In this episode of Sage Studio, we speak with Stacey Mathis, a career counselor at MiraCosta College, about the crucial role of career counseling in helping students make informed decisions regarding their college and career trajectories. Mathis emphasizes the importance of beginning career exploration in high school and offers insights on how students can utilize career counseling services before and after enrolling in college. Additionally, the podcast covers the differences between career and academic counseling, the significance of internships and the critical thinking involved in career planning. Mathis also gives advice on course selection, the value of soft skills, and how to approach combining passions with practical career paths. The discussion delves into MiraCosta College's resources, including a unique dual enrollment course, CRLP101, aimed at aiding students in career and life planning. The episode concludes with an invitation for students to explore career counseling opportunities and the comprehensive support community colleges offer to guide students through their academic and career choices.
00:00 Navigating Careers and College Counseling: An Insightful Introduction 01:19 Meet Stacey Mathis: The Career Counseling Expert 02:08 The Essence of Career Counseling Over Academic Counseling 03:26 Unlocking Career Paths: Programs and Strategies for Success 05:15 The Power of Dual Enrollment: A Gateway to Career Clarity 06:42 Navigating Parental Expectations and Student Aspirations 09:52 The Importance of Internships and On-Campus Jobs 10:57 Emerging Career Trends: Cybersecurity and AI 13:27 The Value of Community College in Career Planning 13:27 Closing Thoughts: Leveraging Counselor Resources Before College
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When it comes to thinking about careers and life after high school, it can feel really daunting. And in today's episode, we are going to be talking with a college counselor who specializes in careers and career placements from Mira Costa College. Now, the great thing about a career counselor versus an academic counselor, is that a career counselor is going to be taking into consideration the career path that the student might be on, and then helping them to forge academic choices based on that career path. So this is something that you should be kind of keeping your eye out for. You don't have to wait until you're student is enrolled into a college in order to take advantage of these services. So stay tuned for this podcast. We're going to be hearing some of the tips and tricks that our career counselor, Stacey Mathis of MiraCosta College has to say about ways that students can start thinking about their careers right now while they're in high school, and then use that to start planning out their coursework once they get to college. Stay tuned. Welcome to another episode of Sage Studio. I'm Tiffiny Webster, and today we are talking all about college and careers. I have such a great guest with me, Stacey Mathis. Stacey, go ahead and tell us a little bit about your role in what you do in helping students with career and college choices. Perfect. Thank you so much. My name is Stacey Mathis. I am the career counselor at MiraCosta College. I am the only full time tenure career counselor at MiraCosta College. I have an extensive background in counseling for over 10 years. Here at MiraCosta. I only focus on career counseling and we'll be diving into what exactly that is and the difference between academic counseling and career counseling I love it. Let's dive in. Let's do it. Tell us about it. What is the difference between career and college counseling? So in most colleges, most community colleges, there is something called general counseling. And so you kind of go to that counselor and they have a couple of people who specialize in career, but they can also tell you what courses to take. I work with people who have absolutely no idea what they want to do. they have a couple of things they're toggling between, or they even know exactly what they want to pursue, but want to know more about it. Example. I've had some marine biology students come over and be like, okay, I'm a marine biology major, but I want to know more about the scuba diving part. And so there's just different components. So that's kind of what I do. I specialize which is not a bad gig because it allows me to have the space to have that holistic conversation with people I feel like this is the first thing we should be talking about when we're trying to direct students in to go to college. And so before it used to be like just You know, just see what you like, just explore. And that's kind of true. But financial aid will no longer pay for classes that are not lined up with the student's major. And how fair is that? Because how fair is it for us to ask someone so young? What do you want to do with the rest of your life? Now, how about if someone knows that they want to do something with say music? But they don't know what, can you take someone's just thoughts about what they might want to do and help them establish a career path with that? Absolutely. So there's a couple of programs that I really love. My favorite ultimate program is called"What Can I Do With this Major?" It is on on our career center websites for resources for students. I know a little bit about a lot of things, right? But the music teacher has most likely went to school with people who are doing all kinds of things in music. So I always say, you know, your professor is like, number one, if you feel a connection, you know, ask, but there's the And I do with this program if I click music, it'll have what different areas within music and then what is the common career path you do in this area and then who can employ you and then the strategies to get there. And that is the piece that I feel like is so important. It's the strategy, right? How do we arrive to what we want? On the flip side of that, I always tell students, is that when we graduate on Friday, 9 times out of 10, almost 9. 99 times, we are not in our dream job on Monday. Unless we've done an internship, we have a family member who's connected, you know, the networking. so it doesn't mean you have to start at the bottom, but you need to also have ideas of what else can be done in music in the area you would like to do as you're trying to achieve and get to your number 1 goal I think that's so important. And I think that it really does help students to begin to connect the dots without necessarily having to feel like they have to figure it all out right at the beginning. They just kind of have to start the process and then you can help guide them from there. So I think that's a tremendous help for students. I understand that you even offer right now a dual enrollment class high school students can take to help them start getting the wheels turning for some of these career decisions. Tell me a little bit about that course. So our course is called CRLP101. So it's career and life planning. And what it is designed to do is everything that I talked about in. in an appointment with a counselor, it's literally a course. It's on Canvas. It's one unit and it's eight weeks. And I teach it and it is a very simple course to where it's for the student and about the student. so when we talk about the steps to career planning, it's a triangle that they do. career exploration is where we kind of dive deep and then the next part is decision making. And then the other part is reevaluation, right? it is giving them all the knowledge and the meat and potatoes they need. In order to understand the process and kind of know what they want to do. And so I think it's a phenomenal class and again, it's. It's on Canvas. It's 100 percent online. Once a week I open up a module. They have the whole week from Sunday to do it. And it's not hard again. It's all about them. And when can you take the course all about you and get credit for it in college. So I think