Students Don't Need a Major First. They Need to Know What They Enjoy Solving.

In Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Bay tells the story of two college sophomores who found their footing earlier than most. In Finding Career Direction in the First Year, he describes Career Discovery, a for-credit course from Podium Education that puts first-year students to work on real projects with employers, from interviewing classmates about their buying habits for L'Oréal to completing marketing assignments for other companies. Eight universities piloted it in the spring, and Boston University and Florida International University joined this fall.

The early results are encouraging. In end-of-course surveys, students' self-reported clarity about their strengths and interests more than doubled, 80% reported greater career confidence, and the share who said they intended to stay in college rose by 15 percentage points. The article frames this as a career readiness and retention story, and both are real. What interests me more is what the two students actually discovered.

They Found Themselves Before They Found a Job

Katherine Rose arrived at Appalachian State planning to become a speech pathologist and began to question the plan after a few introductory courses. Charlotte Brach arrived at Michigan State knowing only that she loved reading and writing. Neither of them walked out of the course with a job title. They walked out knowing something about themselves.

Brach realized she needed work that kept her in conversation with people, something she had never connected to a career before. She now studies international relations and journalism and hopes to become an international correspondent. Rose learned how much she enjoyed the communication and social side of the projects, and she is now considering internships in human resources and marketing alongside her major.

That is the order I wish more young people followed. Most students are asked to choose a major, then a career, and only later, often after a few unhappy years, discover what they actually enjoy solving. These students reversed it. They noticed what gave them energy first, and the choices followed. I wrote about why that self-knowledge has to come before skills in A Skills-First Economy Needs an Identity-First Foundation.

Students Have the Experience but Not the Words

One line in the piece deserves more attention. Heather Shipley, provost at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said many of her students have meaningful experiences but don't know how to reflect on them or describe them. As she put it, "they'll have these experiences, but they don't know how to talk about them." About 40% of the students her university serves are the first in their families to attend college, and many work while they study.

Think about what that means. A student who closes a restaurant every night, manages a schedule around a family and still makes it to an 8 a.m. class is already building judgment, reliability and grit. But if no one helps her name it, she arrives at her first interview believing she has nothing to offer. She edits out the most valuable parts of her story because she doesn't recognize them as valuable.

That gap is where a course like this earns its keep. A structured, for-credit experience gives every student the same chance to explore, and that consistency matters, especially for students who don't have a parent with a professional network to lean on. The structure works because what happens inside it is personal: each student reflecting on what they noticed, enjoyed and did well. It fits a point I made about learning itself in Readiness Begins With Knowing How You Learn.

It is worth noting that UT San Antonio was also named one of four Intentionally Thriving Institutions by Excelencia in Education this week, for improving outcomes for Latino students and all students. Universities that serve students well tend to start by knowing who those students are.

What Parents, Students and Colleges Can Do Now

The survey results are self-reported and come from the company that built the course, so I would read them as an early signal rather than proof. But the signal points in the right direction. Students who understand their strengths are more motivated to keep going, because they can see where they are going and why.

A few ways to put this to work:

For students: after any project, job or club meeting this month, write down one thing you enjoyed more than you expected. Over a semester, those notes become a map of what you naturally solve for, and that map will keep changing as you grow.

For parents: when your student calls home, ask what they did this week that made time disappear. Then help them put a name to the strength behind it.

For colleges: look at your first-year experience and ask where a student is invited to reflect on who they are becoming, not just which requirements they have completed. If the answer is senior year, it may be three years too late.

Rose and Brach found direction because someone gave them room to try things and time to notice what fit. Every student deserves that chance before they are asked to choose.

Young people choose their path with confidence once they know what they love to solve, so help them discover that first.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.