Career Counseling: Six Questions for College Sophomores and Juniors

By Jill Randall and Christy Rotman

Welcome back! We are wishing you a wonderful and inspiring fall semester. Here are some questions to consider as you begin…..reflection is a valuable and important activity throughout your years in college.

1. Looking back at last year in school, what were the big ideas/themes for you personally?

What was one "aha" moment you had about your family, your future,  or your interests and talents?

2. What new ideas, questions, or connections percolated for you over the summer?  

What did you find yourself thinking about or questioning over the summer? What did you find yourself dreaming about or longing for? How might your dreams have morphed or shifted?​

3. Looking at your course load for fall, what are you excited about with each course?

4. Inner/outer: How are you feeling about your dancing and/or future career?

How are you processing your thoughts? Who are you sharing these thoughts with? Who might be someone you could pursue as a mentor to help serve as a sounding board and offer her experience – a professor, an advisor, someone in the community, your parents? (Some combination of all of these would be IDEAL!) 

5. If you had to decide today, what do you want to be pursuing after graduation? 

What steps might you take during your senior year? What would your first steps be upon graduating?​

6. What is your growth mindset for this coming semester?

• I want to explore….
• I am working on…..
• I want to continue to…..
• In technique classes, my current focus and area of growth is…..

The growth mindset language comes out of the work of Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck. Her book is entitled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Here is an article that explains this philosophy:

http://alexvermeer.com/why-your-mindset-important/.

 

We hope these questions can be useful for college sophomores and juniors – reflecting on their own – and they also can be used within a course or advising meeting as well.

—————

In 2007, Christy Rotman moved west to dance in the Bay Area. While she worked administratively with AXIS Dance Company, she performed with Paufve Dance, Nina Haft, Alyce Finwall, and more. Highlights include the incredible dance friendships she found and touring to New York and Portland. In 2014, Christy began a master’s degree in counseling at Saint Mary's College (Moraga, CA), specializing in College Student Services, and is now eagerly anticipating an academic advising internship at UC Berkeley. She is grateful to the college students that helped her discover this new path and the loving support of her parents, husband, and friends all along.

Jill Randall is the Blog Director for Life as a Modern Dancer. Read her full bio here.

—————————————–