Parents, Family,
& Friends

As a proud supporter of a UC San Diego student, your perspective, professional and life experience will be invaluable to guide them in their professional choices and outcomes.

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We believe that the ideal combination of future success consists of your support, while empowering students to take responsibility for their own future exploration and decision making process.

Working with thousands of students during the year, the Career Center team finds the best success when we discuss a wide range of issues ranging from broad exploration to specific plans for reaching their next internship, job, or higher education goals. To make progress, your student needs to be an active participant and we can advise them about appropriate action steps but they must be the one to act.

We believe that a major or minor does not determine your student’s path. Instead, we encourage students to work with our academic campus partners to study what inspires them, examine their purpose, personality, and explore outcomes related to what they have learned about themselves. The outcome discernment and search process can be stressful and challenging.

As you support your student, it is helpful to understand limitations. While we utilize assessment tools to help students discern their purpose and what impact they want to have, we do not have a "test" that will tell a student what outcome they should seek. Rather, we discuss strategies for exploring their options by speaking directly with with alumni, faculty, employers, graduate schools, and others simultaneously to yield compelling insights to help make informed decisions.

The professional journey from student to alumni is a lifelong process that is built on academic enrichment and experiential learning. Students must start early. Spend a few routine minutes everyday acting. Share with others the successes and the opportunities to learn from failures. Someone believed in us, and we believe in you.

Upward & Onward. 

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