Using Student Demographic Data to Inform Career Development Strategy

Career Level: Basic-, intermediate-, and advanced-level career services professionals
Competency: Job and experiential learning opportunity development
Fee: $69 (member); $89 (nonmember);

Summary
In this session, we will discuss Ramapo College of New Jersey’s efforts to use disaggregated student demographic data, post-graduation career outcomes data, and predictive retention analytics to achieve their goal of ensuring that every Ramapo student has an internship, research, or clinical experience before graduation.

In fall 2023, Ramapo welcomed its most diverse class in college history, representing multiple ethnicities, abilities, and social identities. More than 40% of the incoming class are the first in their families to go to college and nearly 50% identify are non-white (Ramapo College of New Jersey, 2023). Given the college's location in one of the wealthier counties in the nation, this incoming class is a mixture of social classes and identities. We will have to consider demographic disaggregation beyond gender, race/ethnicity, Pell-grant eligibility, and first-generation status to guide students to activities and experiences to improve post-graduation outcomes.

For lower-income, underrepresented, or first-generation students, the career development process is daunting, especially if they do not have a positive sense of their experiences and what they bring to the table to help them shape their career identities. The advising challenges for these populations are scaling services for individualized advising; creating programming to help students overcome their fear of and engage in networking with employers and alumni to build social capital; demonstrating the value of internships, which may require prioritizing earning potential and experience ahead of current financial realities; and making the job search their number one priority.

The Cahill Center, as part of the larger student success organizational structure that houses academic advising, the Educational Opportunity Fund program, and the First-Generation Student Center, has the opportunity to build on the foundation of predictive analytics to increase student retention rates, improve support services, and deliver on our promises to students. Anonymized disaggregated data for required career development completion and first-destination outcomes are combined with predictive markers to inform strategy to provide differentiated care to improve internship attainment and post-graduation outcomes.

Following this program, you will be able to:
- Measure the impact and timing of required career development curriculum based on demographics;
- Understand post-graduation outcomes by demographic and methods of disaggregating; and
- Use this information for earlier differentiated intervention and eventual post-graduation success.
Presenters

LaQuan Norman, Director, Ramapo College of New Jersey
LaQuan Norman, director of the Cahill Career Development Center, is an impassioned believer in education, dedicated to helping people and organizations achieve their goals. In her time at Ramapo, she has strengthened collaborations with faculty, community members, and employers for recruitment and programming. She played a key role in implementing the Pathways program, a nationally recognized career development curriculum that earned the 2020 NACE Career Services Excellence Award. She joined Ramapo College in 2015 after spending 20 years designing and marketing implantable orthopedic and orthobiologic devices. She has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Memphis.

Daniel Loughrey, Director, Montclair State University - Career Outcomes
Daniel Loughrey is the assistant director of the Cahill Career Development Center and career adviser for the AACSB-accredited Anisfield School of Business. His work at the Center ranges from individual and group career advising and instruction of the award-winning Pathways courses to employer engagement in the business fields. He received a Bachelor of Arts in international studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey and a Master of Arts in international education from the SIT Graduate Institute.