Gender Expansive Career Identity Mapping
A Workshop for LGBTQ+ Students Exploring Identity, Purpose & Possibility
In the Post-Secondary World
This mini-curriculum was designed by
Vaiva Velzis at Hazen Union School
who can be reached at Vvelzis@ossu.org
Introduction
Welcome to Gender Expansive Career Identity Mapping
A mini-curriculum for LGBTQ+ Students Exploring Identity, Purpose & Possibility
This curriculum is designed for trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive youth to explore how your identity connects to your future. Throughout this journey, we’ll reflect on your values, dreams, and the ways your gender may shape your experiences in school, work, and beyond. We’ll use creative tools like identity mapping and visioning to clarify your goals, honor your full self, and imagine what an affirming, meaningful path could look like.
You’ll also build skills to advocate for yourself and learn about your rights as you transition into the world of work and post-secondary life. This is a space to be curious, empowered, and supported.
Session One:
Who Am I? Exploring Identity, Gender, and Self
Learning Objectives:
Deepen self-awareness by exploring how gender identity, personal values, and lived experiences influence career aspirations, personal strengths, and future goals.
Activity 1:
🌀 1. Start with a Moment That Felt Like You
Think back to a time in your life when you felt deeply connected to yourself.
🖊️ Write or draw out a sketch of this moment and how it felt for you?
2. Create Your Story Timeline
On the next page, draw a line across the paper. That’s your journey. Along the line, mark:
🌱 These don’t have to be dramatic—quiet moments count too.
✏️ My Timeline (draw, doodle, or write in bullet points)
🔍 3. What Patterns Do You Notice?
Now, look at your timeline. Ask yourself:
Activity 2: Bull's Eye Values Mapping
Instructions: Use a target (bull's eye) diagram with 4 sections labeled with your most important values (examples: kindness, freedom, creativity, justice).
Step 1: Write down your top 4 values in each quadrant. Step 2: Mark where you feel you are right now—closer to the center = living that value fully. Step 3: Reflect: What small step could you take to move closer to the center?
Activity 3: Interest Inventory & Personality Tests
Instructions: Take one of the following free personality/interest tests online:
Reflection Questions:
VIDEOS
Session Two:
What’s in my way? Breaking down the barriers.
Learning Objectives: Identify and reflect on personal, social, and systemic barriers that may impact your journey into college, training programs, or the workforce—and explore tools, mindsets, and support systems that can help you navigate and overcome these challenges with confidence and self-compassion. Understand concepts of intersectionality and how it relate to power and privilege.
Module 2: What’s In My Way?
Activity 1: Story of a Barrier
Instructions: Write or draw about a time you faced a challenge. It could be something personal, social, academic, or internal.
Prompts:
Activity 3: Resilience Tree
Instructions: Draw a tree.
Label parts of the tree with words, symbols, or pictures.
Understanding Intersectionality
Intersectionality is defined as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.”
Understanding Power & Privilege
Power is the ability to make decisions, have your voice heard, or influence what happens in your life as well as the larger community. People can have more or less power depending on their identity and how society treats them. Power shows up in relationships, institutions, and systems—and not everyone has equal access to it.
Privilege is an advantage a person has because of parts of their identity—like their race, gender, class, or ability—that society values or treats more favorably. It means certain things might be easier or safer for them, not because they worked harder or deserved more, but because of how the world is set up. Privilege doesn't mean someone has an easy life; it just means that they don’t face certain barriers that others do.
REFLECTION
Think about how different aspects of your identity (such as your gender, race, class, ability, etc.) intersect and shape your experiences. How do these intersections influence the power and privilege you may have in society? Reflect on how understanding intersectionality can help you recognize both challenges and opportunities in your own life and in the world around you.
Session Three:
The Ever-Branching Path: Who Am I Becoming?
Exploring future possibilities rooted in purpose, imagination, and self-discovery.
Learning Objectives:
Envision multiple future paths that align with your identity, values, and strengths. Reflect on the kind of person you’re becoming and explore how your dreams, interests, and lived experiences can shape a future that feels true to you.
Today we’re asking: Who am I becoming? What kind of life do I want to live—and how might my gender identity shape that path? Whether you know exactly what you want to do or you’re still figuring it out, this space is for reflecting on what matters most to you. Career development isn’t just about jobs—it’s about aligning your work with your truth, values, and identity.
Just like a butterfly in its chrysalis, our identities often undergo quiet, unseen transformations. For many queer and gender-expansive people, the process of becoming is layered, nonlinear, and deeply personal. The chrysalis holds a sacred space where we can explore who we are becoming without needing all the answers. Identity mapping allows us to witness our own growth, name our changes, and imagine the wings we are still growing.
