“Ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, how He feels about you and your mission here on earth. If you ask with real intent, over time the Spirit will whisper the life-changing truth to you. … I promise you that when you begin to catch even a glimpse of how your Heavenly Father sees you and what He is counting on you to do for Him, your life will never be the same!” President Nelson, A True Millennial Will Do Impossible Things

Overview

Deciding on a major and career can seem overwhelming. Learn about career exploration tools and resources that can clarify your path by connecting your identity and purpose to future possibilities in the world of work. Career assessments and activities are designed to broaden awareness of your strengths, values, and interests. Career research with online tools and informational interviews broadens your knowledge of specific careers and industries. Discover the model of career exploration that encourages an active approach to making important education and career decisions with deep awareness as you pursue a career and life calling.

Purpose: This course is designed to connect students to identity, purpose, and future possibilities in the world of work. 

Requirements

Required Resources

This course uses a low-cost, auto-access textbook. Read the information in the Textbook Information module to learn how to access your textbook, and how to opt out of this automatic purchase, if desired.

Resource Title/Description (books, software, etc.)	Author/Provider	Ed./Vol.	13-Digit ISBN (if applicable)	Cost
The Zookeeper's Secret: Find Your Calling In Life	Thompson, J. & Bunderson, S.	2018	978-1524403348	$15
Additional readings and videos will be supplied in Canvas/I-learn

Structure

Course Outcomes (CO)

1. Explore individual purpose, in a career and in serving others. Refine that purpose in a way which can provide direction and clarity for the future.
2. Identify strengths, values, and interests.
3. Survey career options for the future that connect to identity and purpose.
4. Investigate how life experience shapes perceptions and influences the way decisions are made.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of personal, informational, and technological resources that can help make informed career decisions.

Major Assignments

The table below is meant to help you see the relevance of each major assignment as it pertains to the course outcomes (CO).

Major Assignment	Description	CO#
Journal	Reflection exercise based on readings, class meetings, and additional activities.	1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Weekly Patterns

The table below displays typical weekly activities, due dates, and activity descriptions. 

Due Date*	Learning Model	Activity Title	Description
Midweek	Preparation	Reading Overview	Reading assignments are critical. Reading the background information helps to analyze and synthesize information, which adds to better understanding. A variety of assignments will also be given during the semester to enhance learning and understanding of theories and strategies. Classroom assignments are the most important aspects of this course and are the key to understanding and application. More information will be given in class prior to the class assignments.
Midweek	TOA	Class Meeting	Weekly meetings using Zoom to teach one another.
End of Week	Ponder and Prove	Journal	Reflection writing assignment with various activities.

*Set your time zone within user preferences so the dates and times for course activities will display correctly for your time zone.

Learning Model

Teachers and learners at BYU-Idaho believe these foundational truths:

Doctrines: Faith/Holy Ghost/Word of God/Act/Serve

Principles:

1. Exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a principle of action and
2. Understand true teaching is done by and with the Holy Ghost.
3. Lay hold of the word of God.
4. Act for themselves and accept responsibility for learning and teaching.
5. Love, serve, and teach one another

Learning Outcomes

This course supports BYUI Learning Outcomes to guide students to do the following:

• Become disciples of Jesus Christ.
• Become sound thinkers.
• Become effective communicators.
• Become skilled collaborators.

You will be given readings or activities to capture and guide your learning and growth before you come to class. The invitation is to come to class meetings prepared. Preparedness will enrich discussions and deepen learning experiences; this process will develop within you the skill of independent thinking. This happens when you create knowledge by asking humble and appreciative questions. Knowledge gained through personal study becomes enlightened information that can be gifted to others. You become sound thinkers, effective communicators, and skilled collaborators as you move from independent personal revelation into a community that unites faith by gathering and sharing and this is what it means to develop as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Expectations

“This is the great day of preparation for each of you. It is the time of beginning for something that will go on for as long as you live. I plead with you: Don’t be a scrub! Rise to the high ground of excellence. You can do it. You may not be a genius. You may be lacking in some skills. But you can do better than you are now doing. You are students at BYU [Idaho]. Most of you are members of this great Church whose influence is now felt all over the world. You are people with a present and with a future. Don’t muff the ball. Be excellent.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Quest for Excellence,” Brigham Young University address, November 10, 1998).

1. Never be late. It shows a lack of mutual respect for others and distracts class unity.
2. Be prepared so you can do the following:
   • don’t let others down
   • are open for instruction and learning
   • are prepared to teach
3. Dress appropriately because it signals the following:
   • respect for the learning process
   • respect for the dedicated space in which it occurs (classroom)
   • respect for the invitation of the spirit (Holy Ghost); and
   • affects how others act.

Workload

The BYU-Idaho standard for the student workload in courses is 3–4 hours per week per credit hour. This is a one-credit course running for 14 weeks. There is a one-hour class meeting each week. This means you should plan on 2–3 hours in addition to the class meeting to review the course material and complete all activities. Set time aside in your daily schedule to work on the course.

