Welcome to Digication Scholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelli Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear part one of my conversation with Christa Matlack,
career coach STEM at Bucknell University.
More links and information about today's conversation can be found on Digication's
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication Scholars Conversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to Digication Scholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll, and today I'm so pleased to
introduce Christa Matlack.
She is the Career Coach STEM at Bucknell University.
Welcome, Christa.
Hi, Kelly.
It's great to be here.
Thanks for inviting me.
I'm excited about the conversation.
Well, me too.
So I thought it would be fun to start our conversation kind of back at the
beginning of your connection to Bucknell University, uh, because I have learned
and Getting ready for a conversation today that you were a student there
first and had some really incredible Achievements there during your time as a
student before you returned as a career coach So could you tell our listeners
a little bit about your background?
maybe how you came to Bucknell University and what your Experiences were like
there as a student and some of your involvement in sports there too.
Sure, sure.
Um, so I actually grew up just down the road from Bucknell in
South Waynesport, Pennsylvania.
Um, so I knew Bucknell very well.
Um, I ended up at Bucknell because I was recruited there to play soccer.
And so, um, out of the ordinary, my, hey!
uhm college soccer coach, he had actually come to one of my high school games, which
is not typical, but because I was local, um, it was a little bit easier for him
to attend a high school game than it was.
For us to match up my travel soccer with his recruiting schedule.
So I did end up going, um, to Bucknell.
I played soccer there for all four years.
Um, we had a great four years of soccer.
We made our, uh, conference tournament all four years that I was there.
First year we came in second place.
Unfortunately, we never made it to the NCAA tournament or won a
championship while I was there.
But, um, you know, I had great teammates around me that really
set me up for success on the field.
Um, so it was a lot of time and commitment.
Um, On my part and on my teammates part, you know, weightlifting, going
to practice, and trying to balance that with the rigorous academic schedule.
I was a biology major, and I also have a studio art and philosophy minor, um, so
they're really wide array of interests that I had, um, while I was there, but.
You know, I had a very successful soccer career there, but I think
the academics really prepared me for going to grad school and also, you
know, in my career and looking back now having such a wide background
from the liberal arts education.
I think I just look at problems in such a different light because I have
the, the really organized systematic way of doing things from the science
mindset, but I'm also very creative.
Um, and I question a lot of things.
I think that's all speaks to what I studied while I was there.
Um, but following that, I ended up.
Going to get my master's degree.
And so I do have a master's in biology from, um, it's now PennWest Clarion.
It was Clarion University of Pennsylvania when I attended.
Um, but.
Beyond that, um, I don't know if you want me to get into my career path a
little bit or if you want to hold off.
I would love that!
Like, no, I would love it because I think it has such a beautiful kind of connection
to the kind of steps that you've taken.
So, yes, please do.
Yes.
Um, my career path 100 percent set me up for what I'm doing now.
Um, so following, um, my graduate degree, the completion of my graduate degree, I
didn't know what I wanted to do, um, and so I ended up applying to coaching soccer.
Um, so collegiate soccer coaching positions.
I also applied to biology positions, um, to try to find a research opportunity.
And I was getting tons of callbacks for soccer, but nothing for biology.
So I ended up coaching soccer first at the University of Scranton.
I absolutely loved it.
Um, for personal reasons, financial reasons, student loans, stuff like that.
I, I chose to try to do something within my major.
And so I shifted to Geisinger for a little bit as a research tech.
I knew there was very little advancement unless I went and got a PhD, but I
had made the decision for myself.
I wasn't ready for a PhD at that point in my life.
Um, I couldn't choose, right?
I was, I loved science, I loved biology, but I loved so much of it that I was
like, I don't know what my focus would be.
Yeah.
And so I decided, you know, this Geisinger position, while it's great
right now, I know it's not long term.
I ended up stumbled upon a product development role at
First Quality Enterprises.
Um, Where I got to design tampons for four years.
Um, so that was a really cool job.
Um, it was exciting and it, I felt like I was using my education every day.
And I think that's what I love the most about it.
But I really realized that the business environment wasn't for me.
