Way back in 2019, not too long before the pandemic struck, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University gathered groups of faculty and staff to design what we called a Future Forward structure — and mentality — on behalf of our students.

The effort resulted in some immediate, easy wins: redesigning a program ensuring success for at risk first year students; creating classes within every major that provide a sense of community and build a cohort (with a special section for transfer students); and rechristening the career hub as the Futures Center, thereby centralizing advising on every possible path students might take after graduation. We placed this new center directly across from a space at the heart of the College’s main building where all first year advising takes place, signaling to students not to wait until senior year to utilize its resources. The purpose of the Futures initiative is to ensure that no one hesitates to study what they love because they fear that such study could lead to a career cul de sac.

The three interdisciplinary schools within the Humanities (schools I oversee: if you know me, you know career readiness is a passion of mine) helped to lead the effort, with the Department of English volunteering to be an early integrator and test bed. A few years along, we’ve seen some impressive results. English was the first of The College’s 18 schools to embed a Director of Internships and Career Readiness, an endeavor so successful that we have hired a second staff member to support her work and prevent burn out. About two hundred students make use of this office each semester. Of those who obtain an internship through the program 92% graduate with a job in hand (we know because we track). That first job may or may not be directly connected to their internship: the Director of Internships assists students in framing their experience on their resume and in interviews to ensure career connections and a sense of confidence no matter what work they eventually pursue. Although we try to place students in paid internships since most of our students work and cannot forgo their wage, we also have had good success raising philanthropic funding to pay a stipend to students who take an unpaid internship that will advance their ambitions.

English majors get jobs and we have the data to prove it. But also: humanities majors deserve robust support networks that will enable them to articulate how what they have studied correlates to career possibilities. It’s not enough to imagine that a campus career center is going to be well prepared to handle humanities majors, nor should we expect that humanities professors (many of whom have ever had only one kind of job, and they composed a CV rather than a resume for it) can effectively assist undergraduates who are not headed towards advanced study in the discipline.

But an internship office embedded within every school or department is not enough. The Department of English also requires a one credit course called Your Degree in the World. Created by a team of faculty members and staff with the assistance an instructional designer, ENG 300 exists as a shared Canvas shell that those of us who teach the course can adapt each semester. The Canvas shell is deep with resources and represents the best of what faculty can achieve when they collaborate with colleagues as well as staff. I’ve taught Your Degree in the World several times, moving some of its pieces around to best suit the particular audience. Last year, for example, had quite a few aspiring lawyers so I arranged for an alumna who is a partner in a local firm to visit along with our prelaw advisor, while this year has quite a few writers and I will fine tuned accordingly. We offer two sections of the class every semester and they always fill at 36 students each. I sometimes have to ask students from the business school to drop so that humanities majors have enough seats. Last spring we added a very successful version for our online students.

I love teaching the careers course because students find it a space to let their guard down a bit, embrace thinking about their own agency when it comes to forging the future they want and determining what it means for them to lead a good life. Inevitably they seem to find the confidence that they deserve to possess in their own ability to shape their career. In general students tell me that they leave the course less certain of what they will do upon graduation, but more convinced that something satisfying will work out. What could be better?

Below I offer a version of the fall semester 2025 syllabus and a quick overview of the assignments. These varied exercises are well designed with clear directions and lucid rubrics for how they are scored: we aim to make this a class without mysteries (but also with plenty of surprises and self-discoveries). Students know from the start how to excel in this class and for the most part, they do: typically the only students who encounter trouble in Your Degree in the World are those for whom family or health challenges have inhibited their ability to undertake the required work (we always work with them to get them the extracurricular support they deserve).

Let me know your thoughts: this is very much a class that must keep changing. I’ll give the course objectives, the roadmap of the first three meetings, and a synopsis of the rest of the class. Curating and coordinating the large number of visitors takes quite a bit of time but is always worth it. Students connect with resources inside the university by meeting the staff who are there to help them forge their way forward, and over the course of the semester typically connect with ten or twelve alumni who visit.

