Live Your Best (Future) Life: From College to Career
In this course students will identify and reflect deeply on their strengths, values, and motivations and learn how to apply self-knowledge to their search for personally meaningful work. Students will be introduced to leading career development theories including Pryor and Bright’s Chaos Theory of Careers, Krumboltz’s Planned Happenstance, Jung’s Theory of Personality, and Appreciative Inquiry; hear from professional experts; and practice skills proven to increase their access to purposeful opportunities in the world of work. Classes will involve instructor led lectures followed by discussions, case studies, videos/podcasts, career inventories, speakers and panels, and individual/group reflections. Students will learn how to use tools and strategies to navigate their immediate and future job searches that will be useful throughout their lifetimes.

Ursula Olender M.Ed. is a career services leader with extensive experience building career development ecosystems and highly productive teams. With more than 25 years of experience, she joined Middlebury in 2016 as Director of Career Advising and Employer Relations and Business/Finance Careers Advisor, she previously directed career centers at Amherst College and Colgate University, and was chief health professions advisor and associate director at Dartmouth College.

Tracy Himmel Isham is a professional having worked for 14 years in the natural resource sector and 20 years at Middlebury College and the Center for Careers and Internships as a social impact and education career adviser. Her career has spanned the nonprofit, for-profit, start-up venture, and association worlds focusing on global issues and pragmatic solutions: the environment and ecosystem market-based models; economic, community and market development; fair trade; innovation and social entrepreneurship; sustainable food systems; and educational access./