The University of Hawaiʻi’s community colleges are transforming workforce development through “Life Design Thinking,” empowering students with essential career readiness skills. Faculty, career counselors and staff from five UH Community Colleges received training in Designing Your Life (DYL)—a framework integrating Stanford University’s Life Design principles with National Association of Colleges and Employers competencies, including critical thinking, communication and teamwork.
Some of those DYL participants then facilitated workshops that provide students with hands-on exercises to develop problem-solving skills, explore career paths, and create actionable career strategies. A recent online session for Hawaiʻi CC and UH Maui College introduced students to energy mapping, a tool for assessing activities that energize or drain them.
“After our workshop last week, I kind of now balance the amount of stress or the reasons why I am stressed,” said student Jofaira Manarpiis. “I now try to avoid things I know that are not good for me and also things that won’t help me. What I do now is focus on what’s important and less extra things.”
Originally a student workshop series, the initiative is expanding to include faculty, staff and student workers, embedding career development strategies into classrooms and student services. By incorporating Life Design Thinking across UH Community Colleges, the program fosters a systemwide culture of career exploration and growth.
UH Maui College Associate Professor and Career Link Director Juli Patao said the DYL framework helps all people in all stages of their career journeys with discovering and designing their lives to create joy and a fresh perspective.
“I like to think of these activities as providing a holistic career development concept of how to balance our professional career journey with our personal interests that ultimately leads to a fulfilling and well-designed future,” Patao said. “The DYL concept helps us to redesign, adapt and pivot throughout the different stages of our journey to devise our own personal career success stories.”
With more than 400 institutions worldwide using the DYL framework, the UH Community Colleges’ adoption reflects a commitment to preparing students for lifelong career adaptability and success. Workforce development is one of the UH System Strategic Plan’s four imperatives.
Watch past career readiness workshops on YouTube: Hawaiʻi CC | UH Maui College | Kapiʻolani CC Career Services.
—By Tomoko Skinner, Kimberly Martison, Angela Coloretti McGough, Christine Quintana, Juli Patao
