Horizons 2025

American Student Assistance Programming

Coffee Break | The ASA Center for Career Navigation at JFF: One Year Later

Tuesday, June 10 | 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Grand Ballroom Foyer, 3rd Floor, NOLA Marriott

Grab a coffee and connect with the ASA Center for Career Navigation at JFF as we reflect on our first year of impact since launching at Horizons 2024. This informal networking break is your chance to hear firsthand from center leadership about key milestones across policy, research, networks, and product development.

Meet the people driving this work, explore how our efforts are shaping the future of career navigation, and discover meaningful ways you can get involved.

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage in conversation, ask questions, and build connections that advance career navigation solutions!

We’re Not Playing a Zero-Sum Game: The Future of Education-to-Career Pathways

Tuesday, June 10 | 1:30 – 2:20 PM | Orleans I-III, 3rd Floor, JW Marriott

Education-to-career pathways promise to expand the opportunities available to young people and connect them to meaningful careers. But more than a decade after the launch of the national pathways movement, pathways have not yet lived up to their promise. They are too often implemented in ways that are overly linear and present learners with a series of false choices, including between learning and earning, between academic knowledge and technical skills, between credentials and degrees, and between their personal interests and jobs that offer stability and good wages. We can do better, but it will require us to rethink pathways and design systems with no dead ends or wrong doors. In this session, we will consider new models and strategies that are paving the way for less linear pathways and invite participants to join us in reimagining pathways strategies to eliminate false choices and disrupt zero-sum thinking.

Panelists:

Charlotte Cahill, Associate VP, JFF
Eric Dunker, Chief Growth Officer, National Center for Apprenticeship
Liz Texeira, VP Social Impact, American Student Assistance (ASA)

The Career Game Loop: Learn to Earn in the New Economy

Tuesday, June 10 | 2:50 – 3:40 PM | Galerie 1 on the 2nd Floor of the Nola Marriott

In The Career Game Loop: Learn to Earn in the New Economy, veteran tech, gaming, and education executive, Jessica Lindl, delivers an exciting playbook for navigating today’s dynamic career landscape inspired by an unlikely source – gaming. Drawing parallels between gaming and career advancement, you’ll explore why learning, earning, and advancing are continuous, interwoven, and life-long processes, and how you can support learners navigating a fulfilling career in the 21st century economy.

Lindl dives deep into the data of modern job hunting, training, networking, recruitment, and more as she tells the stories of real people who have overcome daunting obstacles to access opportunity. She also explains the mindsets, behaviors, and practice tips drawn from gaming you can implement immediately to create resilient, future-proof careers in a world where adaptability is the ultimate power-up.

Judy Goldstein, SVP Marketing & Communications
Author: Jessica Lindl, VP Ecosystem Growth, Unity Technologies

Building Coalitions for Youth Entrepreneurship: A Collaborative Approach to Expanding Opportunity

Wednesday, June 11 | 2:30 – 3:20 PM | St. Charles, 41st Floor, NOLA Marriott

A recent study found that 60% of Gen Z workers were let go by their employers this year due to issues with motivation, organization, and communication.

These findings underscore a systemic issue: Our education system is not adequately preparing young people for the realities of the workforce. A coalition of education organizations, including NFTE, BUILD.org, NAF, Virtual Enterprises International, Project Lead the Way, and the CAPS Network, has united to drive a solution centered on entrepreneurship education.

This panel will explore the coalition’s shared mission to redefine workforce readiness through hands-on, real-world experiences in entrepreneurship, starting in middle and high school. We’ll discuss how fostering entrepreneurial mindsets helps students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and resilience skills applicable across all career paths.