Um, you know, it can be really rough at times and, um.
So I decided, you know, maybe this isn't right for me.
I ended up, it fell in my lap to be an interim head coach at
Penn College, um, in my hometown.
And I took the opportunity to work full time at First Quality while
also being the interim head coach, um, part time at Penn College.
They ended up offering me that job and I ended up taking it.
So then I coached college soccer again for three years about that time.
I ended up having my son and that's where my life pivoted again.
And, you know, college coaching full time is a lot of time, a
lot of nights, a lot of weekends.
And, um, You know, I wanted to see my son grow up, and I was realizing that
there was a lot of days where I was only seeing him two hours in the day, and it
just wasn't sitting well with me, um, so I started looking, and I stumbled across
a, um, job posting that looked like my resume fitted into job requirements, and
so I applied to be a career coach, um, with a STEM background, so that's where
the career coach STEM job title comes from, Um, it required higher education
experience, working with students.
Um, it required, you know, a background in STEM with a major in the STEM field.
Also, some STEM industry experience was preferred.
And I said, I would be silly if I didn't apply to this right now.
Um, and so I ended up landing it and I moved back to Bucknell in 2021.
And now I get.
To help students through their career paths.
So my experience of navigating it and also.
Having a similar feeling of not knowing what you want to do.
Um, and so how do I navigate that?
So teaching them how to navigate it and letting them understand that like
your major doesn't have to be what you do at the end of the day for a career.
It may not even line up.
For what's meaningful to you at the end of the day, um, and what your values mean.
And so through my whole experience, I realized, you know, I like
working with young people, um, and I like working in higher ed
and I, I like just helping people.
And so, but it took all of those jobs for me to figure it out.
So I'm hopefully helping students figure it out earlier rather than
later, um, and in their career.
So hopefully they Start the process now as a student, so that way it's
a little bit easier for them to pivot once they're out of Bucknell.
Thank you so much.
And I, I do think that your, your story and your experience must be of
so much value when you're communicating with the current students at Bucknell.
You know, you, you just don't know what various experiences
are going to lead you to next.
And, um, so often I find that when students are in college and, you know,
kind of put with that decision that they have to choose their major and or minors,
that there's a certain trajectory that they feel like they need to be on or
that they just have to kind of, You know, check the boxes to get to the next thing,
and I think having conversations with someone like yourself as they're kind of
completing the certain requirements at school to really just kind of embrace the
various experiences that they're having and try to enjoy being in the moment
without thinking too far ahead about what they're going to be doing next.
Um, yeah.
And it's, I have five kids, too, and I have these conversations
with them all the time.
Um, I actually majored in textile design, did not have plans to
get involved with the software.
So you just don't know what, you know, how life is gonna, uh, kinda unfold for you.
And, and that's really, I think, kind of the, um, the fun part.
Uh, so thank you for sharing your story.
I love this kind of soccer coach to career coach and all of your background
in STEM and your love for science and, but it really just sounds like you
found the, this incredible opportunity to return to Bucknell and now, you
know, continue coaching, but in a different, in a different capacity.
So, uh, you mentioned that it sounds like you joined the institution in, uh, 2021,
um, so it's only been two years and I would love to hear, uh, you know, what it
was like in some of your early days there.
Um, you know, I've, uh, connected with Christa on LinkedIn, so I've seen some of
her, uh, Hostings reflecting on how much has happened since those first weeks.
And I would love for you to share a little bit about that with our listeners too.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
Um, so it was, it was literally, I think the third day I was on the job.
Um, I had gone to a Friday learning series.
So Bucknell hosts the Friday learning series for faculty and staff to attend.
And there's usually a presentation by.
Another faculty or staff member, um, or department on on some sort of a topic
but it's Designed to really, like, allow you to get to learn either what's
happening on campus or, um, what other people are doing, um, and so the Friday
Learning Series that week was actually, uh, Joe Tranquillo, who's our Associate
Provost, he um, was presenting on the new Pathways program, which uses the
Digication software, um, and how, you know, they were launching Pathways
that year to try to get students to, um, start to engage with ePortfolios
as a high impact practice on campus.
