The journey through higher education is often presented as a linear path, yet for many students, it is a winding road filled with uncertainty about which major to choose and what career to pursue. This critical juncture, where academic decisions intersect with long-term life goals, can be a source of significant stress and confusion, sometimes leading to multiple major changes and delayed graduation. Recognizing this widespread challenge, the University of North Dakota developed its Academic & Career Exploration (ACE) program as a centralized and supportive resource. This initiative provides a steady hand to guide students through the complexities of self-discovery, helping them align their passions, skills, and academic pursuits with a fulfilling professional future. By offering a consistent and personalized approach, the program addresses the fundamental questions of purpose that are central to the university experience, ensuring that no student has to navigate their path alone.
A Compass for the Undecided
Established approximately four and a half years ago, the Academic & Career Exploration program was born from an institutional awareness that a significant number of students were changing majors without a structured support system to guide them. University leaders identified a critical need for a centralized resource that could not only assist these transitioning students but also collect valuable data to understand their journeys and improve advising practices across the campus. ACE was therefore conceived with a dual mission: to provide direct, personalized support for individuals grappling with academic or career uncertainty and to leverage these interactions to build a more robust and informed guidance framework for the entire student body. This proactive strategy transforms individual student challenges into invaluable institutional knowledge, creating a cycle of continuous improvement that benefits everyone. The program was designed to be more than just a place for answers; it was intended to be a space for meaningful exploration.
A defining feature of the ACE program is its remarkably inclusive and comprehensive service model, designed to be a university-wide resource accessible to anyone connected to the institution. As articulated by ACE Coordinator Kyle Braun, the program serves “any student, any college, any year,” an ethos that extends its reach far beyond the typical undergraduate population. This includes prospective students still weighing their options before enrollment, graduate students refining their professional tracks, and even all UND alumni who may be contemplating a career shift or further education years after graduation. The program functions as a “steady place to land,” ensuring that when individuals face uncertainty, they have a consistent and reliable point of contact. This eliminates the common frustration of being passed between different departments, allowing students to immediately engage with advisers who are equipped to handle a wide array of academic and career-related questions, thereby streamlining the process of finding direction.
The Human-Centric Approach
At the very core of the ACE program’s methodology is a deeply human-centric and conversational advising process that prioritizes genuine exploration over quick fixes. The journey begins with one-on-one meetings where the initial objective is simply to slow down and create a supportive environment for reflection. Advisers initiate these sessions by asking probing questions designed to uncover the complex web of factors contributing to a student’s indecision. The program acknowledges that uncertainty is rarely a simple issue; it is often a multifaceted interplay of a student’s personal confidence, societal or familial pressures, innate interests, and individual expectations. These conversations are carefully structured to connect a student’s current academic experiences, including any struggles they may be facing, to their desired future. This philosophy underscores the idea that an academic program is fundamentally a preparation for a fulfilling career, and the ultimate goal is to help students forge a path where they can achieve happiness and success on their own terms.
To augment its personalized advising sessions, the ACE program utilizes a powerful data-driven assessment tool called PathwayU. This platform serves as an invaluable resource, particularly for students who feel lost but do not yet have the language to articulate what they are searching for in a career or major. PathwayU is a comprehensive questionnaire grounded in established psychological principles that assesses an individual’s unique combination of interests, personality traits, and workplace preferences. Upon completion, the tool generates a detailed report with personalized career matches. What sets this platform apart is its sophisticated algorithm that directly links these career suggestions to specific academic programs, majors, and minors offered at the University of North Dakota. This feature transforms the abstract results of a personality test into concrete, actionable steps a student can take within their own institution. With 3,000 students already in the system, PathwayU has become a widely adopted and effective first step in the exploration process.
Demonstrating Success and Growth
Over its four years of operation, the ACE program has demonstrated both significant growth and a quantifiable positive impact on the university community. The office has evolved from its initial stages to consistently managing a high volume of appointments, working with approximately 250 unique students during a typical fall semester and between 450 and 500 unique students over the course of a full academic year. More importantly, the program’s effectiveness is directly correlated with improved student retention rates. Data tracked by the university reveals that students who engage with an ACE adviser are retained at a higher rate than the general student population. Specifically, the fall-to-spring retention rate for these students is about 93%, while the more critical fall-to-fall retention rate stands between 88% and 89%. While these metrics underscore the program’s success from an institutional perspective, the core philosophy remains firmly centered on the well-being and satisfaction of each individual student.
The influence of the ACE program extends well beyond individual student appointments, serving as a key component of a larger, university-wide strategic initiative. The broader goal is to more deeply integrate career-oriented thinking into the entire academic advising ecosystem at UND. This initiative aims to empower all academic advisors to adopt a career-advising perspective, enabling them to help students connect their coursework to future opportunities much earlier and more frequently in their academic journey. As part of this effort, ACE actively promotes the concept of “parallel career planning.” This advising strategy encourages students to proactively consider pathways that can run alongside their primary major, such as complementary minors, a second major, or pre-professional tracks. These parallel plans can significantly broaden a student’s skill set and open more career doors upon graduation, providing them with greater flexibility and a competitive edge in the job market.
Fostering Exploration and Connection
Beyond its one-on-one advising services, the ACE program plays a crucial role in actively engaging the broader student community and fostering a campus culture that values exploration. A cornerstone of this effort is the annual Major/Minor Fair, a large-scale event organized by the program to provide a low-stress, accessible environment for students to discover the full spectrum of academic offerings at UND. This event brings together representatives from every department, allowing students to ask questions, gather information, and explore fields they may not have previously considered. The most recent fair was a resounding success, attracting 760 students who took the opportunity to browse different programs and engage in meaningful conversations with faculty and staff. Such events are instrumental in demystifying the process of choosing a major and empower students to make informed decisions about their academic future by showcasing the diverse paths available to them all in one place. This proactive community engagement complements the program’s individualized advising by creating widespread opportunities for discovery.
Ultimately, the Academic & Career Exploration program at UND successfully established a comprehensive and compassionate hub for guidance. By combining personalized, human-centric advising with data-driven tools and strategic university integration, ACE provided an essential service that helped students and alumni navigate their educational and professional paths with greater clarity and confidence. The program’s work became directly correlated with improved student retention rates, demonstrating that investing in individual student well-being yields tangible institutional benefits. It institutionalized the idea that exploration was not a detour but a valuable and necessary part of the college experience. This initiative went on to become a cornerstone of the university’s commitment to student success, leaving a legacy that transformed how the institution approached the fundamental challenge of helping students find their purpose.
