This course will provide a pathway to securing internships for students completing an internship in any major, which will significantly improve the College's ability to deliver on its commitment to increase professional development opportunities for undergraduate students.

This course has been developed in consultation with other departments/programs/majors/minors and would serve as a preparation course that students from any major could take before completing an internship in those other departments/programs/majors/minors. It would not require any changes and would simply be an offering that can support those existing courses/programs. As an example, the Health Studies minor requires an internship as part of its curriculum. Currently students work independently, with considerable support from Carolyn Zook, to secure internships before they complete HEAL 300. Carolyn and the Center for Community and Global Health team support the development of this course as an option for students to take before taking HEAL 300. As a pilot, the course would be available to those students, though not required. If the progression from this course to HEAL 300 works well, the program may consider establishing the preparation course as a prerequisite to the internship course. That is not being proposed in this proposal, so please do not allow that consideration to influence decisions about this particular proposal. I mention it only to indicate that there is openness and support from a unit that requires an internship to have this course as a way to help students prepare for the internship and offload some of the burden of supporting students in securing their internship. Other departments have also given input on the development of this course and would support their students taking it in preparation for an internship in their department--not currently as a required prerequisite, rather simply as an optional pathway with guidance and interdisciplinary learning built into the process so that students and faculty can focus on ensuring a robust internship experience in the semester when that happens.

Liberal arts colleges approach career development and internship preparation differently, and many emphasize the importance of securing and getting the most out of internships. One example of an aspirational comparison college is Connecticut College, which, according to their website, offers a one-credit "Career Preparation Course that helps you to develop the crucial skills for finding internships and top-notch jobs. Through engaging and interactive projects, you will learn the skills to build an active professional network and create compelling social media profiles, resumes and cover letters. You will gain confidence in telling your story, polishing your professionalism and handling all the other nuts and bolts to make you a competitive candidate for the best positions. Students who have completed this course indicate an increased level of effectiveness in identifying and articulating what they have to offer to an employer. This for-credit course can be taken any time from the fall of the first year through the sophomore year."

This proposed course would be offered as a pilot course for one or two semesters and then a permanent course will be developed/proposed based on what is learned from this offering. We will also likely propose an internship course within CDEV to be available to students looking to complete a credit-bearing internship not within their department, yet with faculty oversight.

No changes will be needed for the pilot course, and likely no substantive changes would be needed to offer the course regularly once the permanent version is proposed.

This course is intended to support existing programs, as described above. The resources to offer this course will be provided through the Career Accelerator program and it will not burden any CAS unit in terms of financial or staffing needs. The development of the course has involved faculty input and the implementation of the course will involve continued faculty input and approvals (for instance, when students find internships through this course and those internships will be used to meet requirements in other units, those units will be consulted to approve the secured internship).

Thank you for your consideration.