And so he kind of went through the presentation, and as he was
talking, I said, there are so many connections, but we're trying to
tell students about career here.
Um, That, you know, the reflection and the self reflection piece and self awareness
that comes in it, uh, comes along with that and, um, you know, starting to
really think about themselves and how they relate to not only what they're
learning in school but things outside of school in society and beyond that into
their career and I was just, I was so excited about it that I went right back
to my office and I got on the Digication, the Bucknell Digication website and I
just started Playing with it, right?
Just to see what it could do, um, and how we might be able to see using it
in the Center for Career Advancement.
And Within the first week, I developed, it looked more like a website, um, than
an e portfolio, but I had developed something that, um, looked like a website
where I was integrating our resources in and, but after talking with Joe, he
was like, it'd be nice if we could make it more of an e portfolio, like more
of a template for students to grab and to do things in, things that they can,
they can actually used to do something rather than just a website because we
could always make a website in WordPress.
Um, and I said, okay, so I went back and I kind of started recreating it
into more of a reflective practice ePortfolio and it resulted in.
Um, a template that my colleague Sarah Bell uses, um, in her
Foundation Seminar class visits.
So a Foundation Seminar is for first year students, and so she'll go in,
um, if she's invited by the professor and, and talk a little bit about the
CCA, our resources, but now she's incorporating this My Career Journey,
um, as part of that presentation.
And so some of the faculty will assign it as an optional assignment beforehand.
Some of the faculty are assigning it, but she still kind of touches on it because
she can use that to show them some of our current resources, because there are
still some resources linked in there.
But, it does walk them through looking at some of our resources like, the
Bucknell career paths, or what can I do with this major, which is one of the.
Subscription resources and then have them reflect on it, right?
So there's some reflective activities at the bottom of the
template where they can actually.
Um, start looking at these resources and figure out what careers were
interesting that I saw in this resource that I might want to pursue.
So, creating like, some of it's just creating lists of
potential careers or absolutely not, I do not like these things.
And, um, and just starting to get that ball rolling, right?
Um, other things like exploring themselves like, what does success mean to me?
What does it look like for me?
Um, and so it's just each page is a little bit different.
And so she's been utilizing that, um, that one, but we've.
Definitely evolved, um, into really using ePortfolios elsewhere.
Um, so when we launched our in person for credit, um, career courses, we actually
are using an ePortfolio as, like, a learning, the learning center for them.
So they create a learning ePortfolio throughout the entirety of the course.
That's where all of their assignments go.
And so some of it is reflective practices, some of it Take pieces from class
discussions or readings and start talking about how you see this like playing out
in your future or for your future career.
Um, and then some of it's like uploading their resume in there
and really starting to build a basis of career knowledge for them.
Something that they can look back on and try to remember something that,
you know, sparked an interest in them.
Maybe an art course that they can address later on in their career decision making.
Wow, that's wonderful.
So when you first got in there and started, uh, kind of experimenting with
the tool and envisioning how this might help career services, uh, when you were
starting to make that kind of transition from it being something that was more of a
resource to becoming a place for beginning more of this reflective practice.
How are you kind of designing the prompts for the students and thinking about,
you know, what people looking at that portfolio might want to know about the
students, or what were you hoping that the students might start to discover
about themselves as part of that process?
Very often when we're working with institutions.
You know, they really want students to engage in this reflective practice, but
so often it's the, the quality of the prompts that help get the students there.
So I'd love for you to just share a little bit about what kind of guided
you in developing those prompts.
And if you can recall some that you could share with the
listeners, that would be great too.
Yeah.
Um, so when, with the My Career Journey, um, template, really what
the goal was, was just the start of let's understand ourself, right?
It's, it's all about self awareness.
So majority of the micro journey prompts would relate to thinking more deeply about
their self, their values, their interests, their expectations for their future,
um, where they see themselves going, um, so, you know, some of the prompts
might be related to career, so thinking about what, one of the prompts is, what
career paths can you cross off the list?
Right?
Like, what's something that is absolutely, absolutely nothing you want to pursue,
um, and, and reflecting upon that?
