{"id":213199,"date":"2025-04-02T16:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T02:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=213199"},"modified":"2025-04-03T13:05:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T23:05:47","slug":"uh-community-colleges-life-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/02\/uh-community-colleges-life-design\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges innovate workforce development, ‘life design’"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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From left, Larissa Leslie (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), Laure Burke (Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), Bill Burnet, Dave Evans, Angela McGough (Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), Tomoko Skinner (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), and Kaleo Quintana (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> community colleges are transforming workforce development through “Life Design Thinking,” empowering students with essential career readiness skills. Faculty, career counselors and staff from five UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges received training in Designing Your Life<\/a> (DYL<\/abbr>)—a framework integrating Stanford University\u2019s Life Design principles with National Association of Colleges and Employers<\/a> competencies, including critical thinking, communication and teamwork.<\/p>\n

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Participants in a Designing Your Life workshop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of those DYL<\/abbr> participants then facilitated workshops that provide students with hands-on exercises to develop problem-solving skills, explore career paths, and create actionable career strategies. A recent online session for Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> and UH<\/abbr> Maui College introduced students to energy mapping, a tool for assessing activities that energize or drain them.<\/p>\n

“After our workshop last week, I kind of now balance the amount of stress or the reasons why I am stressed,” said student Jofaira Manarpiis. “I now try to avoid things I know that are not good for me and also things that won\u2019t help me. What I do now is focus on what\u2019s important and less extra things.”<\/p>\n

Originally a student workshop series, the initiative is expanding to include faculty, staff and student workers, embedding career development strategies into classrooms and student services. By incorporating Life Design Thinking across UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges, the program fosters a systemwide culture of career exploration and growth.<\/p>\n

UH<\/abbr> Maui College Associate Professor and Career Link Director Juli Patao said the DYL<\/abbr> framework helps all people in all stages of their career journeys with discovering and designing their lives to create joy and a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n

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From left, Craig Mitchell (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), Tomoko Skinner (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>) and Laure Burke (Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), Karen Crowell (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I like to think of these activities as providing a holistic career development concept of how to balance our professional career journey with our personal interests that ultimately leads to a fulfilling and well-designed future,” Patao said. “The DYL<\/abbr> concept helps us to redesign, adapt and pivot throughout the different stages of our journey to devise our own personal career success stories.”<\/p>\n

With more than 400 institutions worldwide using the DYL<\/abbr> framework, the UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges\u2019 adoption reflects a commitment to preparing students for lifelong career adaptability and success. Workforce development is one of the UH<\/abbr> System Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/a> four imperatives.<\/p>\n

Watch past career readiness workshops on YouTube: Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> | UH<\/abbr> Maui College | Kapiʻolani CC<\/abbr> Career Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Tomoko Skinner, Kimberly Martison, Angela Coloretti McGough, Christine Quintana, Juli Patao<\/p>\n

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From left, Karen Crowell (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), Kimberly Martinson (Â鶹´«Ã½Maui College), Tomoko Skinner (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>), Laure Burke (Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr>) and Larissa Leslie (Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges are equipping students with essential career skills for lifelong success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[969,61,63,71,60,603],"class_list":["post-213199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-career-development","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-maui-college","tag-workforce-development","entry","no-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t