Cultivating Occupational Wellness at College of the Atlantic
Supporting holistic student wellness is something that takes an entire campus. At College of the Atlantic (COA) in Bar Harbor, Maine, wellness is being woven through every dimension of students’ experiences; from matriculation and first-year programming, through their experiences as seniors and alumni. As the Director of Career Development, I am most excited about how we are making student occupational wellness a priority; focusing on how we prepare students for fulfilling careers and lives of purpose.
Through partnership with Endeavor Lab Colleges (ELC), as the sole professional member of the career development team on campus, I have been able to expand the ways in which we offer support for occupational wellness. Like all career development professionals, especially those of us who are teams of one, I struggle with the amount of time and energy career and life planning needs to take up in the minds of our students, and how much it impacts their mental health, especially in this age of AI/information overload, social media pressure, precarious career paths, and economic uncertainty.
One of my main goals joining COA was to create a space where students feel encouraged and comfortable asking the big career and life questions: where they feel supported exploring how they navigate dimensions of the workforce, education, and community engagement. When the opportunity arose to use funding from ELC in the spring of 2025 to turn the classroom next to our Writing Center into a career development space, I leapt at the chance. What emerged is the Career Exploration Lab (CEL), now affectionately known as the “career lab.” Though acting as a pilot career center for COA and also my office, the career lab has become one of the coziest corners of campus. This colorful, modular space now hosts daily peer coach walk-in hours, the career ecology seminar course, alumni panels, club meetings, employer visits, all types of workshops, and so much more. Nothing brings me more joy than the comments about how cozy and welcoming the space is from every person who walks into the room for the first time.
Jeffry (left) with a group of students completing a “communicating your strengths” activity.
As part of the new Career Exploration Lab, I was also able to utilize the ELC support to develop a Peer Career Coach (PCC) program. As part of this capacity building initiative, I have trained six students who act as frontline support when their peers need quick help with anything from resume and application help to exploring career paths and classes that will give them relevant transferable skills. These students give me the ability to have walk-in hours every day of the week. Though students still meet with me one-on-one, they can now get immediate support from the PCCs. I could not have asked for a stronger first cohort of PCCs either. They have taken the initiative to: do bilingual coaching appointments; develop a tool we call DraftDrop where students can submit resumes and application material online to be reviewed (making our services even more accessible); do research for Industry LibGuides; build what we call Career Community Guides; and help me develop a renewed online site for our internship archives, student resources, and employment and research partnerships.
One of the unanticipated early outcomes of the Career Exploration Lab and the Peer Career Coach team is that, along with faster application support, we are also able to more authentically and timely support students along the entire spectrum from struggling with rejection, to negotiating an offer, to celebrating accepting an employment position or grad school. Having better frontline and timely support for students has also given me the ability to explore more discernment tools to make available. Beginning in summer 2025, I joined two other ELC colleges, Sterling College and the St. John’s College campuses, in piloting tools developed by Life Atlas: the Gifts Compass Inventory (CGI) and Discover Your Passion. I have used other discernment tools with COA students the last couple years, but nothing gets the level of depth and exploration about one's purpose like the Gifts Compass Inventory tool. This ELC’s partnership with Life Atlas has given me the ability to go through training with my fellow ELC career development colleagues, and to work directly with James Johnson and his team of developers to design materials and resources tailored to our small institutions. Through Endeavor Lab Collaborative and our partnership with Life Atlas, I have been able to implement the Gifts Compass Inventory as part of our core course for all first-year students, I have been able to offer GCI sessions with older students and faculty, and James has visited, on-campus, with our students for “Life Atlas Days.” This has offered him a chance to hear about their experiences, insights, and feedback. It has also offered important training for the Peer Career Coaches to allow them to better read the Gift Compass Reports and lead discernment conversations.
When I look at the cozy, vibrant space of the Career Exploration Lab today, it is amazing to reflect on how the culture of career development at COA has shifted in such a short time through the support of Endeavor Foundation and our participation in the Endeavor Lab Colleges Collaborative. By weaving together a welcoming physical home, accessible peer-led support, and profound discernment tools like the Gifts Compass Inventory, we are actively moving students from a place of anxiety to a place of empowerment. The partnership with Endeavor Lab Colleges has been the catalyst for this transformation, allowing us to build an ecosystem that holistically combats the career pressures of our time. Whether a student is dropping by for a quick resume review or engaging in deep reflection about their calling, they no longer have to face the daunting questions of their future alone. We are doing so much more than preparing students for their first jobs; we are providing a supportive community where they can build the resilience, clarity, and confidence needed to design fulfilling careers and lives of genuine purpose.
Jeffry Neuhouser is the Director of Career Development at College of the Atlantic.