Career Services
Professional Development Institute

How does each generation teach the next about work?

In the first part of this daylong workshop, Mary Jacobsen uses concepts from family systems theory to describe how family expectations about work are passed on to each new generation. Participants will learn five types of family influence and four interventions that address typical problems in career decision-making.

In the second part, Mary addresses the growing problem of the "helicopter parent." She presents a framework for understanding the competing narratives of "legacies or loyalties" that can divide parents and students from the college teachers and counselors whose advice and help they simultaneously seek and thwart.

Finally, in the third part, Mary will discuss families and money, and will describe how the volatile emotions that money triggers can lead to silence and misunderstanding between generations - especially regarding whether tuition money is a gift, entitlement, or an investment contingent upon expected "returns."

Format includes lecture, storytelling, film clips, interactive exercises, and Q&A.