BԪ is beginning its third year of the Ascendium-funded Yes We Must Coalition grant. After two years of discovery, the Mercy team is now turning lessons into action plans that weave career preparation into the heart of a liberal arts and social science education.
Through webinars and interactive workshops, the team has learned how to connect insights from labor-market data, employer input, student and alumni focus groups, e-survey findings and cross-institutional exchanges. These experiences are guiding curricular and co-curricular redesign in sociology and psychology, led by Stuart Sidle, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SSBS) with Sarah Hahn and Nadia Ramjit, SSBS, Griffin Shiland, PACT, Lyn Leis, Career Education, Kelly Colby, Institutional Research and Joi Sampson, Academic Affairs.
A central premise of the grant is that effective career-pathway education drives student retention—and that achieving this requires cross-unit partnerships. Aligning advising, curriculum, co-curricular activities and external relationships means breaking down traditional silos, a significant but necessary culture change in higher education.
Year 3 will focus on building and implementing concrete strategies so more Mercy students—particularly those from low-income backgrounds—can persist to graduation and achieve economic mobility.
idle said, “Low-income students often lack the career support and entryways available to their more privileged peers. If colleges do not take responsibility to close that gap, the inequity continues. Evidence shows that guided pathways and strong career-readiness support systems help students stay on track to graduation and upward mobility, and Mercy is putting those practices into action,” said Sidle.
BԪ is one of nine member institutions to have received The Yes We Must Coalition grant funded by Ascendium Education Group to integrate career preparation into four-year degree programs and adopt new curricular and co-curricular strategies that align students’ education with career readiness. Working with Jobs for the Future and Sova, the coalition will use labor-market data, expert coaching and cross-campus collaboration to redesign programs such as psychology, biology, sociology, theater, and criminal justice, with the goal of embedding career pathways and sharing lessons learned across all member schools by the end of the grant period.