Center for Future Readiness  Fellows

Project: My goal is to understand the ways in which different stakeholders (e.g. school counsellors, teachers, school directors, researchers, university professors, decision-makers at local, federal level) work together to carry on the process of evaluation of career guidance programs in USA, as well as to develop new research and evaluation skills by exchanging ideas and practices with American colleagues. Products: – Andrei, A. & Solberg, V. S. (under review). Personalized career and academic planning – A promising policy and practice. Proceedings of the 2019 IAEVG, Bratislava, Slovakia. – Andrei, A. (2018). Implementation and evaluation of the Academic and Career Plan (ACP) in Wisconsin & the U.S.: Case studies. – Andrei, A. & Solberg, V. S. (September, 2019). Personalized career and academic planning – a promising policy and practice. Paper presented at the 2019 International Association for Vocational and Education Guidance, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Project: One of these emerging research foundations is identifying the nature of caring and encouraging behaviors that enable career development providers to effectively work with high need, high risk youth. My goal is to co-launch an international study of social emotional learning and career readiness. This study will begin by examining cross-cultural perceptions among educators about the nature of social/emotional learning. Follow up research will establish a qualitative and quantitative SEL measure followed up by designing culturally responsive professional development materials to enable educators to become more confident in delivering SEL and career development lessons. Products: – Successful launch and end of year convening of the cross-cultural SEL research program. – Received formal designation as an International Research Network by the World Educational Research Association. – Solberg, V. S. and Ferrari, L. (Co-Chairs), Andrei, A., Gali, R., Garcia-Murias, R., Janerir, I., Kuttunen, J. H., Marsay, G., Newman, K., Park, C.M., Shin, T., & Weber, P.C. (September, 2019). Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Social Emotional Learning and Their Implications for Career Development. Plenary session presented at the 2019 International Association for Vocational and Education Guidance, Bratislava, Slovakia.

LaVonia Montoute’ received her B.S. in Psychology from Davidson College. Lavonia has worked in research in cognitive and social psychology as well as fieldwork in applied behavioral analysis. Her research interests include ADHD, Autism, learning and memory in classroom environments, and first generation students.

Prof. Karacan Ozdemir is a visiting faculty from Türkiye at the Boston University Center for Future Readiness (CFR). She works as an associate. professor at the Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance at Hacettepe University and has more than ten years of experience as a school counselor. She is currently the principal investigator of a research project titled “Building the Future: Exploring STEM Career Skills” in collaboration with the CFR team at Boston University. Selected international projects she is involved in include Connecting Social and Emotional Learning to Professional Development for Educators and Effective Teaching, which has been implemented in 17 countries since 2019, Career Builders - a project supported by NCSU and Research Triangle Institute – International from 2017-2018, Career Adaptability and Psychological Skills of University Students (CAPS4US), a collaborative project between France and Türkiye. She teaches many undergraduate and graduate courses, including Contemporary Approaches to Career Counseling and Guidance, and Assessment in Career Counseling, Individual and Group Counseling Practicum, Field Practicum. Her research interests include career counseling and guidance, STEM career development, career adaptability, cross-cultural career competencies, program development and evaluation in career counseling, and multicultural career counseling.