Doodle Polls are being completed and Zoom links are being sent out. That can only mean one thing: It’s MyCLIMB time at Aggies Elevated!

MyCLIMB (My Career Ladder for Independence, Maturity, and Balance) is the person-centered planning process undertaken by first-year students in their spring semester. It is updated in each subsequent semester, and shapes the student’s path through the rest of his or her two-year certificate. About 35% of our graduates have used their MyCLIMB plan to navigate through a third year at Utah State University to earn an associate’s degree.

“We go through a semester-long process to help students identify their personal likes, dislikes, strengths, and challenges,” said Sue Reeves, Aggies Elevated program director at USU’s Logan campus. “It can be hard to look at those things about ourselves that might need to be worked on, but I’m always so impressed with the goals the students come up with.”

Based on those self-evaluations, a Big Goal is chosen in each of five domains: Lifelong Learning, Self-Advocacy, Community Involvement, Independent Living, and Career Development. The Big Goal is something the student wants to attain by the end of the program. The student then identifies three supporting goals in each domain to guide progress toward the Big Goal. Finally, the student creates a PowerPoint and presents it to family, friends, and Aggies Elevated team members.