Enhancing College and Career Readiness Programs for Underserved Adolescents

Abstract

Supporting college and career readiness among youth who encounter significant academic and life challenges requires innovative strategies to help them envision their futures, leverage their strengths and develop dispositions that promote positive trajectories. For youth development professionals who develop and implement novel programmatic approaches to support the college and career readiness of underserved youth, it is critical to acquire a deeper evidence-based understanding of factors shaping positive career and college pathways as well as to incorporate stakeholder viewpoints in their program design and delivery. In this article, we share key insights from our program development process that can inform the work of program developers, educators and youth services providers who seek to build and enhance career and college readiness programs aimed at underserved youth. We summarize 4 key insights from a narrative review of literature on college and career readiness as well as findings from a set of stakeholders (student, parent and educator) focus groups. We offer our ideas for incorporating these insights alongside stakeholder input into the development and design of college and career readiness activities and programming.

The Influence of Family and Religion on Youth Decisions in Higher Education English Literature Review

“…However, these studies are primarily quantitative and lack the specificity and detail of qualitative research. There is a gap in the literature regarding how African American college students perceive the impact of parental influence on decision-making during enrollment and college readiness (Espinosa et al, 2019;Gee et al, 2020).…”

Promoting college and career readiness among underserved adolescents: A mixed methods pilot study

“…P2F4A promotes adolescents' social-emotional development in areas such as self-awareness, goal setting and persistence as well as builds their knowledge of how to prepare for college and career pathways after high school (Gee et al, 2020). The research team iteratively designed P2F4A by modifying and expanding a version of the curriculum originally developed for young women with disabilities, Paths to the Future (P2F) -Girls (Lindstrom, Hirano, Ingram, DeGarmo, & Post, 2019).…”

“…Conclusion: Our new indings suggest that college and career readiness curriculum interventions-if appropriately developed for and targeted to underserved adolescents-have strong potential to build underserved adolescents' foundational skills that they can apply towards realizing their future college and career aspirations.During the transition to young adulthood, adolescents more deeply wrestle with choices about their educational and professional futures. Many underserved adolescents, deined as those with inequitable access to educational resources (Deil-Amen & DeLuca, 2010), face limited choices about their educational and professional futures due to their lack of access to interventions and supports that develop their college and career know-how (Gee et al, 2020). Interventions like college and career readiness (CCR) curricular programs can help youth build positive attitudes, behaviors, and skills as well as explore their emergent college and career aspirations (Bates, Anderson-Butcher, Niewoehner-Green, & Provenzano, 2019;Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee, 2002).…”

Book Review: (Re)Defining the Goal: The True Path to Career Readiness in the 21st Century

“…At the same time that more and more jobs have a need for post-secondary education (Conley, 2012), employers report that young people are entering the workforce unprepared (Jiminez, 2020). Because of their focus on developing youth potential, youth development programs are ideally suited to help students navigate the transition to post-secondary education and the workforce (e.g., Bates et al, 2020;Gee et al, 2020;Horrillo et al, 2021).…”