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The Career & Life Design Center coaches students through transitions and provides navigational guidance for college success.
Navigating College Transitions
We are committed to helping students build out a robust college experience. Every student should have an opportunity to plan out a positive college journey. Students are engaged in the process. We coach, encourage, prepare, teach, and guide students as well as facilitate connections. We will help them make the connection to resources and opportunities.
We help students to create an individualized plan and customize them, as they navigate critical college and life transitions. Our intention is that students are going to have a plan no matter what, and we will help them personalize it, but we make sure that the students are “driving” their journeys. They are the visionaries; they are the captains of their own ship, which means that they decide the direction in which they’d like to head in. Our goal is to help them migrate from surviving transitions to thriving in them.
We believe that the value added in partnering with us as students navigate transitions is that we will help them navigate them more smoothly and efficiently, and, in fact, cultivate important life skills that are transferrable as they navigate some complimentary life transitions.
Our hope is that their journey include not only help with securing an internship or on-campus employment, but also reframing a new semester or rediscovering a major intention or retooling their pursuit of co-curricular breadth. At the end of the day, the mission of our work is to teach students techniques, skills, and habits as well as provide opportunities for them to practice success skills that will lead them to more effectively navigate life’s various transitions.
Understanding Types of College Transitions
Our engagement with Trinity students begins during Orientation – in some cases earlier – and continues throughout their Trinity experience. Below are some of the types of college transitions that we help to support:
Below are some of the transitions in which Trinity students are experiencing challenges:
- Early transition to and through college
- Transition from being dependent from independent
- Being enrolled and scheduled from 7am-10pm and having their time accounted for to needing to self-manage their time and energy constructively
- Cultivating community on campus
- Adjusting to the academic rigor of college, regardless of their performance in high school
- Exposure to so much unfamiliarity, such as living with other people, being away from home, needing to learn a new system, jargon and colloquialisms associated with college, geographical difference, language, and expectations of participation in a classroom in Trinity
- Transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood
- Having to learn where and who their support resources are on campus
- How to navigate the plethora of opportunities that make it challenging to find balance
- Remaining focused
- Encouragement to try everything
The Career & Life Design Center supports Trinity students’ transitions from their first year to their second year at Trinity, through various programming initiatives, holistic coaching, and the adaptation of a success toolkit. We encourage students to engage with us in their earlier years at Trinity to help them build a strong foundation for success as they navigate various college transitions.
When students return from being away from Trinity, they are required to have a conversation with Roberta Rogers, director of retention strategy and transition programs. More detailed information can be found on the Return/Readmission to Trinity webpage.
Students who are returning from an involuntary withdrawal are connected to a development plan to successfully transition back to enrollment at Trinity.
When students elect to take a Leave of Absence, we encourage working in partnership with a coach to develop a plan to successfully return to Trinity.
Supporting Students’ Transitions
Summit-to-Success (S2S) Scholars Program
In addition to offering holistic and transition-specific coaching, as well as programming throughout the academic year, we also host an Orientation NEXT program to engage with students immediately following New Student Orientation, to help prepare them for their transition to Trinity College. Learn more about this initiative, below:
- The Summit-to-Success (S2S) Scholars Program is a high-impact, cohort-based program designed to support new students’ successful transitions and academic engagement in college. We encourage newly admitted Bantams, including First Generation to college students as well as IDP and Transfer students, to join us for a jump-start on designing their Trinity experience and preparing to navigate college successfully! This year’s program will run in late August (dates TBD). The application for this program will be available to incoming students, in Spring 2024, via their Starting Out Portal.
Return and ReFrame Program
Trinity’s “Return and ReFrame” program is designed to purposefully guide returning students through their early transitions back to campus. In collaboration with the offices of Student and Community Life, Registrar, and Center for Academic and Experiential Advising, students are invited into partnership with key faculty and staff, activating an individualized eco-system of strategy and support during this unique transition. Additionally, Trinity’s Career and Life Design Center will invite students to access skills training and practices that are valuable for an enriching student experience, including 1×1 coaching to help identify and address pivotal transitional needs. These resources will guide and help design a successful return to enrollment and completion at Trinity.
