We may be underestimating our students

As a student affairs professional, I’ve spent much of my career helping students connect what they’re learning to where it might take them. Along the way, students have taught me something: they are more open to unexpected career possibilities than we sometimes give them credit for.

When I introduced students to professions or credentials they had never encountered, they rarely responded with, “That’s not what I’m studying.” More often, they wanted to understand how it connected to what they were already learning.

The lesson for me was simple: students don’t need us to decide what fits inside their degree. They need us to show them what could.

Who decided which careers belong to which majors?

Accounting student? Of course you’re going to hear about accounting. CPA. Audit. Tax. Finance. Those pathways matter. But why stop there?

That same accounting foundation can contribute to careers in forensic accounting, fraud examination, IT audit, technology risk and compliance.

In my previous work with professional credentials, I saw this firsthand. Internal audit is traditionally associated with accounting, but we found a natural fit with public administration majors focused on transparency, ethics, and anti-corruption. Once students saw how internal audit could strengthen accountability and help organizations manage risk, the connection made sense.

The students didn’t change their majors. We simply made the intersection visible.

Those intersections are everywhere. Cybersecurity, for example, may immediately bring computer science to mind. But protecting critical infrastructure and managing technology risk require perspectives from business, finance, governance and risk, too.

We may be thinking about credentials all wrong

Here’s where it gets interesting. Take an accounting degree and add an AWS cloud credential.

That doesn’t turn an accountant into a cloud engineer. The accounting degree is still the foundation. But now that future accounting professional also understands something about the technology environment where financial systems, controls and data operate.

Suddenly, additional possibilities come into view: IT audit. Technology risk. Cloud controls. Compliance.

The credential hasn’t replaced the degree. It has added another capability to it and perhaps introduced the student to roles they never would have associated with their major.

Open the door. Let students decide where it leads.

This isn’t about adding a credential to every course or telling students which career they should pursue. It’s about making the intersections easier to see.

What happens when accounting meets cloud? Public administration meets fraud prevention? Finance meets data?

Those combinations don’t diminish a student’s core discipline. They make more of it.

I’ve always thought of this as planting a seed. Introduce students to something they didn’t know existed. Help them see how it connects to what they’re already learning, bridging the gap between academia and industry

Then give them room to decide where they want to take it.

Desiree Rivera is Business Development Manager, ISACA Academic Partnerships and Student Affairs Champion at ISACA and will be appearing at the 2026 Convergence conference with Louisiana Tech University & University of Canada West, & University of Texas Dallas. ISACA helps colleges and universities embed globally recognized IT credential content into IT and non-IT degree programs. With credential-ready content, built-in support, and global credibility, ISACA’s academic partnerships help institutions prepare students for careers, not just graduation. Learn more at www.isaca.org/academic