UNI students learn about navigating benefits after graduation through the Next Step program. (Photo courtesy of Nikki Harken/University of Northern Iowa)
When Nikki Harken welcomes a new batch of students into the University of Northern Iowa’s Next Step program, she always makes sure to acknowledge that they may already know some of the topics they’ll touch on at their weekly seminars.
Whether it’s a parent passing down knowledge or a life path that necessitated learning, the UNI assistant professor said not every student walks in completely in the dark about what they need to know after graduation. Still, there are often students who realize after being in the class that there is plenty they still don’t know.
Harken said she’s had students go through the program, which is required for students in the communication and media department, and say they were missing information from what their parents in HR lines of work told them about essential professional practices.
“That’s not a knock against parents, I am a parent of 20-somethings,” Harken said. “There are just things that consistently change that we don’t know.”
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Three years into the Next Step program, which strives to prepare students for more than just their career post-graduation, Harken said in an interview and told the Iowa Board of Regents in its November meeting that students who earned their degrees after taking the course are feeling less anxiety and stress about life after college.
Students currently taking the course agreed, saying in interviews that they feel more prepared to take on everything from job negotiations to navigating insurance benefits to dealing with the loneliness and other stressors of moving away.
As a nontraditional student, 28-year-old Weston Kinghorn said he has a little more experience than the other students in the Next Step program. However, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t getting plenty out of the class.
He’s especially appreciated the sections on negotiating job offers and understanding benefits packages.
“That’s been not only good information to know, but also it’s helped my attitude of feeling more secure once I graduate,” Kinghorn said.
Harken brings own experiences to students preparing for post-college life
Harken’s journey to teaching students how to succeed in all areas of life after college started with her own higher education experience as a first-generation student. Her parents were successful farmers in east-central Iowa, she told the board of regents, but they couldn’t help her with things like her health insurance, retirement plan or job structure after graduation, as they had never had to deal with those things.
It was a decade ago, when she was interviewing alumni about whether their programs adequately prepared them for their profession, that she said in an interview she started to recognize a pattern. While they said UNI did a good job of ensuring their career readiness, they weren’t prepared to handle everything else that came with adult life.
“They were prepared to write content and edit video and write press releases, and do all of those things,” Harken said. “What they shared with me, though, was that they were wholly unprepared to navigate what a pension was, or how to sign up for health insurance, (and) what open enrollment is. So from there, I just really was like, ‘I bet we could do something about that.’”
Harken has conducted research at both UNI and on a national scale about whether students would be interested in taking a course that taught them life skills for after college, and the responses were overwhelmingly positive.
In looking for similar programs at other universities, Harken said she believes that the Next Step program is unique in the U.S.
She developed assignments for students to meet with career services and financial aid advisors at the university to talk about resumes and loan obligations and the like, but after people started asking to talk to her classes about their areas of expertise and she saw that students weren’t absorbing the information the way they needed to, she started hosting weekly seminars.
Once students started asking for seminars on more and more subjects, like taxes and living abroad, Harken said the seminars evolved organically into the Next Step program.
Through a mix of instruction, guest speakers, and small assessments, Harken touches on a wide range of topics that students may need to know after leaving UNI, from big topics like figuring out different insurance plans and what goes into moving across the country, or even out of it, to smaller concerns like how to answer the phone correctly and what kinds of professional information they should put on LinkedIn and in online portfolios.
Students also receive a book with the information they’re taught in class, resources for further information and QR codes with links to UNI’s alumni network and other organizations that can help them make connections and navigate life after college.
Harken said in the board of regents meeting that students are transitioning away from more than just college life when they graduate, but the education system they’ve been in since elementary school, or sometimes even earlier. Once they’re done the system basically says that they’re on their own, Harken said, and it’s common sense to give students the tools to succeed.
Maya Kohl, who’s set to graduate after the fall semester finishes, said Next Step is “the most educational class” she’s signed up for at UNI. Beyond her internship preparing her for her career, the program is helping her transition from college life to real life, something she said every student could benefit from.
“This is teaching me about the real world and stuff that I have never been taught in a classroom before, so it’s really nice,” Kohl said. “I think everybody should take it just to educate themselves on what to expect.”
While no official moves have been made to expand the Next Step program, Harken said other departments have mentioned wanting to implement similar programs for their own students, and some are already implementing parts of the initiative.
Alumni express appreciation for Next Step program
Harken has heard from alumni who went through the Next Step program that they often serve as mentors for others their age who didn’t get the same education.
“Several of them have contacted me and told me how they felt years ahead as they watched their peers who hadn’t gone through this program kind of struggle,” Harken said.
They’ve also reached out to ask Harken for her advice and expertise as they change jobs or make other life moves.
UNI senior Allison Poch said that in interviews she’s conducted with UNI alumni through a separate research course, the information they’re mentioning as things they wish they knew before graduating line up with what she and others are currently learning in the Next Step program.
Poch told the alumni that if they have any suggestions for things students should learn now before graduation, she’d be happy to pass them along to Harken. She’s even thought about trying to take the class again before she graduates in the spring, just to really cement the knowledge in her mind and catch anything she missed.
“I definitely feel more prepared to graduate just knowing a little bit more about these things, and I feel like Nikki’s a really good resource to have,” Poch said.
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