Like, what can I cross off and why?
And then, Other, others are what topics and ideas are sparking my curiosity?
Like what really makes me tick?
Like what are these things that I get really excited about?
Um, you know, I think I mentioned before the definition of success to
them, like a personal definition.
Also what's important to them.
So starting to think more about personal values.
So what is important to you?
Um, and then also they're thinking about strengths and weaknesses, right?
Like, what am I good at?
What skills do I have that I'm really good at?
And, um, also, what activities do I like to do?
Because those things all play into.
Whether they like it or not into what career is going to be meaningful to them.
So just really basic reflections on themselves is
really where this one starts.
Um A couple of the pages in will be a little bit more
geared towards our resources.
So that's where we rope in some of our our your career center resources?
Um, but some of them are reflections that are, you know, looking at what your majors
are, you know, is there an area within your major that really stands out to you?
You know, computer engineering is huge, right?
So, which part of computer engineering are you most interested in?
So, it gets a little bit more specific, um, as you go
through into the later prompts.
The first one's kind of really general.
But then it's starting to get, break it down a little bit.
Um, and then another one that we have them do is looking at one of our resources has
all of the alumni from their major listed and their job title and the location
and the company that they work for.
So the cool thing about that resource is when you look at the recent grads, they
tend to trend towards something that is really in line with their major, right?
But as you scroll, Down.
And get into the alum that are further into their career journeys.
You see some departure from that.
So you see, like you said, you were in textile design, right?
And now, not even remotely close to that.
So, as people go through, they change.
And, and so, some of the prompts are.
What surprised you?
What did you notice?
Did you see any of these careers in the later classes of alumni,
like the older alumni, that are any of those of interest to you?
You know, what?
You know, it's, it was a design to really get them to start thinking
that, Oh, maybe I don't have to do something that lines up with my major.
Like it doesn't have to be a straight path.
It can, you can go straight for a while and then veer
off to the left or the right.
And you could always circle back like I did, right?
Um, and end up figuring out for themselves what the right career is.
So that's kind of the, my career journey.
Um, template in a nutshell.
I love that.
And are there opportunities for the current students to connect with
some of those alumni as well to kind of learn about the different
paths that they embarked on and maybe what they're doing today?
Uh, yes, so we do have an alumni directory.
So, um, some of the students, you know, the alumni are in that directory and
we obviously use LinkedIn as well.
So, LinkedIn is a really good place, a good starting point to find
people that are doing the job that you want to do or working at the
company that you want to work in.
Work at, um, and so, you know, they do have the opportunity
to network with alumni.
So we do have the alumni directory, which helps directly connect them to
some of the alumni, but then we also do a lot of on campus programming.
So we do have alumni panels, alumni, alumni come back to campus.
It could be a math specific panel or we've done physics panels across campus.
They're doing them in a wide range of the academic departments, but then We also
like to do, you know, industry specific.
So one we're working on this year is based on data analytics
across multiple industries.
So it's going to be a series of, um, employer panels.
So we're trying to find different alumni or employers that we can connect
with that are different industries.
And each month we're going to do a virtual panel.
That will kind of, they can talk about data analytics within their industry
and within their specific employer.
So, uh, Christa, one of the ways that we were able to get connected was
that I saw that you were presenting at the AAEEBL annual conference.
And, uh, the title of the session was really about this kind of
transforming of career services.
And, uh, I wanted you to kind of tell the listeners a little bit
about maybe why Bucknell, or maybe why you personally feel like Career
Services needs a transformation.
Yeah, I think it's just like anything else.
It's keeping up with the times, right?
Um, so keeping up with the changes in technology, um, changes in resources,
changes in, The hiring process.
So, in the last, I don't know, a few decades, I assume, um, there has been
a shift, right, from less of the one on one focus to we have to be able to
reach more students than what, than doing this one on one, um, attention.
Well, we still do that because it's still imperative that the students have that
opportunity, right, to sit down one on one and really talk about their career path.
Getting the basics out there to more people on a broader
scale is going to help.
More students in the long run.