Welcome to Your Degree in the World 🌏

This class helps you develop a deeper sense of the value of the humanities in society, and the relation of humanities study to living a good life. You will engage with other English majors, faculty, alumni, and industry professionals to explore the types of work that various concentrations of the English degree enable you to undertake.  Through a range of reflective and interactive projects, you will strengthen your own ability to articulate how skills learned in the English major apply to various creative, real-world, and professional settings.

Overall Course Objectives

This course seeks to:

Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

You will not need to purchase texts for this class. Links to assigned readings and resources that can be accessed free of charge are posted on Canvas.

Assignments

The major assignments for the course are a series of seven short developmental inquiries and a two part informational interview. All assignments are due at 12:00 pm (noon) on Mondays before class, but you are encouraged to complete them well in advance.

Today you will learn about the course, your classmates, and your instructor. I’ll also give you a sturdy notebook and good pen for you to use to jot down your thoughts on the course as it progresses and to spend some time filling with your reflections. You will not hand this in and I will never look at it, but I will ask you to spend at least half an hour each week with the notebook, composing what I hope will be a letter to your future self. Think of it as an archive of your 2025 hopes, aspirations, and big plans. Please also explore the Canvas course site as much as you can beforehand and bring questions to class.

Your Success Story

We will watch this YouTube video featuring alumni who were Humanities majors here at ASU not that long ago. Then you will think twelve years into the future and imagine what you will be doing and why that matters to you -- and to current ASU English majors. What personal goals will have you obtained, and how might your career inspire students at ASU to create their own success stories?

"What will you do with it?" is a question we get asked a little too often, and we may struggle to respond clearly and confidently -- perhaps because the correct answer is EVERYTHING. The question of career futures is at this week's heart.

Special Guest: Cassie Blue, Project Manager at Rivian and ASU English (Film and Media Studies) alum from 2010, will talk about their winding yet satisfying road to career success. Bonus fact: their dad just graduated from ASU’s MA in WWII Studies in the spring.

Please read the following articles before the class: 

Preview also Inquiry 1 so that you can ask questions if you have any. 

[Inquiry 1, “Getting to Know You,” is a three part assignment designed for students to learn more about each other and ground themselves in the goals of the course. The exercise includes utilizing one of four career planning tools (Career Values Matcher; O*Net Interest Profiler; Career One Stop Skills Matcher; 80,000 Hours Career Planning Tool); writing a 250 word response on on what the chosen inventory advertises as its goal and what its actual operating assumptions seem to be (e.g. students are asked to “consider what world or way-in-the-world does it seem to uphold” and what is resonant and what is not within that world); doing the same for ASU Career and Professional Development Services or Roadtrip Nation; and then writing out “what excites you about thinking about preparing for a career? What are you thinking about doing after graduation? What impact would you like to have? How do you see the skills you’re developing as an English major in relation to those plans? What might you be a little hesitant about regarding preparing for a career?” The first assignment is lot but really does anchor the course’s launch.]

This week, we will learn about the internship programs available for English majors as well as various online resources available for ASU students. Please watch this video ahead of time.

Our guest speakers are Ruby Macksoud, Director of the Internship Programs and Career Readiness, and Mark LaRubio, Internship Coordinator, Department of English. And keep in mind this essential resource: Department of English Scholarship for Students with Unpaid Internships.

***

The classes above get us well launched. We also in corporate frequent warm up writing exercises, to the moment conversations on topics of sudden concern relevant to the class, and informal advising sessions. The rest of the semester looks something like this:

Then we go deep into what has proven to be the course’s most valuable exercise: students find someone who is doing exactly what they can imagine doing themselves some day, interview that person, and report back to the class. I approve both their contact email and list of questions in advance, so we can have a conversation about professional self presentation.

The class ends with a self reflection on ground covered and vistas opened. Students always submit powerful, joyful work — this course affirms for me every semester that the best way to get a job AND lead a good life is to major in the humanities.