Design your life and career at BSU.
Design your life and career at BSU.
What if every time you were struggling with a problem about your career or life, you had a simple five-step process to help you move forward?
Life Design@BSU is that process.
Imagine your future life & career with Life Design@BSU.
There are several way to learn and practice this five-step process. They include:
Step 1: Learn
Discover who you are, your path, and your challenges.
Step 2: Question
Create a question based on one of your challenges.
Step 3: Brainstorm
Share your question with BSU faculty and staff who can generate solutions.
Step 4: Act
Choose 1 solution and test it in the real world.
Step 5: Review
Are you satisfied with your result? if not, try a different solution.
Want to learn more?
Schedule a Life Design appointment in Career Services & Internships
Experience Life Design@BSU
Meet Carol Crosby, Associate Director of Life Design@BSU
As Associate Director of Life Design @BSU, Carol is collaborating with institutional constituents to integrate life design into the campus community. This new university initiative is helping students think early, often, and creatively about college engagement as well as their future career and life.
This one-credit course for first year students and new transfers actively engages students in Life Design@BSU and helps students transition to the university. Students can register for this course on InfoBear.
You can now meet with a career advisor in the Career Services and Internships Office to build your career vision as well as create action steps to test that vision. To schedule a Life Design appointment, use Handshake or call the office at 508-531-1328.
Student Reviews
“A deeply introspective experience that helped me develop self-reflective skills useful in the long run.”
– Student, Student to Professional Employment Pilot, Fall 2023
“I discovered who I am, learned how to design my dream life, and found the strength to push through adversity.”
– Student-Athlete, First-Year Workshops, Fall 2024
“I gained tools to manage my anxiety and plan for my future.”
– Student-Athlete, First-Year Workshops, Fall 2024
“The most important things I learned in Designing Your BSU were time management and having a clear vision for my career at BSU.”
– Student, Designing Your BSU Class, Fall 2024
“I learned that mapping out my goals is essential for success.”
– Student, Checkpoint Mind Mapping Activity, Fall 2024
Community Engagement
“BSU is really leading the way in implementing life design with your student population. You are doing a phenomenal job with deep engagement all across the campus.”
Bill Burnett, co-author, bestselling book, Designing Your Life
Tackling College Challenges
In Fall 2024, 88 first year student athletes participated in a series of workshops that helped to explore their values, skills, and life vision. This program was a collaboration with the Athletics and Recreation department and was integrated with a current student athlete transition to college program.
Designing Your BSU
As of Fall 2023, incoming first year and transfer students can register for a one-credit course that helps them transition to college, learn about resources and opportunities at BSU and explore using life design to solve current and future “wicked problems.”
Changemakers Across BSU
Stanford University’s Life Design Lab staff came to campus in May 2024 to help faculty and staff explore life design and brainstorm about how this method could be shared across the institution, both in curricular and co-curricular settings.
Leading Alternatives
The Martin Richard Institute for Social Change held a Studio in Fall 2024 for student leaders preparing to coordinate students participating in alternative break programs. Participants explore their personality as leaders and learned what roles were their best strengths for team-building and problem solving.
Not Just for Students
Several 1-3 hour Studios have been held for divisions and offices across campus. These Studios have not only introduced the campus community to the concept of Life Design@BSU but also provided an opportunity for participants to explore challenges in their life and/or career and apply this five-step approach to solve these challenges.
Starting Early at BSU
Helping students think early and often about their lives at BSU and future careers, first year and transfer students attending the fall and spring orientation programs attend a life design “mind-mapping” session. Participants leave this program with a visual vision of their BSU engagement and future career and life plans.
Professional Growth
A pilot program held Fall 2023 – Spring 2024 explored integrating life design and professional development training for on-campus student employees. All participants explored their professional strengths and challenges and tackled one challenge using the 5-step Life Design@BSU method.
A Catalyst for Faculty
Faculty members in Communications and Early Childhood and Education and a staff member in Career Services and Internships are currently innovating project-based /design thinking modules for use across the disciplines. This working group received funds from BSU’s Academic Affairs Division for Spring 2025.
Launching Juniors
Career Services and Internships integrated the 5-step Life Design@BSU method for juniors into a session for a year-long professional development program. Participants used the 5-step Life Design@BSU method to tackle challenges as they sought internships for the upcoming summer.
Designing Health Careers
In a pilot for customizing design thinking into a classroom setting, a health studies faculty member collaborated to bring life design to students attending a capstone senior seminar in Fall 2024. This successful endeavor will now be repeated, both in-person and asynchronous, in first and sophomore year classes in Spring 2025.
Mi Futuro
As a part of a Mi Futuro program during Fall 2024, Latine students as well as first year students in the Pride Center and LGCIE’s one credit learning community classes participated in a “mind mapping” session to develop of vision of their future careers and lives after BSU.
Transforming Conversations
Career Services and Internships came together in Fall 2024 to transform career advising. Using several advising and learning models, the career advisors built a 5-step Transformative Career model that will be used during student sessions to transform the experience and help advisees overcome barriers to career exploration.
Trained in Life Design
Bridgewater State University has invested in their faculty and staff as the campus integrates life design into the culture. To date, 8 administrator and staff and 2 faculty have participated in training through the Life Design Lab at Stanford University.
Learning Partner Resources
Explore the cutting-edge tools available in our studios and classrooms. Our modules are designed to enhance learning, creativity, and hands-on experience