NACE Excellence Awards
Best Practice or Program —Educational Programming—College
Messiah College—Hit the Road: Explore Possibilities
When two of the founders of “Road
Trip Nation” spoke at a conference
several years ago, Christy R. Hanson,
director of career development at Messiah
College, listened intently, hearing
the longings of her student advisees in
their tales of travel and discovery.
“This group of new college grads set out to find out why people do what they do and how they discovered their passion,” says Hanson, then assistant director of career development at the college, pointing out that she knew many Messiah students would love to do the same thing.
“They had the desire to figure out how to go after something they love,” she says, adding that the career development team at Messiah set out to “find a hands-on way to engage students in this topic, using a medium that would appeal to their generation. We wanted to offer them a structured, yet fun, opportunity to explore career fields of interest to them, while at the same time, learn more about themselves and the world around them.”
“Hit the Road: Explore the Possibilities,” sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Employers (PennACE) and Enterprise Rent-a-Car, was unveiled in the spring of 2007, offering $400 to each of four teams of four students who would travel together.
“We came up with the idea at the beginning of March,” says Dwayne Keiffer, assistant director of career development. “By the beginning of April, we had the advertising, the money, and the teams selected. It caught fire in a hurry.”
Hanson says each team was required to complete an application that included a list of potential interviewees, a proposed route, and objectives for the trip, both for each individual and for the team as a whole.
After the teams were selected, the career development staff held a mandatory training session for the teams, including information on networking and cold-calling, setting up and conducting interviews, professional etiquette, and budgeting. Staff members also helped students identify potential employers and others to interview.
The students hit the road in the summer, after classes were over.
“Some of them camped in national parks, while others were hosted by alumni and friends across the country,” Hanson says.
When it was all over, Hanson says, students unanimously agreed that the information they received in informational interviews was helpful to their career decision-making.
Most students also reported a “better sense of skills and strengths that are critical to my field of interest” and greater confidence in their career planning process, Hanson says.
Keiffer says that while students from three of the “Hit the Road” teams are still at Messiah, the members of one team have all graduated.
“All of them are doing something related to what they explored during the summer,” he says, explaining that one student has actually started her own business.
“She had just assumed that you couldn’t start your own business right out of college,” he says. “After speaking with some people, she realized it was possible.”
Hanson and Keiffer say they repeated the program this year, during spring break, with somewhat different results— only three teams took trips.
“There are things we’ll probably do differently next year,” Hanson says, explaining that the application deadline was also the last day of final exams at the end of the fall semester.
“Students weren’t thinking of spring break yet,” she says.
Hanson says that while students “can do informational interviews anywhere,” the concept added an extra appeal.
“The idea just seemed to resonate with our students,” she says. “You attach the words ‘road trip’ to it, and now it sounds exciting!”
