A $25 million anonymous gift to Gustavus Adolphus College, announced last week, will go toward supporting career and vocation development for the college's graduates, school officials say.
College officials describe the effort as a way for an education to lead to a "purposeful life." But it is also an acknowledgment that students, parents, and potential employers expect a four-year degree to lead to something: "to equip them for the challenging, competitive, and dynamic world of work."
The move is part of a larger trend among liberal arts colleges across the country.
Carleton College in Northfield, for example, identified career development among six key priorities during a recent 18-month strategic planning, and has added career counselors to its staff.
In Iowa, Grinnell College has also taken steps to promote career development, including hiring more career advisers and adding more experiential learning opportunities, according to EAB, a best practice business serving the education industry.
As the Wall Street Journal recently put it: "With their students facing rising debt and pressure to land a job after graduation, colleges and universities are focusing less on the meaning of life and more on how to earn a living."
Gustavus Adolphus President Rebecca Bergman is less glib. "We are definitely focused on outcomes, which means that from the time our students arrive on campus until the time they graduate, we're preparing them for the next step," she said.
Gustavus's plan includes leveraging some of the school's 27,000 alumni to match a mentor to all juniors and seniors, internships, summer jobs, study abroad programs and experiential learning.
