First-Year Experience (FYE) programs can play a pivotal role in implementing Guided Pathways models at 2-year and 4-year institutions. FYE's emphasis on proactive, intrusive, holistic support that integrates curricular and co-curricular programs (e.g., academic advising and career counseling) aligns nicely with the four pillars of the Pathway's model: clarifying pathways for students, helping students choose a pathway, enabling students to stay on a pathway, and ensuring student learning. Many two- and four-year institutions have executed Pathway programs and many more seek to do the same. This workshop will demonstrate how FYE programming can support the goals of Guided Pathways to create a synergistic effect on student success.

Guided Pathways advocates for thoughtful and early major selection and planning (Kopko, Ramos, & Karp, 2018) to prevent student-major mismatch, which can result in completion delays and attrition. FYE programs can support Guided Pathways efforts by helping students choose a program pathway, complete educational plans, and explore career options. As the model requires students to choose a meta-major at college entry, FYE programs can provide valuable support through academic advising and career counseling designed to help students gain early self-awareness of their skills, interests and values, and explore academic and career programs that are congruent with their personal attributes. FYE programs can also engage students in the development of well-informed plans that include relevant coursework, co-curricular activities, and experiential learning opportunities. Furthermore, institutions are encouraged to utilize holistic approaches, involving curricular and co-curricular experiences, to promote learning, retention, and completion.

The Community College Research Center (CCRC), which has conducted much of the Pathways research, has called for interventions that are scalable, systemic, and sustainable (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins, 2015) so they become part of the institutional fabric. Given the resource constraints on many campuses, institutions have strategically reallocated their resources and redesigned their program delivery to bring their Pathways programs to scale. Examples of reconceptualized approaches include the integration of academic advising and career counseling, the incorporation of metacognitive skill-building practices into academic courses, and the inclusion of technology to bolster these student success and learning efforts (Karp, M., 2013). Campuses have also benefitted from providing “just-in-time” services that are appropriate to their students’ level of need. FYE initiatives, and first-year seminars in particular, are effective methods for providing timely student support within the Pathways model.