The Guided Pathways program is being drafted and will be implemented no later than 2022, the state deadline. Citrus College and 114 other community colleges have set this program with the purpose of helping students achieve their academic goals.
“It’s a way for students to be able to connect to a college by thinking about it from their career,” Victoria Dominguez, mathematics & business professor and faculty co-lead of Guided Pathways said.
The concept behind the program is sorting students in groups called meta-majors — in Citrus, they will be referred to as Career Academic Pathways — these groups will be divided by student’s majors and interests.
“If you are not super familiar with the application process and what is your major about and what you want to do with it this is one piece of Guided Pathways of making that selection process a little more clear,” Natalie Desimone, counseling faculty and faculty co-lead of Guided Pathways said.
Some groups in Career Academic Pathways are categories such as Art & Design, Business & Technology, Communications & Human Services, Health & Wellbeing, Law & Public Services and Science & Math.
Inside each group, there will be a support group.
“[Students] have very complicated lives in community college,” Dominguez said. “They are usually working a lot, they may have other responsibilities, caring for family and caring for other people. So, time is of the essence for them.”
For students with undeclared majors, Career Academic Pathways is designed to help students explore a field and set an education plan.
New counseling classes will be implemented. The courses taken will also count for the major the students eventually decide on in their chosen group in the Career Academic Pathways program.
There are four pillars in Guided Pathways: “Clarifying the path,” “Enter the path,” “Stay in the path” and “Learning.”
“It’s a framework, it is going to change the way students enter the college the way hopefully you come on board and a little less confusing from how you get to application to your first class,” said Desimone.
