Let's Make Learning Visible, Valued, and Future-Ready
STARR
Storytelling Suite
TM
Too often, college learners move through meaningful experiences without realizing the depth of learning or skill-building they contain — especially when those experiences don’t look like traditional achievements.
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ empowers you and your students to transform everyday learning into visible, transferable skills — preparing students to show up confidently in careers, leadership, and life.
How It Works
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ from B Optimal helps students reflect on what they’ve done, recognize the skills they’ve gained, and share clear, transferable stories for interviews, resumes, and real-world growth.
Flexible tools, behavior-based frameworks, and simple prompts — ready to use in the classroom, advising, or coaching.
The Challenge
We know students engage in powerful learning experiences in the classroom—experiences that build real-world skills, insight, and adaptability.
But they often struggle to see and recognize the value of these transferable skills for their own future. And, they often don't have the language to say what they did - and what they are capable of- with confidence.
Our Solution
The B Optimal STARR Storytelling Suite™ makes it easy for educators, coaches, and advisors to guide students through reflection, skill mapping, and practical storytelling that connects learning to career-relevant skills and meaningful growth while empowering future-readiness.
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Flexible for class sessions, workshops, advising, or program-wide use.
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Aligns and enhances national standards (NACE) by bringing skills to life with real, practical examples and future-ready essentials like self-leadership, systems thinking, and resilient learning.
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Embed inclusive, adaptive, and relational practices into everyday learning.
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Empowers students to create meaning and build language they can use now — and adapt for what’s next.
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Strengthens career readiness, transferable skills, and lifelong learning confidence.
What is STARR?
Discover how our unique, research-backed approach transforms an interview response method into an everyday practice for reflecting on and connecting coursework, career skills, and lifelong growth.
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ is an educator-designed, research-backed system that transforms the well-known STARR method into a powerful, reflective practice rooted in experiential and sociocultural learning.
By integrating our Future-Ready Competency Framework, role-specific guides, and practical tools, we help learners, educators, and coaches make learning visible, valuable, and verbal — so they can confidently articulate their real-world impact and prepare for what’s next.
Inside the STARR Storytelling Suite™
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ brings together practical, research-backed strategies and tools that help students reflect on real experiences, uncover the skills they’ve built, and tell their story with clarity — wherever they go next.
Every piece is flexible, adaptable, and ready to meet your unique needs — from classroom to career center, and everywhere in between.
⭐ Tell My Story With STARR Student Toolkit
Practical step-by-step guide, templates, and tools for students to reflect, draft, and share skill-focused stories that connect learning to real-world contexts and build STARR stories they can use in learning portfolios, résumés, interviews, applications, and more.
🚀 Tell My Story With STARR Facilitator Guide
A clear, plug-and-play plan for delivering STARR sessions in class, workshops, or small-group sessions— with practical tips, ready-to-use slides, and actionable strategies to integrate STARR-based storytelling into teaching, learning, and student successs programs.
🧩 STARR Storytelling Suite™ Coaching Guide
Conversation starters and follow-up activities to deepen student reflection and help them translate skills into stories for interviews and networking.
🧭 D.Y.B. Goal Setting & Reflection Tool for Students
An optional student resource to extend reflection with simple goal setting and planning — helping students build momentum and future-ready confidence.
📑 STARR Storytelling Suite™ Educator’s Guide
Strategies for embedding STARR reflection into assignments, rubrics, and program outcomes — making career-connected learning visible across coursework.
💫 Future-Ready Career Competency Framework
A clear, behavior-based framework that’s aligned with — and expands on — national standards like NACE. This practical, easy-to-adapt framework empowers students with future-ready skills language that goes beyond generic buzzwords. Use the framework to help learners articulate their growth, provide real evidence of their abilities, and confidently transfer their skills to new contexts, careers, and civic life.
⭐ All bundles include the Future-Ready Competencies Framework — a practical bridge connecting STARR Storytelling to the skills language your students and stakeholders value.
The
STARR System:
Future-Readiness by Design
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ isn’t just a toolkit — it’s a flexible, interconnected system that helps students see, shape, and share their learning through clear, career-connected stories and communicate their growth with clarity and confidence.
At its core is the STARR method, which includes five components:
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Situation – What was happening?
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Task – What was the goal or responsibility?
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Action – What did they do?
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Result – What happened or changed as a result?
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Reflection – What did they learn, and how can they apply it going forward?
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ extends this framework with behavior-based, student-centered tools that help learners recognize the value of their academic, co-curricular, and life experiences — and articulate that value with confidence and purpose.
What makes the Suite so powerful is how it weaves together scaffolded reflection and storytelling, sociocultural and experiential learning, and career skills language grounded in research on career and future readiness - deepening metacognition and enhancing personal and professional development.
Because it’s integrated directly into the student learning experience and easy to adapt, the STARR Suite acts as a bridge — connecting what happens in the classroom or co-curricular spaces to students’ professional goals and future pathways.
Ultimately, it’s an empowering system that helps students see that what they’re doing now already matters for what comes next — and gives them the language and confidence to tell that story, clearly and confidently.
Who It's For
Faculty & Instructors
Integrate reflection and skills mapping into assignments, class discussions, and program outcomes — so students connect coursework to real, transferable skills.
Coaches & Advisors
Use STARR prompts and goal-setting tools in 1:1 or small group sessions to help students reflect, identify skills, and share their stories with confidence.
