Demonstrates the connection between college and career success in a meaningful way for today's students, including everything from persistence to communication to critical thinking. Integrates ACES prompts throughout the text, connecting this self-assessment resource directly to the content. The Academic and Career Excellence System (ACES) helps students pinpoint their strengths and challenges first. Then, students use that information to build and strengthen their skills. Integrating the prompts within the text helps ensure the information students glean about themselves is easily acted upon. Gives students the tools to understand themselves and appreciate their own strengths, while also helping them identify where their challenges lay to support personal growth. Focuses on non-cognitive factors such as attitudes and behaviors, alongside specific skills such as resilience. Presents a strong foundation in research.

This not only backs up the authors' guidance within the text, but allows for an accessible presentation of relevant information to students. Examples stress the importance of diversity. Coverage and examples ensure the text will appeal to an audience with a wide range of experiences. Applies learning to a broad range of situations. Connect exercises, integrated throughout each chapter, enable students to think about how that chapter's ideas connect to personal experiences, school work, and career goals. Takes a first-person approach through Voices of Experience within each chapter. These stories show the real-world effects of learned concepts for college students and graduates specifically. A complete package of instructor and student support materials.

Instructor resources include an Instructors Manual, a Computerized Test Bank, lecture slides, and classroom response questions.