Student Pathways

DESIGN YOUR PATHWAY

Academic, Career, and Experiential Advising (ACE) Center Mission Statement

The ACE Center is an academic and professional administrative unit dedicated to serving and empowering students, faculty, the administration, and employers by providing access to information and resources. The primary function of the unit is to maintain this access to advising via people, resources, and workshops. The ACE Center’s long-term goal is to increase outreach and efficiency via investment in the redesign of processes and the integration of innovative technology. The center aims to instill students with a sense of responsibility to themselves, with personal organizational skills, and with maturity – assets that will facilitate success at AUP and beyond.

Pathways

The ACE Center is dedicated to enabling students to identify, understand and navigate pathways from their previous experiences and personal passions through their academic interests and on to their career objectives. Key to this process is integrated advising: the notion that every degree-seeking undergraduate student benefits from the assignment of both a staff advisor and a faculty mentor, coupled with the recognition that advising is a shared endeavor that implicates all AUP staff and faculty, who support students in many ways as they travel their pathways through AUP.

Students' individual pathways are made up of all their curricular and co-curricular activities. They begin with all the passions, interests and experiences students have when they enter AUP. The key elements of a pathway through AUP include 1) the student's majors and minors; 2) elective courses; 3) internships and work experience; 4) courses taken as part of the core curriculum; 5) additional experiences, acquired skills and credentials, including certifications and micro-certifications; and 6) other co-curricular experiences. As students' pathways are complex and often non-linear, our role is to help students acquire the means to navigate these pathways effectively by building intentionally on their often-evolving passions and strengths.

There are two ways to think about the relationships among majors, careers, and pathways: subject-oriented and ends-oriented. Within ends-oriented pathways, students plan and select pathway experiences (including the major) with specific career aspirations in mind. In subject-oriented pathways, students' decisions may evolve from their interest in a major or from their passions. Through the ACE Center, students receive support in approaching their personal pathways both ways.

Subject-oriented pathways where a single major may lead to different outcomes

Ends-oriented pathways where different majors may lead to similar careers

Several significant elements influence the direction of students' pathways

These elements include: 1) passions and interests, 2) existing skill sets, 3) career objectives, and 4) majors and majors. These elements can also be heavily influenced by students' mentors and peer cohort. Different students are differently impacted by these influences. Some students may be heavily impacted by one or two mentors as they engineer their pathway through AUP; others may be significantly influenced by all four of the elements above. The term "influences" indicates that each of these elements has the potential to significantly impact the construction or navigation of an individual student’s pathway, which is itself comprised of the six elements listed above.

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