Helping Undeclared Majors Chart a Course

Examination of the Compass Learning Community shows that service-learning, when integrated into first-year learning communities, expands each student s ability to determine a college major in an informed manner. The combination of a first-year writing course linked with an academic course in career discovery provided students with a variety of opportunities for experiential learning about ways of understanding work as well as structured opportunities to reflect on their experiences. Students were enabled to think critically about their strengths, predispositions and values and to consider the implications of their self-discovery for college major and career choices. In the Compass program, service-learning provided the crucial experiential link in students critical assessment of their place in the college community and the community at large.