One More Lesson: Advice from Professors for Current and Future Planners

As federal policy rapidly changes, recent planning school graduates may face a different future from what they imagined a year ago.

Meaghan McSorley, PhD, has noticed her students at Florida State University are anxious about how shifting regulations may affect their job opportunities — and even their ability to make a meaningful impact. "All of my students want to make the world a better place," McSorley says. "They're just worried about how and when and where."

The transition from college to the workforce can already be stressful, and the current situation may add to some emerging planners' fears. Several planning educators who spoke with the American Planning Association (APA) say they understand those concerns, but say the turbulence is temporary.

"Planning itself is an act of hope," says Shannon Van Zandt, PhD, a professor at Texas A&M University. "Just the idea that we are considering the future suggests that we expect the best out of it."

Take a 30,000-foot View

This isn't the first time undergraduates and emerging planners have faced volatility, says Mia White, PhD, a professor at The New School. The pandemic forced these students to navigate turmoil as teens.

It also isn't the only area in which students have been confronted with tragedy. At FSU, McSorley says she has prioritized time for students to voice their emotions after an on-campus shooting in April left two dead and seven hurt. "A student in our program was injured," she says, and the experience was especially traumatic because they're a small, close-knit group. Meeting right away to grieve together, though, helped them cope.

"I think we really underestimate the power of sharing what we're feeling, especially when it feels vulnerable or scary or really mixed up. But my personal experience and my observations of my students are that sharing, in itself, is really powerful."
—Meaghan McSorley, Florida State University professor

When it comes to more abstract uncertainties — such as the state of the federal landscape or the availability of planning jobs for those entering the market — Steven Preston, FAICP, who lectured at several schools, including California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, says he reminds emerging planners that these issues "are cyclical, and you will survive it all."

Preston encourages emerging planners to maintain a sense of perspective. "Learn how to get up to the 30,000-foot level and not be immersed in today's problems," he says.

The way McSorley sees it, unpredictability is a feature of urban planning, not a glitch. "Uncertainty is built into the human condition, but also into the career you happen to have chosen," she says. "Moments of uncertainty are also opportunities for new possibilities to emerge."

In some ways, that means things are still business as usual, says Jordan Yin, PhD, AICP, a professor at Alabama A&M University. "We're the people that walk into the room knowing that there's chaos, and we're going to try to make order out of it," he says. "So, I think that the advice, in some ways, is the same as always."

Practice Resiliency

Resilience, or "our ability to encounter and move through stress," McSorley says, is a skill we build. Both she and Preston advise against underestimating the basics, such as rest and exercise, to find relief.

Another technique McSorley suggests is to practice being in uncomfortable situations, like exercising to the point of slight discomfort or eating alone at a restaurant for the first time. "Build your tolerance for it by engaging with uncertainty in small ways, so that you have more capacity as you face bigger forms," she says.

Meanwhile, White tells emerging planners to create a calming strategy. "What are the things that you can turn to that will be imperfect, but that will be less harmful than some of the current approaches that we might be using?" she says. It might be taking a short walk instead of doomscrolling, or a meditative practice like crunching ice cubes from a glass of cold water to ground yourself in the present.

Continue Learning Outside the Classroom

Even without sweeping changes, starting a job can be overwhelming. Emerging planners "want to show the world what they can do," Preston says, but it can create "huge personal pressure and a tendency to overwork." Besides causing burnout, those tendencies make it harder to learn from your mistakes.

"We have to learn to give ourselves a break," Preston says.

Patience and persistence are also key for those still job-hunting, Van Zandt says. Before you are hired, volunteering, networking, and building your portfolio can be useful.

"Even when you're dealt a hand, you can still pick up some more cards," Yin adds. "That's something that you don't have to wait for anybody to give you a chance to do."

Graduating also doesn't mean your education is complete, Preston says. It's essential for emerging planners to learn about various facets of planning, thereby increasing the options available to them. "Once you are in the profession, there are other opportunities that become available to you to find specialty areas," he says. "And, in a time of uncertainty, I would argue that's the ideal time for you to start exploring those."

Making connections and networking is helpful both for emerging planners who are job hunting and those starting their first gig. Photo by Getty Image/ xavierarnau.

Make Connections

Every educator who spoke with APA agreed that building relationships is vital to facing obstacles. But even though McSorley says her students cringe any time she brings up networking, urban planning is an "extremely place-based relational field."

That makes it important to prioritize meeting people who have careers you find interesting and to connect with other planners whom you can trust when you need to vent. "You should also have non-planning friends who will stop you from talking about sidewalks or bike infrastructure on your vacation," she says.

Van Zandt also encourages emerging planners to participate in activities where they can meet people outside of urban planning to gain different perspectives. "In planning school, we all reinforce each other's beliefs," she says. "But with a different community, we might have someone who challenges those thoughts."

And when faced with uncertainty, White says the answer is always to connect with people. "There's a lot that we need to confront and even grieve," she says. "And it's not easy to do those things by yourself in a room somewhere."

Top image: As the federal landscape continues to evolve, five planning educators shared their advice for the class of 2025 on building resilience and navigating challenges. Credit: Getty Images/Ferrantraite.