Journey To Success

Hartwick Goal: Thriving Grads With Lifelong Loyalty

By Jim Kevlin • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

“The number of college-bound students was declining, students’ needs and interests were shifting, and families’ ability to pay for education was diminishing. Hartwick had to adapt and evolve.”

MARGARET L. DRUGOVICH
From The Wick, Spring 2021

Sure, life can be random.

But at Hartwick College, your higher education doesn’t have to be; (or your son’s or daughter’s.)

Just get on the right flight path. Or FlightPath, that is, Hartwick’s innovative new structure designd to ensure students get optimum value from their four years on Oyaron Hill.

It works like this.

Arriving on campus with dreams for the future, you take the Clifton StrengthFinder test – the best of its kind – to help identify your strengths and careers you might best pursue.

You’ll be welcomed by a Personal Guidance Team, including a professional “Success Coach,” as well as a career coach, faculty adviser and alumni mentor who will collaborate in your success.

Over the next four years, classroom studies, J-terms (locally, in the U.S. or internationally), and internships. will lead you to the first job in your optimal career.

By graduation, you’ve also become a full member of the Hartwick community. Its far-flung network of fellow alumni will support you, advise you and open new opportunities to you over the rest of your life.

“What’s special about FlightPath is our commitment to every student, every time,” said Karen McGrath, senior vice president/enrollment & student success. “It’s not optional: It’s the Hartwick Experience.”

“This is a move from traditional majors,” said Patti Delaney, first director of the college’s new Griffiths Center for Collaboration & Innovation. “These are actual ‘flight paths,’ where students can imagine and design where they want to go.”

FlightPath didn’t just happen, said McGrath, Delaney, and Paula Lee Hobson, vice president/college advancement, in an interview.

In October 2017, acting on longstanding concerns reflected in the quote that begins this article, Hartwick President Margaret L. Drugovich and the Board of Trustees began “in-depth conversations about planning a sustainable Hartwick,” McGrath said.

They brought in the Baltimore-based Art & Science Group, consultants in “market-based strategies,” which had advised clients ranging from Harvard and Dartmouth to schools like Hartwick, from Hobart & William Smith to Wooster, Colby, Grinnell and Lafayette.

In winter 2018, a campus “Promise Group” – faculty, staff and students – was formed to answer questions like, “What do our students want?” and “What does Hartwick deliver?” A “Promise Implementation Group” crafted FightPath from there.

Beginning in September with this school year, FlightPath had a “soft launch” with incoming freshmen, and innovations appropriate to sophomores, juniors and seniors were also being introduced this year.

So “this is the first year,” said McGrath. “We weren’t marketing it to (prospective applicants.) When they arrived, this was value added.”

In the cover story in the current edition of The Wick, the alumni magazine, FlightPath is called “more than a program. It’s an institutional commitment” wherein each student creates his or her “own clear and purposeful path … to personal and professional success.”

“Next year” – the college’s 225th anniversary, “we are giving it a full-court press,” said McGrath. “Print materials, social media, digital advertising.”

Already, there have been successes.

There’s the story of one student interested in business who, guided by an alumni mentor, won an internship at Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston, and was hired on graduation. (Trustees Chairman David Long is Liberty Mutual president/CEO, exemplifying the clout of Hartwick grads.)

“As of this morning,” said Hobson, the VP/college advancement, interviewed Thursday, Jan. 14, “we have 506 alumni mentors.”

Locally, regionally and internationally, 309 employers have signed on to participate, she continued, and “156 have posted jobs for our students: A summer job. A semester-long job. Sixty-eight posted internships, and 59 posted fellowships in science or public health.”

Last week, J-Terms began, with one student interested in international business heading to Japan to visit a “Hartwick Hawk” in business there, expecting full immersion into Japanese life and culture.

One, identify strengths. Two, develop knowledge and networking skills. Three, launch graduates into successful careers.

And fourth, said President Drugovich in an interview, prepare graduates “to navigate in a workforce that’s going to continue to change through their career.

“In this generation of students, they’re open to mentoring, and they expect it,” she said. “They’re open to guidance and support, and they expect it. They’re looking for an education that teaches them how to think, but they also want to be prepared to start their careers immediately.

“That’s what FlightPath does.”

►WHAT MAKES FLIGHTPATH SPECIAL?

►THE MISSION: To send forth young people who know their strengths, and use the college experience to transform those strengths into marketable skills and successful careers.
►“PATHWAY PLANNER”: Computer program enables students to chart steps toward goal, and adjust if necessary.
►TESTING FOR STRENGTHS: Students take the Clifton StrengthFinder test to identify their talents, prospective careers.
►”PERSONAL GUIDANCE” TEAM: Each student is assigned a professional “Success Coach,” career coach, faculty adviser and alumni mentor to collaborate with him or her on the flight.
►EXPANDED J-TERMS: Internships, foreign travel, structured outreach help students learn, experience prospective professions.
►SUCCESS SUMMIT: Juniors
attend two-day professional conference on career development, network, connecting with alumni.
►DIGITAL RESUME: Senior year will be preparation to launch into career, including development of a Digital Resume to bolster the job search.
►POST GRADUATION: Having become part of the “Hartwick Hawk” community, the emerging professionals will join a worldwide network of successful business people and professionals they can turn to for guidance.