By Sophie Lange, Assistant News Editor
(Photo Eric Lippe/The Gettysburgian)
This year, Gettysburg College unveiled Guided Pathways, a program that adds co-curricular involvement to students’ academic and career experiences.
Through the Pathways programs, students will gain, develop and utilize skills through the intentional selection of experiences that align with their interests. Additionally, students are provided with a framework that allows them to consider how each experience helped them gain knowledge, build upon previous experiences and draw connections between their experiences and academic careers. The end goal of Pathways is to equip students with ways to express how their time at Gettysburg has made them convincing candidates for future positions in the professional world, as well as how it has prepared them for a variety of activities.
Associate Dean of Co-Curricular Education Jim Duffy explained the purpose of the Pathways Program.
“The thing I often tell folks is, if you look at our [clubs and organizations], it can be quite overwhelming,” Duffy said. “Really, what [Pathways] provides is a way to… make intentional decisions as to what works best for them.”
The program contains five different Pathways for students to choose: Career Development; Creativity, Entrepreneurship & Innovation; Global Citizenship & Intercultural Fluency; Justice & Community Change; and Leadership, Teamwork & Collaboration. All students in the Pathways program must complete the Career Development Pathway and select one other to take part in.
Each student in the program has three advisors: an academic advisor, a career advisor and a co-curricular advisor. In their first year, students will explore a variety of Pathways to gain a better understanding of which one best suits their needs and interests. Introductory experiences to the Pathways include activities such as on-site job shadowing or attendance at the January term industry meetup.
Duffy explained that the introductory experiences are similar to “searching for a major. [Students] are taking a number of different classes, [and] students may do three to five of these.”
In their second and third years, students within the program will complete exploratory experiences in the Career Development Pathway. Exploratory experiences include activities such as meeting with a Career Engagement Counselor, participating in an externship or research project and developing job-specific and transferable skills. By the end of sophomore year, students must choose one Pathway, in addition to Career Development, that they will complete in their remaining time at Gettysburg. During this time, students may also choose to add an alumni mentor to their Personal Advising Team.
Finally, in their third and fourth years, students will complete a consequential experience in their chosen Pathway and the Career Development Pathway. Similar to a capstone for a major, examples of consequential experiences include completing an Eisenhower Institute Washington Summer Fellowship, serving as a PLA or developing transferable and job-specific skills through employment in a leadership or management role. Duffy elaborated on the meaning of these consequential experiences.
“They all have an impact on [the] community… If a student did study abroad, that’s an exploratory experience, but if a student did study abroad and did an internship that brought water to a remote, rural area, then that would be consequential,” said Duffy.
Students in the Class of ’27 and beyond must opt into the program in order to participate. Of the current first-year class, 76% of students opted into the program. However, the Student Life Committee (SLC) plans to reassess the program in the future to decide if it should be a requirement. The earliest that this program may be required for all students is Fall 2025 with the incoming class of ’29.
This article originally appeared on page 17 of the October 2023 edition of The Gettysburgian’s magazine.
