Sociology has recently found itself lumped in with a group of subjects on the STEM periphery or in the humanities that stand accused of not offering undergradaute students adequate career preparation and skills — leading to questions about whether universities, families, and students should invest in them. This is despite the fact that Sociology’s curriculum develops the combination of analytical skills and interpersonal understandings that employers, including in technologically intensive fields, praise as ideal for their potential employees.
This talk will describe the development and pilot implementation of the Sociology Pathway and Career Exploration Resource (SPACER) – a tool that helps undergraduate Sociology students at UT-Austin more effectively link their courses of study to their career pathways. Funded by the National Science Foundation and developed in collabroation with campus Career Services experts, SPACER (a working title) runs alongside a semester-long Sociology course through course management software. After onboarding specific to their class year, students have access to 15 modules including Marketing Your Sociology Degree, Transferable Skills, and Networking and Informational Interviews; links to existing campus resources for those pursuing graduate, medical, or law school that have been scaffolded with additional material specific to Sociology students; and receive weekly announcements from Career Services targeted to Sociology students. Pilot implementation and informal and formal assessment occurred in a Research Methods course enrolling approximately 20 students, mostly juniors and seniors. In the future, we will test the tool in courses of varying sizes and develop a version for dissemination to other colleges and universities.