SBS Pathways

SBS students build their university experience through SBS Pathways, which encompasses three areas: Academics, Experiential & Co-Curricular, and Career/Professional Development. In Academics, students choose majors and courses, and may earn certificates or minors. In the Experiential & Co-Curricular area, students may pursue opportunities such as study abroad and domestic exchange, civic engagement, and service learning; be a teaching or research assistant; and actively pursue their interests and leadership opportunities on campus and in their communities. In Career and Professional Development, they engage in building their professional profile through workshops, internships, student employment, and work experience. Through the portfolio approach of SBS Pathways, students reflect on and communicate over their entire college career on how they are building their own unique integrated whole. To learn more see: https://www.umass.edu/sbs/sbs-pathways-philosophy.

SBS Pathways is an integrated approach to advising, curriculum, and resources designed to guide students through the development of their own goals and vision of success as they:

• Explore their academic, personal, and professional interests with a sense of inquiry and purpose
• Pursue academic, experiential & co-curricular, and professional development opportunities that build their unique SBS Pathways through UMass & beyond
• Engage in ongoing self-reflection as an integral component of growth & learning
• Learn to recognize, communicate, and apply the vital competencies they develop while at UMass
• Build concrete skills and habits of mind to thrive as they transition into college and pursue meaningful work or further study upon graduation

SBS Pathways is a framework for understanding student success as purposeful engagement with the academic, experiential & co-curricular, and professional development aspects of a student’s college education. It’s also an orientation to student support that offers students multiple forms of guidance as they pursue and integrate the various dimensions of their own personal pathways across their entire college experience.