centric practices?
• What connection opportunities will most appeal to DEI Champions/students?

Assessment Metrics

• Resource audit completed
• Employer-facing identity-based resource strategy/template drafted
• DEI Offerings Menu strategy created and piloted

Strategic Actions

• Evaluate employers and expand access to DEI Champions
  • Provide full suite of Options Menu
  • Strengthen partnerships
• Coach students & connect them to DEI Champions
  • Reassess CCPD staffing structure for sustainability
  • Assign every FGEM a Career Coach
  • Create identity-based mentoring program

Data Points

• CCPD Staffing Structure
• Budget Forecast
• Student Engagement

Key Questions/Factors to Consider

• How can we encourage local/national employers to hire high-priority students for leadership-tracked opportunities?
• How can we challenge Kalamazoo College to be a DEI Champion?
• How might we connect every sophomore/junior FGEM to an internship opportunity?

Assessment Metrics

• # of students gaining employment with DEI Champions, including FGEM, BIPOC, international students
• Student reflections on experiential education
• Identity-based mentoring program created