QUEER
EMERGENCE
Queer emergence is the courageous act of self-creation—when a young person charts their own map, breaks free from the confines of imposed identity, and steps into the world as their whole, luminous self."
Choose Your Own Adventure
Fractal Futures Mapping
Goal: Visualize the many evolving versions of a future self.
Instructions:
5. Who Am I Becoming?
Based on your Fractal Futures responses, write a short “career identity statement.” This doesn’t have to be about a specific job—it’s about the kind of person you want to be in the world.
Try starting with:
You can write it like a poem, a few sentences, or a quote to hang on your wall.
VIDEOS
Session Four:
Gender at work– Representation, Safety and Expression
Learning Objectives:
Understand your rights and protections as a queer or gender-expansive person in the workplace. Explore strategies for self-advocacy, safety, and authentic gender expression on the job, and learn how to identify inclusive and affirming work environments.
🌈 Know Your Rights at Work:
What Is Sexual Harassment?
Sexual harassment is unwanted behavior that’s sexual or based on gender or identity—and it’s illegal.
It can be:
Harassment isn’t about flirting. It’s about power.
🚩 Watch Out For These Situations:
🌟 You Have Rights!
In Vermont, the law protects you no matter your gender identity or sexual orientation—even if you’re:
🛑 What You Can Do If Something Feels Wrong:
You are not being dramatic. You have the right to feel safe and respected.
💌 Where You Can Report Harassment:
📍 In Vermont:
🧠 Pro Tips for New Workers:
✅ Read your employee handbook� ✅ Know who to talk to if something feels off� ✅ Save important texts/emails somewhere safe� ✅ Support your co-workers if they’re being harassed� ✅ Ask questions—you don’t need to know everything yet!
🏳️⚧️ Especially For You:
Being trans, nonbinary, queer, or gender-nonconforming can make workplace challenges harder—but YOU BELONG and you have backup. You never have to “tough it out” or “be chill” to keep a job.
VIDEOS
Session Five:
Thriving as a Gender-Expansive Student in College and Post-Secondary Ed
Learning Objectives:
Students will identify strategies and resources for navigating post-secondary education as a gender-expansive individual and develop skills for fostering a supportive and inclusive environment on campus.
🧭 1. Know Your Rights
💡 Tip: Search “[School Name] + Title IX Office” to find your campus’s specific protections and contact info.
🏛️ 2. Find the Right Fit
When researching colleges or programs, look for:
💬 Ask Questions Like:
🤝 3. Build Your Support Network
You don’t have to do this alone.
Possible support people:
🌟 Your people are out there. You deserve connection, joy, and solidarity.
💡 4. Practical Stuff to Look Into
📝 Pro tip: Make a checklist of what’s important to you—like safety, queer community, housing policies, or access to nature.
💡 4. Practical Stuff to Look Into
📝 Pro tip: Make a checklist of what’s important to you—like safety, queer community, housing policies, or access to nature.
📚 5. Awesome Resources to Know
Best
Universities
for LGBTQIA+
Students
https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/best-colleges-for-lgbt-students/
https://www.campuspride.org/2023bestofthebest/
Queer in College Video Series
💖 Final Words
This is your journey. It’s okay to take it step by step. You are powerful, you are becoming, and you belong—in every classroom, workshop, dorm, and dream.
REFLECTIONS
“What we did today is a core part of career development: getting honest with ourselves about who we are, what we need, and what kind of future feels right. In work-based learning and beyond, being able to recognize your values and how your identity informs your choices can help you find work that’s both fulfilling and sustainable. This is how we build futures that fit us—not ones that ask us to shrink.”
💬 Exit slip: “One thing I’m learning about myself is…” or “One thing I want in a future job is…”
WBL Coordinator Guide: Supporting Queer & Gender-Expansive Youth in Work-Based Learning
Purpose: Help WBL Coordinators design safe, affirming, and growth-oriented placements for LGBTQ+ youth.
1. Start with Safety & Trust
Sample Questions to Ask Employers:
2. Prioritize Affirming Partnerships
Look for or help cultivate:
Tip: Build a list of "values-aligned" placement sites and let students choose from affirming options.
3. Support Students Before, During, and After Placement
4. Provide Tools for Employers
5. Frame WBL as Empowerment
For LGBTQ+ youth, work-based learning is about:
Let students know: They deserve to be safe and celebrated everywhere.
THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!
This curriculum was created by Vaiva Velzis
At Hazen Union School
You can reach them at Vvelzis@ossu.org