Earlier Access, Stronger Momentum

Here's a simple question: how many different places does a first-year student have to look to figure out their next career step? It's usually not one place. It's a scavenger hunt. It could be an email from their college's career center. It could be a Canvas announcement from their first year seminar. It could be a random flier in a hallway with a QR code that leads to Nittany Lion Careers. The student isn't choosing not to engage. They're choosing not to drown in information. But that's not an information problem. It's a routing problem. We have resources here at Penn State, but those resources don't have clear, beginner-friendly on-ramps. So tonight I want to talk about removing friction, building momentum, and measuring access.

First, removing friction: why don't underclass students participate in workforce development earlier? Let's begin by identifying four key issues. Hidden rules: students don't know what "counts" as experience, or what's "too early" to apply for. Time pressure: first-year schedules, jobs, and adjustment leave little space for extra events that feel optional. Platform overload: opportunities exist, but they're scattered: emails, flyers, Canvas announcements, Instagram posts, word-of-mouth. Confidence gaps: when career development is framed like competition, students assume they're already losing.

What does reducing friction actually look like? Build clearer on-ramps: If a student signals interest once (orientation, a residence hall event, a gateway course), we should be able to point them to one next step immediately. Workforce development shouldn't require insider knowledge to begin. Design for beginners: early programming should assume zero experience, and make the first step feel normal, not intimidating. Think about a first-year student you know. If you asked them today what their next career step is, would they have an answer, or would they just feel stressed?

Second, creating momentum: what actually works for underclass students? For early students, the goal isn't a perfect plan. It's a first win. Momentum comes from small, real experiences that repeat. Once a student can say, "I did something," they start seeing themselves differently, and they engage more.

There are three levers Penn State can scale without reinventing the wheel. First, micro-experiences in year one: paid project pods, short lab sprints, shadowing days, low-barrier research onboarding—experiences that fit into first-year life but still translate into real credibility. Second, mentorship that navigates the system: peer mentorship lowers the intimidation factor, and coaching helps students translate what they've done into employer language. Third, a routing model instead of a resource dump: not "here are 30 links," but "based on where you are, here is your next step this week." Next time a freshman asks you about internships, try giving them some actionable advice and explain your story.

Third, measuring access: what does impact mean in workforce development? We default to outcome metrics: how many internships, what's your salary? But outcomes mostly measure the people who made it through the pipeline. They don't measure the people who never found the entrance. If we want to know the State of Impact, we need access metrics too. How many first- and second-year students had a genuine first-touchpoint? How many had a mentor before sophomore spring? How many earned a paid experience in their first year? The core principle is simple: confidence should be the result of opportunity, not the price of admission.

Workforce development for underclass students isn't a flashy metric on an admissions website, it's the chance to change people's lives. So what can you do, personally, after tonight? Let's have three tasks: Find one underclassman and give them advice for small career events. Invite them to something they can actually attend, and make it easy to say yes. Help them turn one small experience into a stepping stone, and a story they can tell others.

As for Penn State itself? Design workforce development in a way that ramps throughout a student's time here. Expand micro-experiences that don't depend on prior connections. Embed first-touch routing into places students already are, and not just first-year seminars: think advising, ResLife, and Canvas. Treat access as a serious metric alongside placement and concrete outcomes. If we do that, we don't just produce more polished seniors. We build more students who see themselves as capable earlier, and that's scalable impact.

Thank you. Are there any questions?