Finding Your Career Path: Connect, Grow, and Build is Saddleback College’s student-centered initiative supporting personal narrative development, identity formation, and lifelong career agency. As the first community college to join the LearningWell Coalition, Saddleback brings a distinctive perspective to the network: a deep commitment to holistic student success for first-generation, underrepresented, and disproportionately impacted students who face unique challenges in navigating their futures.

At the heart of the program is storytelling. Students create memoirs and personal narratives that prompt genuine self-reflection, helping them recognize the strengths and aspirations that will shape their career and life paths. Faculty mentors, counselors, and peer mentors co-lead workshops on personal and career identity, while AI tools are thoughtfully integrated to help students articulate their goals and chart meaningful pathways forward. Piloted in Summer 2025 and launched fully in Fall 2025, the program is designed to scale across additional student populations and become embedded in academic and co-curricular life across the college.