06/01/2025

Career Development Education Through Civic Engagement

By Kathleen Cramer

According to BBC correspondent Megan Carnegie, “Activism has long been synonymous with youth culture. From the May 1968 protests in France, and demonstrations against the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement in the US, to the global Occupy movement and the Arab Spring of the late noughties, young people have a record of pushing forward social change” (Carnegie, 2022, para. 4). Traditional-age college students (18–22 years old) have experienced civil unrest, politically charged issues, and international conflict since birth, including climate crises, social inequalities, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the great recession (Carnegie, 2022). These conflicts have sparked a generation motivated by their strong beliefs to end perceived injustices (Pazzanese, 2023). One example of this is Ateria Walker, a student in West Virginia University’s School of Nursing, who stated that “seeing COVID-19 firsthand, it gave me even more desire to want to be a nurse. The pandemic made us realize how important nurses are, along with other healthcare professionals” (Holdren, 2022, para. 4).

For students to safely utilize their voices, they need to understand their rights and the lasting implications of their actions. As demonstrated by the campus unrest occurring across the nation during the spring semester of 2024, students who protest may face academic sanctions, arrest, and criminal charges, making it harder to secure jobs in the future (Hogan, 2024). With a politically active student body, university career development professionals should be knowledgeable about how to work with students who desire to share their voice while potentially facing academic and legal discipline. Professionals can also educate students about crafting professional statements that are mindful of students’ values and beliefs without alienating potential employers.

Teaching Corporate Values Analysis

Working with students to analyze an organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion structures and belief system can help students find work that aligns with their ideology and corporate engagement. Ella Washington outlined a five-stage process for embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion into companies’ organizational culture, spanning from mere awareness to full sustainability (Washington, 2022). Students gain insight into organizations’ values when they learn how to examine employer language on websites, job descriptions, social media pages, and interview questions. As Tzigane Martin and Brooke Nelson noted in their article, “What About Company Culture? Centering Organizational Fit in Job Search Conversations” students can use environmental scans (physical office space), cyber-scans (online presence), and conversational scans (informational and professional interviews with employees), to garner insight into company culture. Martin and Nelson stated that proactively completing a self-reflection of what organizational culture and environment students would ideally like to work in, “streamlines the [job] search, saves time, avoids applying to unsuitable jobs, and leads to more satisfying careers” (Martin & Nelson, 2024, para. 6). For students who also add a layer of prior civic engagement and desire to continue civic engagement in the workforce, proactive investigation will also allow students to find work that allows them to stay engaged without raising potential barriers during hiring and employment.

Two of the premier sources of professional and ethical guidelines for many career services offices are the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2021) competencies and the National Career Development Association’s Code of Ethics (National Career Development Association, 2024). Career development professionals should integrate all competencies and ethical standards into their practices. A strong understanding of career development, professionalism, equity, inclusion, technology, and communication is vital for safe, career-minded student civic engagement. Career development professionals should regularly converse with students regarding the topics below.

Career and Self-Development

• The effects of protests and petitions on recruitment, including how employers search for names of protesters and signers
• Building skills such as communication, teamwork, planning, critical thinking, and event management through joining and leading civil protests
• Exploring career paths that allow beliefs and civic actions to be implemented at work

Professionalism

• Teaching students how to maintain cordial relationships in professional spaces despite holding strong, emotionally charged beliefs that may conflict with their coworkers
• Instructing students on how they can engage in campus negotiations with leadership and represent their interest group professionally to communicate with multiple stakeholders

Equity and Inclusion

• The importance of attending class, completing internships, and collaborating with people with different identities
• Being a vocal advocate in the workplace for an issue may mean alienating people with different viewpoints and backgrounds. Students should learn to be mindful of when, where, and with whom they engage in activism so as not to alienate their coworkers

Technology

• Using technology in civil protests, acknowledging the permanency of online posting and the implications that can have on job searching.
• As technology and AI are constantly changing, students should be aware of how their online presences will impact job searching, information sharing, interviewing, background checks, etc.

Communication

• Becoming skilled at communicating clearly, concisely, and professionally in any professional setting, especially if one of their core values is civic engagement. Once students enter the workforce, they can use skills learned during the college civic engagement to lobby their employers in support of other employees with marginalized identities.
• Career development professionals can model professional and appropriate language use during difficult conversations to demonstrate to students how students can bridge communication gaps between communities and uplift marginalized voices that are often silenced.

Promoting Career Success Through Civic Engagement

Students’ civic engagement greatly impacts their academic and career opportunities and shapes how they build their professional worlds. Career development professionals can teach students to highlight the transferable skills they have developed through their civic engagement to fit professional environments. By utilizing values-based job-searching techniques and promoting self-reflection, students can successfully navigate the ever-changing political and professional landscapes, creating a professional identity that revolves around their core values.

References

Carnegie, M. (2022, August 7). Gen Z: How young people are changing activism. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220803-gen-z-how-young-people-are-changing-activism      

Hogan, G. (2024, June 13). DA drops charges against seven CUNY students and staff arrested at pro-Palestinian occupation. THE CITY-NYC News. https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/06/12/cuny-students-charges-dropped-protest-palestine/     

Holdren, W. (2022, March 8). Despite COVID-19 challenges, WVU students find motivation, inspiration for their future nursing careers. WVU Today. https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2022/03/08/despite-covid-19-challenges-wvu-students-find-motivation-inspiration-for-their-future-nursing-careers   

Martin, T., & Nelson, B. (2024, June 1). What about company culture? Centering organizational fit in job search conversations. Career Convergence. https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/564152/_self/CC_layout_details/false

National Association of Colleges and Employers. (2021). Competencies for a career-readiness workforce. https://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/career-readiness-defined   

National Career Development Association. (2024). 2024 NCDA Code of Ethics. https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/asset_manager/get_file/3395?ver=738703     

Pazzanese, C. (2023, April 14). Rising political tide of young adults, Gen Z. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/04/rising-political-tide-of-young-adults-gen-z/     

Washington, E. (2022). The five stages of DEI maturity. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2022/11/the-five-stages-of-dei-maturity     

Kathleen Cramer (she/her) is the Career coach and Internship Specialist in the Career Design Center at SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY. Since her start at SUNY Brockport, her work has focused on promoting degree-relevant jobs and internship opportunities to students. She believes in using a holistic DEI framework to support the diversifying needs of higher education students. She can be contacted at kcramer@brockport.edu.