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Exploring careers at MCC

A career planning and exploration workshop for students involved in the TRIO program was held on Tuesday at Marshalltown Community College(MCC).

TRIO is not an acronym; it refers to a number (originally three, now eight) of U.S federal programs to increase access to higher education for economically disadvantaged students. TRIO is a set of federally funded programs designed to ensure equal educational opportunities. MCC was awarded a TRIO grant in 2010 related to student support services.

Marnie Brown and Mandy Fox are the TRIO coordinators at MCC. They provide programming for several different workshops to the TRIO students. This particular workshop was designed to help students find a career path using an assessment tool designed for colleges and universities.

“This is an assessment tool that will help you get some answers. There are 6 steps and the first step is a Myers-Briggs personality test,” Brown said.

Going through the steps involved in the assessment helps students discover possible career choices.

“There are multiple ways to get to the career you want,” she said.

“This whole website starts very broad and narrows as you go along, that’s its goal to help you pick a major to help you pick a career,” Fox said.

The website is customized for each student signing on. Completing the steps in order and saving their results can provide some clarity in searching for answers.

“You really have to think and put some effort into what kind of job do I want. Because there’s many ways to get to the career you want,” Fox said.

Brown reviewed the information found on the website and discussed with students how the assessment would help their academic advisors define a career focus. She said it was important to read through all the occupations that match their results.

“My assessments always tell me that I would make a good cop. I have no desire to be a police officer but do I like structure? Do I like black and white? Do I like routines? Absolutely. Education and training always comes up on mine,” Fox said.

She wants the students to continue exploring the results and discover relationships between occupations.

“The world has more opportunity than it’s ever had for you to do exactly what you want to do but you may not know yet what that is. This career program will help you know that,” Fox said.

“Your goal is to create a career roadmap,” Brown said. The roadmap and advisor review will help students get closer to their desired career.

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Contact Janine Erman 641-753-6611 or jerman@timesrepublican.com.

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