Report to the Title 111 Advisory Committee

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Career and Academic Planning Center (C.A.P.S.)
November 29, 2007

• Diane Alexander and I joined C.A.P.S. 10/1/2007
• Hedda Bunting’s first day was 10/15/2007
• October was spent developing procedures, organizing, ordering supplies, getting equipment in place, and developing relationships with the personnel in SER
• Organization of data and student services are constantly revisited and refined
• From July through October, approximately 160 students received services through C.A.P.S. As of today, we have served 208 students during the month of November. That comes to a total of 368 students served .*
• I have met with 12 of the Program Chairs to discuss their curriculums. I am in the process of following up with those who didn’t respond to the initial email to schedule a time to meet with them.
• We see all new students as well as currently enrolled students who have questions about other programs.
• Many of our new students are threatened by the registration process. Part of our approach is to clarify that process, break it down into very manageable steps, and thereby make it nonthreatening to them. We also encourage them to come back to C.A.P.S. at any point during their college career if they have questions and don’t know who to ask.

Clientele profile:
Slightly over half are Non-Traditional

Intended Program of Study:
Health Sciences: 35-40%
University Transfer (Associate in Arts , Sciences, or Fine Arts): 25%
All other programs of study: 35-40%

Advising Training Survey Results

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Advising Training Results
Advising Training Results

Posted by Heather Hebert

April 2007 report

Career and Academic Planning Services (CAPS) has a booth for Springfest. We hope to let high school students and the community know of our free and valuable services. ECU Wachovia Partnership East, University of North Carolina – Wilmington, and North Carolina Central University also had booths to advertise our transfer partnerships. North Carolina State University had planned to attend but the presenter had a death in his family so he could not at the last minute.

The Advisor Training survey is currently available at http://www.carteret.edu/elisten/surveys/advising/advising.html
Faculty have until Monday, April 30 to take it. At the start of this week, we had 21 respondents. Faculty responses will help drive what types of advisor training is available for them. I am in the process of making a survey specifically for adjunct faculty needs as well.

I spoke with Anne Faulkenberry of the Wachovia Partnership East Program about doing a workshop for faculty about that program. She is excited and willing to do so. We are discussing the possibility of having sessions both during the summer and in the fall.

Most of the furniture has been ordered for the permanent CAPS location of McGee 119. There was not quite enough money to do what we need to do so we are hoping to finish ordering what we need in the next fiscal year. McGee 119 is currently being used for classes for spring semester. Over the summer we will be able to move into the room and begin to provide drop in services. We are currently running by appointment only.

I am in the process of writing a job description for a temporary position to work in the CAPS center during the summer and hopefully through October which is when we are able to hire the first part-time position. Barbara and Don have been very helpful through this process.

Jeannette was very helpful in processing requisitions for my professional development experience this summer. I will be attending the Summer Institute on First Year Assessment. This activity should help us better incorporate Career and Academic Planning Services into our ACA Study Skills courses as well as measure our effectiveness in doing so.

I meet with Lynn Judy about her new Instructional Service Agreement with Pitt Community College, the Medical Office Administration Degree. She explained well what types of jobs people who have this degree will enter and how the partnership with Pitt CC works so that I can help guide interested students to her program. I appreciate her taking time to meet with me.

I attended all three of the Advising/ Registration meetings and presented an advising syllabus and tips for helping students during registration. I also sent the syllabus via e-mail for those who could not attend and so anyone can adapt it to meet their needs.

This month was short work month for me due to spring break and the CCC Leadership Academy Retreat. With the short month, there were 14 CAPS appointments for April.

Respectfully submitted,
Heather

Feb07 CAPS update

Hello all,

I wanted to give you all an update about Career and Academic Planning Services (CAPS). And what an update it is – we have news! After several potential locations, many meetings, much teamwork and some compromise, CAPS has been given a home. It will be located in McGee 119. It is important that CAPS be housed in McGee with many of the other support services (Academic Support Services, Student Enrollment Resources, and TRIO). It is also important to have a high visibility and high traffic space, and we got it! Thanks to all who made this happen. Classes are currently scheduled in this room throughout the spring semester so the plan is to use the summer to set up the space and hire and train the master advisors so that we can be open in the fall.

As you all know, CAPS is currently available to students and the public by appointment.
Since shortly after the semester started through February 21, 2007, CAPS has had 20 appointments. The Employment Security Commission has discovered us and has made 4 referrals this week alone that are future appointments. We are pleased to be gaining community support.

CAPS is also sponsoring a college transfer visit from The University of North Carolina – Wilmington on Monday, March 5 from 10-1 and East Carolina University on Wednesday, March 14 from 9-1 both in the Donald Bryant Student Center Meeting room. The current CAPS office was too small for these visits but in the future the visits can take place in the CAPS room. These appointments are 15 minutes long so if all appointments are taken as they were last semester, we will serve 36 students for UNC-W and ECU. I am working with a representative from North Carolina State University in hopes of getting them to come to campus also. They have not been here in years.

I have completed a survey that assesses faculty advising training needs which will drive our future professinal development workshops. We are working on getting it available online to faculty advisors to make data collection and analysis simplier.

The collaboration of CAPS with HRD to offer a class that covers everything from career exploration to getting a job did not have enough students to run. I have suggested to Hedda Bunting and John Smith that we divide the workshop into two or more separate ones in hopes of gaining more students. We all agreed that it would be unlikely that one person would need all of those services at one time so offering shorter more topic specific workshops may be more popular. We are giving it a try.

Respectfully submitted,

Heather Hebert

Career & Academic Planning Services

Hi, this is Heather Hebert. I am the Director of the Career and Academic Planning Services Division.  I am thrilled Carteret Community College had the vision to create the Career and Academic Planning Services (CAPS) concept. It was evident to many faculty and staff that too many students come to the college with little direction or misguided direction in their career goals. Too few understand how to navigate the college and its processes. We thought that advising was an area that needed improvement at the college. We felt it important to student success to provide them with more guidance and assistance in career exploration and the academic planning process. A sub-committee of the advising committee made a proposal to start an advising center which grew into the CAPS concept. Our plan is for CAPS to provide:

• Guidance in selecting a career direction.
• Professional assessment services and materials to help students better understand their interests, skills, values and personality preferences, and how that relates to selecting an occupation that matches.
• Assistance in selecting an academic or vocational training program to prepare for a chosen career goal.
• Assistance in developing an academic plan of study.
• Training in how to conduct an effective job search, including resume and cover letter writing, interview preparation and salary negotiation.
• Assistance in obtaining current and accurate occupational and labor market data.
• Training in how to use the Internet to find career resources, employment opportunities and other related resources.
• Information sessions about educational and career opportunities.
• Assistance in transferring to other colleges.
• Referrals to academic advisors who register students for classes.

The Career & Academic Planning Services Center is located in an office in Academic Support Services in the McGee Building. Services are currently available by appointment. Eventually we hope to have an actual center that is available for appointments as well as drop in times. 

We also thought it important to better prepare faculty to be academic advisors. One important role of CAPS will be to provide training manuals and professional development opportunities to faculty.

Heather Hebert