Um, so there's been this big shift to a one to many approach, and that's
what we've been kind of trying to do since I started there to now, um,
is try to shift our focus while we offer the one on one appointments.
What are ways that we can collaborate across campus to get our resources or
get ourselves in front of more students?
Um.
So that's resulted in a lot of different things.
Some are class visits or collaborations with student groups or reaching
out to faculty to try to find, you know, department connections.
Can we come into certain classes, um, for your major that are required, right?
Or it's, do you want to do a panel?
Can we collaborate on a panel?
And we've recently had a faculty member reach out about, a student
project that she's hoping to have.
And we would be kind of roped into that where the students would be required to
meet with us to talk about networking and employer relations and stuff
like that in, in the course project.
Um, so finding new ways that we can reach students to talk about career
things, to prepare them for the next level has definitely transformed,
um, from what it used to be, where it was we ran standalone programs.
We saw attendance dropping.
We couldn't get the students there.
So now instead of competing with their time, we're meeting them in their
time and space, and we're hitting more students by doing that than if we would,
um, hold a standalone resume workshop.
Um, and one of the things my presentation was on was our four credit courses.
The, it was really focused on our general career readiness course, which
is called Jumpstart Your Career, and, um, that's the one where we have this.
Really in depth learning ePortfolio, which they build throughout the entire course.
Um, and it, it really runs them through everything they need.
And it starts with the self awareness, the career exploration, but then it evolves
into, okay, now we're going to work on a targeted job search, and then we're
going to move into Okay, once we applied, we need a resume and a cover letter for
that application, so let's work on those things, let's practice interviewing,
and let's talk about how we negotiate and what's negotiable in job offers.
And so they really get a snapshot of everything they need to know,
so that way it's a little less intimidating when they go to start
applying to internships and jobs.
Yeah, yeah.
And so at what point, um, it sounds like the kind of template that you've
created that has all these wonderful prompts is often integrated into certain
courses that the students are taking.
And it sounds like they're beginning this process not just in their
senior year when they're already kind of starting interviews or
maybe doing some internships.
How are, you know, at what point are they being Introduced to this, because
I think that that's another important piece about transforming career services.
I know when I was going to college, that was not even a topic of
discussion until senior year.
And I don't think it was just me.
So, you know, how soon are they being introduced to this kind of thinking
when they join the university?
Yeah, so we are doing our best to reach out to first years.
Um, so we do, uh, try to target them.
So we went, and this year what we did was we went to, we got a
table at the resource fair, right?
And so we had a table at the resource fair, and we had some handouts.
We revamped our handouts to be like, here's the three things you need to know
about our office and how to work with us.
And trying to limit the information because knowing as first years are
coming in, it's It's hard, right, um, but using the ePortfolios in the
Foundation Seminars with the My Career Journey that I think this year we're
going to reach approximately a thousand students, um, you know, there's a lot
of students that Sarah will be in front of and are So, Other colleague, Marilyn
Schull, has had to jump in, um, to kind of manage the number of requests that
they received about the class visits.
So, they're going to be taking over those, but then our career course is
actually designed for the fall semester, designed for sophomores, right?
Because first years, their schedule is already picked for them.
They don't really have a whole lot of flexibility there,
um, when they come in, right?
So, the sophomores are primarily who we target, um.
In that general career readiness course in the fall, the spring is
geared directly at first year students.
Um, so at this point they have the option to choose to take it.
So we are trying to, we, basically what we do is in the registration process, we hold
more seats for those class years because that's what the course is designed for.
Um, it's not necessarily designed for juniors and seniors.
But it's so valuable to many of them, especially the ones that haven't
thought about career at all yet.
Um, so we do see juniors and seniors taking the course, um, so it, it does
speak to is there a need for us to create another one, um, that we can provide
more room for juniors and seniors to learn and maybe learn more in depth
advanced career readiness pieces.
I don't know.
That could be a future endeavor we, we explore.
Um, but we do see students of all class years attending and across all
three of the colleges at Bucknell.
This concludes part one of our conversation.
To hear part two, be sure to subscribe to Digication Scholars
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