Centers for Teaching &
Learning
Offer faculty a practical, ready-to-adopt system for embedding reflection, skills mapping, and storytelling into courses and programs — making career readiness visible and transferable for every student.
Career Centers &
Program Leaders
Host panels, workshops, or employer events that guide students in telling clear, skill-focused stories — and showcase how learning prepares them for what’s next.
Bring the STARR Storytelling Suite™ to Your Students
Included in Every Bundle
🌟 Student Workbook
🌟 Facilitator’s Guide (includes Worksheets + Slide Deck)
🌟 Future-Ready Career Competencies Framework (pair STARR stories with transferable, in-demand skills, or use your preferred competency framework)
🌟 Role-specific guides (Educator/Coach) vary by bundle; see below.
Ready to bring STARR Storytelling to your students this fall?
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ is ready to empower your students and faculty starting Fall 2025. Help every learner build future-ready stories they can share — in the classroom, on campus, and beyond.
Interested in learning more about the STARR Storytelling Suite™?
Educator Bundle
For: Faculty, instructors, instructional designers, Centers for Teaching & Learning.
Use it to:
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Integrate career-connected learning, reflective practice, and storytelling in academic programs, courses, and classroom learning experience.
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Embed authentic assessments of student learning.
Includes:
🌟 Student Tell My Story With STARR Toolkit
🌟 Student STARR Storytelling Goal Setting & Reflection Tool
🌟 Educator Guide
🌟 Facilitator’s Guide + Slide Deck
🌟 Future-Ready Career Competencies Framework for STARR Storytelling
Licensing Options:
Single User
Small Team (6-12)
Workgroup (13-25)
Organization (26+)
Career Coach Bundle
For: Career centers, career coaches, student success & employability teams.
Use it to:
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Guide students in telling action-oriented, evidence-based skill stories for internships, jobs, networking, and more.
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Facilitate self-reflection, goal management, and resilience.
Includes:
🌟 Student Tell My Story With STARR Toolkit
🌟 Student STARR Storytelling Goal Setting & Reflection Tool
🌟 Coaching & Advising Guide
🌟 Facilitator’s Guide + Slide Deck
🌟 Future-Ready Career Competencies Framework for STARR Storytelling
Licensing Options:
Single User
Small Team (6-12)
Workgroup (13-25)
Organization (26+)
Full Suite Bundle
For: Institutions that want to create alignment across faculty, coaching, and career development teams.
Use it to: Empowers cross-campus collaboration, helping every learner make connections between coursework, career readiness, and real-world impact.
Includes:
🌟 Student Tell My Story With STARR Toolkit
🌟 Student STARR Storytelling Goal Setting & Reflection Tool
🌟 Educator Guide
🌟 Coaching Guide
🌟 Facilitator’s Guide + Slide Deck
🌟 Future-Ready Career Competencies Framework
🌟 Quick Start Guide (rollout roadmap for multi-role implementation)
Licensing Options:
Small Team (6-12)
Workgroup (13-25)
Organization (26+)
Classroom Facilitation Workshop
Empower faculty to bring STARR Storytelling into their classrooms with this practical, interactive 90-minute workshop for up to 30 participants.
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Delivered live by STARR Storytelling Suite creator, Dr. Janine Bower
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Focused on real-world classroom applications.
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Hands-on activities, examples, Q&A, and a simple action plan for integrating STARR Storytelling.
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Participants leave ready to integrate STARR Storytelling in the classroom, with complete Facilitator's Guide (includes single user license)
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Perfect for Centers for Teaching & Learning
Standard Price: $1,350 (discounted when bundled)
Licensing
All STARR Storytelling Suite™ materials (including the Future-Ready Career Competencies Framework and Quick Start Guide) are licensed for use by the purchasing individual or group. Redistribution, resale, uploading to public sites, or sharing beyond the licensed group is prohibited without written permission. For campus-wide or system-wide access, please contact us.
With STARR, you'll build real-world capacity for reflection, articulation, and career readiness — all anchored in a clear, backward-designed plan that aligns outcomes, evidence, and learning activities.
☑ Integrate career-connected reflection that reinforces and builds on existing course or program design - easy to implement right away.
☑ Support students in recognizing, articulating, and applying the skills they’re developing.
☑ Strengthen the bridge between academic learning and employability—in real, visible ways.
☑ Advance your institution’s mission and goals by preparing future-ready, reflective, and articulate graduates.
☑ Show what students know, can do, and can transfer beyond the classroom with real evidence of their learning and a simple, adaptable rubric that keeps assessment transparent and learner-centered.
☑ Foster meaningful collaboration across faculty, advising, and career development teams to support student success.
Why the STARR Storytelling Suite™ works — and why it matters.
🌱 Skill Awareness
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ helps students name what they’re learning. Students make their skills visible through concrete examples and behavior-based language, building metacognitive awareness and real-world readiness.
💬 Confidence in Communication
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ supports clear, authentic storytelling. By practicing how to talk about their experiences, students build the confidence to speak about their strengths in interviews, leadership roles, and beyond.
🎯 Purposeful Learning
The STARR Storytelling Suite™ guides students to connect their academic learning experience to their personal and professional goals and future. Students reflect on why their work matters and how it connects to who they are becoming, building motivation, ownership, and meaning.
🔄 Sustainable Application
By integrating STARR Storytelling into the student learning experience, you're empowering students with tools they can return to. With a simple, adaptable structure and language that sticks, students can reuse the STARR method, Skills in Action, and other future-forward tools to reflect, grow, and communicate across contexts — throughout college and beyond.