Meetings/Workshops
Using Labor Market Information (LMI) for Academic Currency and Students’ Career Success | A Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Wednesdays, April 29 and May 13, 2026, from 3:00 to 5:00 ET
The Yes We Must Coalition is offering a two-session workshop on labor market information for college/university teams on Wednesdays, April 29 and May 13, 2026, from 3:00 to 5:00 ET. The workshop will be led by Ray Barbosa, Senior Analyst at Jobs for the Future, a national leader in initiatives that expand equity in preparing students for meaningful careers and economic mobility.
Labor market information (LMI) can be a means to answer questions about how to better serve college learners and ensure they are being prepared for entry and advancement along a career pathway. Data on industry trends, occupational requirements, wages, or whether wages align with living wage in a particular region provide insights that faculty and staff in any type of institution of higher education need to help students maximize their opportunities for learning and career-readiness. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to publicly available sources of LMI and ways resources can be used to support better learner outcomes, update curricula, and engage stakeholders in your region. The workshop is intended for cross-campus teams of at least
2 people.
More details and registration →
Humanities to Careers: Pathways Planning for Students’ Advantage
A Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Mondays, January 26 and February 9, 2026
The Yes We Must Coalition offered a two-session workshop for college/university teams led by Nancy Hoffman, Senior Advisor at Jobs for the Future, Donna Hunt, Program Coordinator of the Mandel Foundation Humanities to Career Pilot at Lorain County Community College (OH), Molly Phelps, Director of the Humanities to Career Program at Bunker Hill Community College (PA), and Nicole Evans, Mandel Grant Program Director at Northern Virginia Community College. The Mandel Foundation-funded Humanities to Career pilot project is grounded in the belief that a humanities education is an asset in preparation for a wide variety of professional careers, but that power is only unleashed when campus leaders and faculty commit to integrating career preparation into humanities studies. This workshop explained strategies the Mandel leaders have put in place to help humanities faculty understand the labor market and prepare them to take the lead in designing microcredentials and badges that address durable or professional skills that employers seek. The workshop also addressed the wide range of work-based learning opportunities that suit humanities students and explored making pathways connections for two-year Humanities/Liberal Arts graduates to four-year HLA programs.
Transferable Learning: Skill-Building and Competency-Mapping for Student Success In and Beyond College
A Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Thursdays, February 5 and 19, 2026, from 3:00–5:00 pm Eastern
The Yes We Must Coalition offered a two-session workshop for college/university teams led by Dr. Cheri Etling-Paulsen, a national leader on this topic with particular experience serving first-generation college students. The workshop highlighted strategies to help students develop awareness about key skills, seek out opportunities to develop those skills, and to demonstrate them in the classroom and to potential employers. Participants explored transferable competencies and approaches to skill-building and skills-based hiring, as well as how faculty are more prepared than they might realize to improve student learning and career success through competency-mapping.
Creating Institutional Change to Support
Adult Learner Success · A Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Thursdays, November 20 and December 4, 2025, from 3:00–5:00 pm Eastern
The Yes We Must Coalition offered a two-session workshop for college/university teams on Creating Institutional Change to Support Adult Learner Success led by Dr. Sachiko Oates and Dr. Jessica Mason, researchers with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), whose research related to understanding postsecondary (re)enrollment decisions for adult learners of color has recently been published and provided as online resources. Cross-campus teams examined current institutional policies, practices, and programs and developed strategies to boost adult learner enrollment, access, and degree completion.
Building Summer Pathways Bridge Programs · A Short ’Shop Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Tuesdays, December 2 and 9, 2025, from 3:00–4:30 pm Eastern
The Yes We Must Coalition offered a Short ’Shop, a one-session Learning Session followed a week later with a Community of Practice meeting for college/university teams on Building Summer Pathways Bridge Programs. Elizabeth Sturgeon, Amanda Romero, and Rony Morales at Yes We Must Coalition member school Mount Saint Mary’s University (Los Angeles) described their innovative design using the summer bridge model that addresses the needs of all new traditional students, many from low-income backgrounds as part of MSMU’s comprehensive (M) Power initiative and led teams in discussing strategies for expanding the positive impact of summer bridge programs at their schools.
Incorporating Digital Intelligence Learning to Enhance Students’ Career Advantage · A Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Thursdays, September 25 and October 9, 2025
The Yes We Must Coalition offered a workshop to college/university teams on Incorporating Digital Intelligence Learning to Enhance Students’ Career Advantage. Dr. Richard Arnold, Professor of Political Science at Muskingum University (OH), a Yes We Must Coalition member school, led participants in the use of digital and online methods in social science analysis and exploration of ways to incorporate them to enrich students’ interdisciplinary problem-solving and digital intelligence capabilities. Primarily aimed at strengthening student research projects, but also suitable for in-class applications, the methods taught included trend analysis, bibliometrics, web-scraping, and visualization with Tableau.
Finding Hope, Creativity, and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma · An Action-Oriented Book Study/Workshop (via Zoom)
Fridays, January 31, and February 14, 2025
The Yes We Must Coalition offered an action-oriented book study/workshop of Mending Education: Finding Hope, Creativity, and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma led by the book’s co-author Karen Gross, a national leader and educator in trauma-responsive education. As an artist and instructor in the Rutgers School of Social Work, Karen grounds her teaching in neuroscience, psychology, and creative approaches to empathy and healing. Her just-published book with co-author Edward K. S. Wang acknowledges the scale of loss and difficulty the COVID pandemic engendered within the field of education, yet this book focuses on how sudden and forced changes to teaching and learning created “Pandemic Positives,” which can be captured and brought to scale. Campus teams reflected together with colleagues and identified concrete ways to implement trauma-informed and crisis-prepared strategies.
A College Affordability Lifeline: Sustainable Practices for Utilizing Open and Affordable Resources (OAR) · A Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Learning Session — Tuesday, February 4
Virtual Conference — Friday, February 14
Follow-Up Community of Practice Meeting — Friday, February 21
The Yes We Must Coalition offered a workshop to college/university teams on A College Affordability Lifeline: Sustainable Practices for Utilizing Open and Affordable Resources (OAR) as a uniquely-structured two-session workshop with a follow-up Community of Practice meeting that guided participants of all disciplines in rethinking course texts by utilizing Open and Affordable Resources (OAR) — institutionally-licensed and/or openly-licensed quality materials that can be accessed and shared without cost or restriction to students — and ways to make structural changes that broaden institutional use of OAR. As we serve students from low-income backgrounds, these affordable options can make a radical difference in students’ persistence and academic success. The workshop was led by Sara Parme, Project Director of Open Appalachia, and Heather Tompkins, Director of Library Services, both with the Appalachian College Association.
College Completion Comebacks: Re-Enrollment Strategies for Students Who Stopped Out · A Planning Workshop (via Zoom)
Tuesdays, February 11 and February 25, 2025,
from 3:00 to 5:00 pm Eastern
The Yes We Must Coalition offered a two-session workshop to college/university teams on College Completion Comebacks: Re-Enrollment Strategies for Students Who Stopped Out, led by Taylor Myers and Lauren McLeese of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), which recently published evidenced-based strategies for helping students who have stopped out return to their goal of completing a college degree. The workshop highlighted re-enrollment strategies that can help institutions support these students in completing their degrees, creating pathways to success for both individuals and communities. Teams formed actionable plans to understand their own student data and begin thinking critically about strategies to support students in completing their degrees, including identifying near-completers, removing institutional barriers, and aligning efforts across departments to create a coordinated re-enrollment process.