Life Design Office

College is more than earning a degree. It is an opportunity for students to explore who they are, challenge assumptions, consider possibilities, and develop greater confidence in navigating their lives.

Life Design provides students with the structure, relationships, resources, and experiences to connect what they have learned from their experiences with the choices they make today and the possibilities they envision for the future. Students learn to reflect, take ownership of their decisions, explore new possibilities, and use their experiences as information for making intentional choices and moving forward.

The Life Design Office seeks to:

• Help students develop greater self-awareness by exploring their identities, values, strengths, interests, experiences, relationships, sense of belonging, and purpose.
• Encourage students to approach uncertainty with curiosity, imagine multiple possibilities for their lives, and recognize that there is rarely one right path.
• Provide opportunities for students to move possibilities into action through experimentation, experiences, reflection, feedback, and relationship-building.
• Help students use their experiences, including setbacks and unexpected outcomes, as information for learning, adaptation, and future choices.
• Strengthen students’ ability to make intentional academic, personal, and professional decisions, including decisions made without perfect or complete information.
• Help students build meaningful relationships and connect with communities, campus resources, and experiences that support their growth, belonging, and development.
• Support students in integrating what they learn about themselves, their experiences, and their possibilities as they navigate transitions throughout college and beyond.
• Prepare students to leave Allegheny with a personal Life Design practice of curiosity, reflection, experimentation, relationship-building, intentional decision-making, and adaptation that they can continue throughout their lives.

Students who engage with Life Design will be able to:

• Articulate how their identities, values, strengths, experiences, relationships, and sense of belonging inform who they are and what matters to them.
• Identify personal strengths, interests, sources of energy, recurring patterns, and areas for continued growth.
• Imagine and explore multiple possibilities for their academic, personal, and professional lives.
• Use curiosity, reflection, experimentation, and experience to test possibilities and learn about themselves and their options.
• Use experiences, including setbacks and unexpected outcomes, as information to inform future choices and adaptation.
• Make intentional decisions and navigate uncertainty when complete or perfect information is not available.
• Build meaningful relationships, identify communities of support, and seek resources and assistance when needed.
• Develop and adapt actionable plans as their goals, circumstances, and possibilities change.
• Integrate learning from their Life Design experiences to navigate transitions within college and beyond Allegheny.
• Apply Life Design practices of curiosity, reflection, experimentation, relationship-building, intentional decision-making, and adaptation throughout their lives.