Student Success Team Learns New Tools to Help Students with Life Design

Xavier Smith

Michelle Pribbernow and Lynn Meade

In May, three members of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Student Success Team attended a Stanford University-based "Design Your Life" workshop series. Teaching assistant professors Angela Williams and Lynn Meade, as well as Director of Career Initiatives Michelle Pribbernow, represented Fulbright College and the U of A at the workshops. 

Deb Korth, assistant dean of student success, who had previously attended the workshop, said it shifted how she approached student success and knew it was an opportunity she wanted her team to experience as well. 

"What's the purpose of a college education, and how does that align with my purpose?" Korth said. "That's the question we want our students to ask themselves. This workshop taught us new tools that our students will need as they navigate college and beyond, when they move into careers or continue their academic pursuits." 

The workshop series, based on New York Times Best Seller "Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You," applies engineering design principles to personal life design. What started out as a life design lab at Stanford University has become part of larger program to help people find meaningful direction for their lives. 

"In the workshops, l learned how to use design-thinking tools and mindsets to create my own meaningful and fulfilling life plan," said Williams, who also teaches the Fulbright College career connections course. "More importantly, I learned how I can use these strategies to help students explore their values and goals, learn how to prototype different career options and develop action plans to bring their ideas to life."  

Meade added that the workshop gave her big takeaways for approaches to getting "unstuck" and for supporting her student success courses in Fulbright College. 

"One of my favorite activities was to write on a virtual sticky note a problem that we are encountering," Meade said. "All the other participants collaborated to make suggestions on solutions to your problem. We even did one round where we shared wild ideas. It was a great activity about ways to get unstuck, which I found will also be incredibly beneficial for students in my second-year experience course who I coach on how to best navigate their lives and careers."

Ultimately, the "Design Your Life" workshop experience reinforced the team's central goal to their student success work in Fulbright College.

"Our goal is to empower students to develop their own agency to find successes throughout their lives," Pribbernow said. 

To learn more about Fulbright College Career Initiatives and to connect with the team, visit fulbright.uark.edu/student-success/careers.