
The "Meet Your Career Community" annual Future Forward event encourages students to meet career coaches and other students who share career interests with them. (Photo courtesy of Mary Pauline Sheridan-Rabideau)

Future Forward's annual partnership with The Writing Center to coach students on creating a cover letter. (Photo courtesy of Mary Pauline Sheridan-Rabideau)

Dibs celebrating with students at the end-of-year Future Forward Graduation celebration. (Photo courtesy of Mary Pauline Sheridan-Rabideau)
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The prospect of a career can be vague, confusing or intimidating to many high school graduates. According to a
survey of over 500 students, 37% of participants reported not feeling sure where they want to be in their chosen education or career pathway. DePaul University’s career readiness program, Future Forward, guides students through self-exploration and skill building activities to focus their educational and professional goals.
In the year-long program, freshmen complete modules built around career-development theory, to uncover connections between their interests, values and the pathways which will position them to succeed after college. The content is designed to be adaptable to the interests of each student, not tailored to any one major or industry.
“Through Future Forward, students have the opportunity to explore and express who they are and what they’re looking for, and in the process, meet people who will assist them in concrete steps that follow,” says Mary Pauline Sheridan-Rabideau, assistant director for early engagement at DePaul’s Career Center.
The
Future Forward program began in 2020 as a method of engagement and retention during the shift to online learning. The program has evolved in content and scope, now including social events, a discord group for participants and peer mentors offering support throughout the program. The number of participants has grown nearly four times the original class size, with nearly half of DePaul’s first-year class participating this year. Students who complete the program as freshmen receive a $3,000 scholarship for their sophomore year.
Finding your path
Future Forward students often become familiar faces at the Career Center even after completing the program. Many visit to access resources or continue participating in the program as a peer mentor.
Zoe Espinosa's professional headshot taken at the Career Center's headshot booth. (Photo courtesy of Zoe Espinosa)
One such student is Zoe Espinosa, a Future Forward graduate in her second year at DePaul’s College of Law. The program helped her determine gaps in her knowledge and supplement that information, helping her feel confident in using DePaul’s resources and preparing for her career. She has been a peer mentor since her sophomore year, hoping to make DePaul’s resources less intimidating for incoming freshmen.
“Now that I’m in law school, networking has become a huge part of my life. I started building these skills when I was a freshman, and I can do them pretty well now. I even helped facilitate a networking event, which was a cool way to apply what I learned in Future Forward,” Espinosa says.
As a
3+3 BA/JD student, Future Forward helped Espinosa figure out how she wanted to approach the broad field of law. As an undergraduate, Espinosa majored in English with a creative writing concentration and originally wanted to study public defense and litigation in law school.
“After reflecting on what I’m good at and what I enjoy doing, I realized there was a whole section of law that deals with creativity and writing: intellectual property,” Espinosa explains. “I figured out that the heart of what I wanted to do was help people and I was able to keep that while moving into a different path. By the end of my first year, I knew what I wanted to do in law thanks to the self-reflection opportunities in the Future Forward program.”
Building skills from day one
During the first quarter, each online module is focused on exploring students’ values, skills and interests to understand how they align with potential future careers. Next, students are coached on developing a personal brand to effectively communicate with employers.
Future Forward students participate in resume and LinkedIn profile reviews with Career Center coaches to align them with their personal brand. Students learn the importance of networking, including how to identify important people to connect with and how to initiate and maintain contact, such as a thank you note after an informational interview.
Throughout the rest of the year, students apply what they learned through interactive experiences, such as conducting a mock interview or attending a Career Center event. Students can also meet with career advisors, industry professionals and alumni within their field of interest through one of five communities.
“There’s no one size fits all when it comes to career,” says Sheridan-Rabideau. “The earlier you start exploring, the smoother the process is, the more interesting people you can meet and the more opportunities you can have.”
For more information on the Future Forward program, visit the
program website.
Jade Walker is a student assistant of media relations and communications in University Communications.