Charting a course: area company helps students navigate career paths

April 22, 2007
By Randall G. Mielke Special to the Beacon News

Over the years, the cost of attending college has risen dramatically. Recent statistics indicate that for 2006, the average cost of college, including; tuition, fees, room and board at a private institution was $30,367 per year, according to a study by the College Board, the nonprofit organization that administers the SAT college-entrance exam. Public colleges and universities cost less, $12,796 per year. For a child entering an average private college in 2006, the total education bill could exceed $120,000.

With that kind of money being spent, Peg Hendershot, the director of Career Vision in Glen Ellyn, believes students should make an investment of time and money in the right direction. Career Vision provides services to help individuals make the best career decisions based on their natural abilities.

"Statistics indicate that about 30 percent of students drop out freshman year, mainly because they don't know why they are there," Hendershot said. "Another 30 percent graduate in four years. Another 30 percent go six years to school and only get a bachelor's degree. After graduating, they have cobbled together a degree, but they still do not know what kind of job they want."

According to Hendershot, much of the confusion is due to unrealistic planning.

"What we try to do at Career Vision is help people understand that there is a science and an art to making career decisions," she said. "If you just think about it a little you can set the stage for a better college and life experience."

Via aptitude tests, Career Vision helps identify strengths and how they can be used in the workplace. An aptitude profile is developed and indicates what types of work tasks, and therefore occupational choices, incorporate a person's full range of abilities.

In addition to the basic tests, Career Vision also looks at a individual's personality. Stephanie Groleau, a 20-year-old junior at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla., took the assessment and found the tests very revealing.

"The personality tests match what you are good at with what personality you are," Stephanie Groleau said. "The personality part described me well. It showed some possible flaws and weaknesses.

"One test was a strength test, called a grip test, where you hold something in your hand and I was terrible at it," Stephanie Groleau continued. "The results showed that I give up on things that I am not good at."

Career Vision's efforts to work with high school students is a relatively new facet of the organization. Career Vision was established in 1989 as the service and career consulting division of The Ball Foundation. G. Carl and Vivian Elledge Ball established The Ball Foundation in 1975.

"We have been a research organization for 30 years," Hendershot said. "We are now switching to do more outreach. Before, our testing usually consisted of about 70 percent adults and 30 percent youth. Now it is 40 percent adults and 60 percent youth."
Career Vision works with adults at various stages of their lives. Some people who seek assistance are women re-entering the workforce, or people making a job change, or those who want second careers.

"We are now working more with high school and college students because what we heard from adults who we have worked with was 'I wish you would have done this with me when I was younger,'" Hendershot said.

John Groleau, of Aurora, Stephanie's father, is such an example.

"I was a guidance counselor for St. Francis High School in Wheaton and I would send students to Career Vision," John Groleau said. "For those students who I sent through there as a guidance counselor, I was impressed with the results."

So impressed was he that John Groleau took the assessment himself.

"I went through the Career Vision tests 22 years ago," he said." My wife was pregnant and we knew we could not survive on just one teacher's salary, so I had to make a career change.

"For me, the test showed that the two highest aptitudes were math and financial," he continued, "and that surprised me. Career Vision suggested that I go into financial planning."

Now, some 20 years later, John Groleau is president of Lighthouse Financial Group in Aurora, which helps families with comprehensive financial planning, including ways to pay for college. John Groleau also was impressed enough with Career Vision that he and his wife made sure that their four children took the assessment tests.

"We made it mandatory for our children to go through it," he said. "We said, 'If you want a dime from Mom and Dad for school, you will take the test.'"

Although interested in marine biology as a major, Stephanie, John's eldest daughter, chose another career path after taking the tests in 2003 while still a senior at West Aurora High School. At Florida Institute of Technology she is majoring in ocean engineering, which is the study of the ocean environment to determine its effects on ships and other marine vehicles and structures.

"I was a bit skeptical of the test," she said. "I thought I would go through it and I would still want marine biology. But it indicated that I should go into engineering because I was good at speaking and giving presentations. The schools I was already interested in attending then told me about ocean engineering. It really was the right choice for me."

The Career Vision packages vary in cost and time commitment. Prices range from $525 to $995. An online option is available in which clients spend two and a half hours taking the tests and then have a feedback session of one hour and a half. On the other end of the spectrum is the Platinum Advantage Package, which is completed in person and features a six-hour assessment, a three-hour feedback session and an additional three hours of consultation over a three-month period.

"The outreach to children to use these tools is new in the marketplace," Hendershot said. "We are introducing it. Too many times people are in college, but they do not know why they are going."

Stephanie Groleau concurs.

"The school I go to is very specialized in engineering and sciences," she said. "I see students pick a major and then flounder. They pick a major because it is interesting, not because they are good at it. They waste $30,000 to $60,000 for education. I am grateful that I am not in that situation."

For more information on Career Vision, visit the web site at www.careervision.org.