Student's following the Honor Code and the principles of the gospel understand absences are a burden to classmates and instructor and take advantage of the tithe payers, scholarship donors, taxpayers, and those helping with tuition living expenses; thus, absences should be reserved for illness, school functions, and personal necessity. If an absence is deemed necessary, the student should consult a classmate for information. This experience provides the classmate and occasional opportunity to teach and reflect on information learned. A classmate, however, reserves the right to decline this opportunity when consistently burdened by another’s absence.

As a large percentage of material is only available in class meetings and learning is both dependent on others and is a responsibility to others, attendance is a necessity for course completion. Thus, all individual absences are considered valid or excused; however, an accumulation of absences despite validity (university, medical, emergency, etc.) may, unfortunately, result in grade deduction or non-completion. (Consider a university medical withdrawal if warranted.)

Late Work

As a sign of professionalism and respect, you should complete your work on time. 

This course is based on a mastery concept. Class assignments must be completed with 90% accuracy to receive credit; however, if students have had appropriate attendance, they may revise and resubmit all regular class assignments for full credit. The philosophy of the instructor is to help all students master the material and learn the concepts presented. It is not the philosophy to penalize the rate of learning or to penalize inaccuracies without providing an opportunity to correct and learn from those inaccuracies.

Unless otherwise noted, all assignments are due the following class period; however, the instructor will neither lecture nor punish a student for an uncompleted assignment, but please note the following:

• Assignments submitted by due dates will be returned in a timely manner with feedback.
• Late assignments are often of poorer quality due to the gap between learning and application. They often require resubmission; thus students are encouraged to consider late submissions as a last resort.
• It is important to always remain current with assigned readings for class understanding (learning by teaching), contribution (teach one another), and growth (distributed cognition).
• The Passion Purpose Place Assignment has no opportunity for a resubmit. This project needs to be completed with accuracy, professionalism, and mastery.
• Assignments completed in one batch at the end of the course are considered a symptom of casual learning and will impact the final grade. Casualness in professionalism and/or timeliness automatically puts a student in the C grade or lower range (depending on the quality of work). Turning in assignments at the end of the period is a symptom of poor performance and lack of initiative to learn, understand, and apply course material.

“If I ran a school, I’d give the average grades to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I’d give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me what they learned from them.”  -R. Buckminster Fuller

Grading Scale

Letter Grade	Percent
A	100% – 93%
A-	92% – 90%
B+	89% – 87%
B	86% – 83%
B-	82% – 80%
C+	79% – 77%
C	76% – 73%
C-	72% – 70%
D+	69% – 67%
D	66% – 63%
D-	62% – 60%
F	59% and lower

University Policies

Students with Disabilities

Brigham Young University-Idaho is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Office at (208) 496-9210 or visit their website and follow the Steps for Receiving Accommodations. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with students and instructors by the Disability Services Office.

This course may require synchronous meetings. If you are currently registered with the Disability Services Office and need an interpreter or transcriber for these meetings, please contact the deaf and hard of hearing coordinator at (208) 496-9219.

Other University Policies

Go to the Student Resources module to review the university policies regarding honesty, online etiquette, communication expectations, etc.

Gratitude for BYU-Idaho

Students are encouraged to remember Elder Bednar’s counsel and warning:

"...Sister Bednar and I returned last week from an assignment in Slovakia and Hungary. The people with whom we met in those countries will likely never see or step foot in the remodeled Manwaring Center or the new auditorium. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has invested millions of tithing dollars to upgrade the BYU-Idaho campus. These expenditures have been made to provide associations and places wherein you can learn about, gain experience with, and be blessed by the spirit of gathering. Please do not take these sacred resources, your choice associations, and this beautiful campus for granted. Please do not think that you are somehow more deserving or worthy. Please do not allow yourself to get fussy and grumpy because you do not have everything you believe you should have—such as a parking space within 200 feet of the building where you work or where your next class is held. Please be grateful for the singular opportunity you have to learn and work here—and for the responsibility that rests upon you as one who has been the recipient of great blessings.

"In the authority of the holy Apostleship, I now raise a voice of warning and I make a solemn promise. If the day ever were to come that intellectual arrogance, a lack of appreciation, and a spirit of demanding entitlement take root on this campus—among the students, the faculty, the employees, the administration, or within the community of Rexburg—then in that day the Spirit of Ricks will be well on the way to being extinguished—and the heavenly influence and blessings that have prospered this institution and the people associated with it will be withdrawn. Conversely, as long as intellectual modesty, humility, gratitude, obedience, and frugality continue to characterize those who learn and serve at Brigham Young University-Idaho, then this university will shine forth ever brighter as a beacon of righteousness and of inspired educational innovation" –Elder Bednar (Devotional Oct 31, 2006, The Spirit and Purpose of Gathering).