First year student career conference to promote advising

Our data shows that over the past 15 years over 75% of the entering first year students change their selected major between the start of classes in August and the time they need to register for the second year classes in March. To help improve the retention of engineering students in the freshman year we created a number of writing assignments in the first year Introduction to Engineering course to facilitate students' choosing their majors wisely during or immediately after the freshman year. These writing assignments were designed to engage students in researching various crucial aspects of the field of engineering in which they were interested. To encourage the students to put more effort into the assignments, we created the Freshman Career Conference. We brought in practicing engineers from Pennsylvania corporations; these engineers talked to students about their education and their work; gave professional development workshops; and spoke to students about the importance of beginning their career development plans now as freshman. This paper discusses the factors around creating the conference and its impact.