Projects
Life and Work After Sports: Former NCAA Athletes’ Experiences of Athletic Retirement and Career Transition
This study examines former collegiate student athletes’ experiences of career development and transition out of sport and into post-college life and the world of work. For most student athletes, the termination of an athletic career is inevitable and coincides with graduation and transition into a non-sport career. Many student-athletes are... More
National Study of Career Development Practice in the Elementary School
In order to better understand the challenges in providing career development programming to elementary school children, we are surveying elementary school counselors from across all 50 states. Specifically, we are examining practicing school counselors’ beliefs about, attitudes towards, preparation for, and practice of career development work with elementary school-aged students. The... More
Elementary School Career Development: Exemplars of Practice
In recent years it has become increasingly understood that fostering positive career development in the elementary school years provides a foundation for the college and career readiness endeavors at the high school level. Despite this recognition, there continues to be hesitation to engage in career-related programming in the elementary school... More
Engineering Teaching Efficacy
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education has become a priority in many school districts, which makes it critical that teachers feel well-prepared and confident teaching these subjects. This is especially true in secondary schools when students are making decisions about their educational and vocational futures with long-term ramifications. The Engineering... More
Career Advising Toolkit for Higher Education
Dr. Solberg is collaborating with career specialists from two universities and Rhonda Basha, a former policy analyst from the U.S. Department of Labor, to produce a career advising toolkit for higher education institutions. The toolkit is an extension of Drs. Solberg and Martin’s work on individualized learning plans and... More
Career Development Challenges in Rural Communities
In Spring 2020, Dr. Qi and Solberg launched a comparative study of promising career and workforce development efforts in rural areas of China and the U.S.
Supporting Career and Life Goals among UK Football (Soccer) Academy Youth
The project is led by a Doctoral Student Mason Blake specializing in Sport Psychology. He is studying and designing curriculum to support the career development of UK youth involved in Football academies. He is conducting an online survey of UK youth that will be used to assess their... More
State Leaders Career Development Network
This Network began as part of a grant from the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD-Youth) and is currently coordinated by Dr. Solberg. This Network includes leaders from over 30 states who meet monthly to discuss their career development implementation efforts, especially as they apply to... More
The Vocational Rehabilitation Youth Technical Assistance Center (VR-TAC)
The Institute of Educational Leadership (IEL) manages this 5-year grant awarded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration, and we are responsible for evaluating the technical assistant training. The project goals are to increase capacity among state Vocational Rehabilitation staff to more effectively support the career and workforce development needs of youth... More
SEL IRN Project: Cross-Cultural Research on Social Emotional Learning and Career Development
This cross-cultural investigation of educator perceptions regarding the nature and value of social emotional learning (SEL) is led by Drs. Solberg and Park at BU and Dr. Lea Ferrari at the University of Padova, Italy. Research teams from 18 countries are participating, and the World Research Education Association has formally... More