it's a phenomenal start for students. And it sounds like that would be a great way for some of our students who are already familiar with Canvas to easily kind of take those first baby steps into maybe trying out a dual enrollment course if they haven't done so before. This sounds like it might be a good one. Here's the thing us as parents of, children who are turning into adults, we want what we want for them. but the thing about students are, if it's not really what they want or what they're interested in, they don't tend to do well. So we want to make sure that we are giving the students the safe space to be who they want to be. Do you have any advice for students who, even if they try to go through the right steps and do the career planning and then find themselves taking classes that they don't like starting to develop a career in a pathway that they no longer want to be in. What do they do? Talk to someone. Please do not stay in something you don't like. The flip side of my job is, remember, I used to do academic and career counseling together. How many times in the past have I seen a student who's getting ready to graduate in business, but doesn't like business? There's a student I've worked with recently. I knew she didn't like business, So the last thing you want to do is stay in something you don't like sooner rather than later. if you're working with someone in career, like myself, we're digging into everything, right? We're looking at what you can do, what you can't do, what you should do. No one ever said they can't change, you know, at all. you don't want to change 3 semesters in and then like monopoly go all the way back to go within reason. And that will make your time in community college longer here's something that students don't know or don't recognize. Not all schools have all majors. if you come to MiraCosta or another community college and you want to be an audiologist, which is basically people who work with hearing impaired and so forth. Miracosa doesn't have that program, but if you know the, four year institution, we will, connect the classes so that you can apply to whatever school has the program your counselor will take control and make sure that you're planned out properly to make a smooth transition. I love that. That's some really great advice. So if you have an idea in mind that involves continuing on to a four year university, it's okay. If the community college that you first attend doesn't fully have a major in that, as long as they know where you want to go, then they can work with you on taking the classes necessary to set you up for success. Absolutely. I love that. Okay. Great advice because I think oftentimes, you know, students may want to stick a little closer to home. Maybe they want to try being on a campus for the first time. I know in the case of our charter school students they have been doing a lot of virtual learning for their high school education. And so some of our students are stepping into a actual physical classroom for the first time. And that's great. That can be daunting in itself. And so it's nice to know that if they choose something that's maybe comfortable for them for those reasons, close to home and a little bit more familiar, if it doesn't totally tick the boxes of everything that they're looking for that with a little conversation with that college counselor can help them with kind of bridging that gap and taking the next step to, to get to their major and their career path. Good advice there. Love that. Okay. Another question I have for you is about some of the opportunities for students to maybe transition into an internship or an apprenticeship. What does that look like for students? We also provide in the career services department assistance with jobs on and off campus. So getting a job on campus basically was something I did as a student in community college, and it really helped keep me grounded. Working on campus is phenomenal. we have to work around your school schedule, right? We also help with resumes, mock interviewing. And all of that, and even help with that process for an internship interview or something to that nature. I was just going to say, what are some of the skills that you work with students on building up so that they are ready for some of these career opportunities and going out and getting that first job, what are some of those skills that they need to know? They definitely need to know. soft skills, which is kind of like employability skills. But it's kind of like communication, teamwork, things of that nature. Do you see any trends happening in the workforce or different career paths that are becoming more and more available to students? What's kind of happening now in the world of careers for students? So the one that I'm hearing in all the webinars and things that I'm attending is cybersecurity is a really hot one right now. They have far too many open positions than they do with people who are qualified to do cyber security. You and I both know that AI is kind of coming along. I'm trying to keep up and learn, but it's hard to do but it looks like we're going to be having an associate degree in AI. But that just. It was just released like last week. so really, the number 1 thing would really be trying to line up with who this person is, what do they like to do, and then There is a thing with students to where they might want to do art or dance and they're balling because their parents that they can't make money. And. And I get that as a parent, right? But there's also a way to make that work for you. Depending on what you choose. Depending on what college you go to, you can always minor in it. You do not have minors at community college, but you can always minor at the four year institution. You know, if you have some electives, you need to take, you could take more classes in that and kind of put those tools in your tool belt. Yeah, I understand where that could definitely come into play. And for a lot of our students, and their families, personalization has always been at the forefront of their education, and that's why they've, been part of a charter school for so many years is because we really highlight personalization work very hard to make sure that we are also educating the students holistically and really helping them to develop who they are as a person, as much as we're developing those academic skills and then, you know, life and career skills as well. So I think that's really great advice. Like you might love art, but maybe you're better off, you know, learning how to be a business owner, get a business degree so that you can own an art studio, right? You can find ways that you can put the two together. Absolutely. And that's exactly what I tell students as well, Tiffiny. So that was a really good point is that there's a way to make it work for you. Yeah. Yeah, we're right on the same page with that. I appreciate you shedding some light today on all of the work that goes into supporting these students because I know how much it means to you. I can tell how passionate you are about helping students to find their calling and get themselves on the right path with careers so that they can get themselves on the right path with their courses. And again too what a great opportunity for students to meet with counselors even prior to being enrolled in the colleges. go down to the campus, get a feel for what it's like, you know, figure out if that campus is for you. If some of those classes are for you. If the conversation with the career counselor can lead to, a little bit more clarity on what it is that you want to do in life and courses you want to take in school. So I think that's a great way to kind of invite students in to the process which is good. We appreciate all that MiraCosta is doing. I know some of our students are already attending with some dual enrollment classes So great to see that. Thank you so much. We really appreciate having you on the podcast. Thank you.