Bridging Academic & Professional Development: A Pilot Collaboration

Presentation Abstract:

In higher education today there is a strong emphasis on engaging students in their own learning and helping them develop the professional skills they will need to succeed. However, students often lack a sense of direction within their field of choice and fail to utilize the career-building resources provided by the University. Introductory coursework certainly broadens their horizon, but there remains an opportunity to more directly connect students with related internships and careers in the field as part of their education on the subject matter.

We will present the results from a pilot collaboration between the Department of Psychology and the University Career Center & The President’s Promise (UCC/TPP) in which we integrated technology-based, career-oriented assignments in one of our Introduction to Psychology courses. By doing so we believe we have achieved two equally important ends. First, a greater understanding of how the information students are learning about is applied by professionals can help them identify a passion, and therefore further motivate their learning and performance. Second, by integrating UCC/TPP resources into academic exercises students will leave this course better prepared to pursue the internships and professional positions that will advance their opportunities to thrive in both graduate and career tracks. Best of all, this model assignment can easily be tailored for any discipline to engage students campus-wide.

This innovative collaboration has the potential to profoundly influence introductory courses throughout the University and substantially enhance the UCC/TPP’s ability to engage students in the pursuit of internships and career development. Currently only about 60% of Maryland undergraduates even create an account on the Careers4Terps website, meaning that many students are unaware of internship opportunities related to their interests and fail to utilize the resources that will help them develop the essential materials (e.g., strong resumes and cover letters) and skills (e.g., strong interviewing and professional conduct) required for success. By creating a model assignment that can be tailored to any discipline, instructors can easily incorporate this approach without having to substantially revise their existing courses. As more students access UCC/TPP’s resources as part of their coursework we can expect to see unparalleled gains in participation rates.