A new meta-analysis shows that the Kalamazoo College liberal arts learning experience develops students who are better able than most of their peers to secure the post-graduation outcomes they seek.
Last week at its national conference, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released the first-ever national compilation of first-destination surveys. Across categories such as instructional profile, public vs. private, location type, region, and enrollment numbers, Kalamazoo College graduates did comparatively well securing their next steps.
NACE defines a first destination “Career Outcome” as employment, continuing education, or working in a volunteer or service program. The national average of Career Outcomes among liberal arts undergraduate institutions was 85.1 percent of the total class. Comparatively, 87 percent of Kalamazoo College’s Class of 2014 met Career Outcomes. K’s first-destination survey is administered by the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD).
And fewer members of Kalamazoo College’s class of 2014 were still seeking employment six months after graduating. K’s rate of 6.6 percent of such students was lower than both the national rates of 7.7 percent for private institutions and 9.7 percent for liberal arts institutions.
By December 2014, 91 percent of K’s 2014 graduates who sought employment had secured jobs (up from 85 percent in 2013). Twenty-three percent were already in graduate school (up from 19 percent in 2013).
Check out the Kalamazoo College Class of 2014 First Destination Survey Results (http://bit.ly/K2014FDSSummary). And feel free to review specific first destination information by major (http://bit.ly/KFDSByMajor) from class years 2010-2014.
The College is currently conducting the First Destination Survey for the Class of 2015 and will publish results in January 2016. CCPD is open year-round and its free services for alumni never expire.
Text by Rachel Wood, Kalamazoo College Center for Career and Professional Development
Taylor Brown ’15 (left) with Doug Phillips, director of client relations at AVB
Recent Kalamazoo College graduates sometimes assume there are no opportunities in Kalamazoo for job growth, and so they move to bigger cities. This perception is often a misconception, and to help set the record straight, Joan Hawxhurst, director of the Center for Career and Professional Development, highlights an exclusive local internship opportunity.
“The Monroe-Brown Internships serve as a pipeline for thriving local businesses to access local student talent,” she said.
The program began in 2005 and is administered by the economic development organization Southwest Michigan First. Its aims are two-fold: to help companies find talented young students and to help young people pursue meaningful careers. “It’s an investment that goes both ways,” said Hawxhurst.
This year 32 students from K applied for Monroe-Brown Internships and four were selected, a robust representation for K. They are: Taylor Brown ’15 with AVB, Drew Hopper ’15 at Eaton Corporation, William Cagney ’15 at Imperial Beverage, and Stephen Oliphant ’15 at Schupan & Sons, Inc.
Hopper is a Global Product Strategy Intern at Eaton. He recently returned from studying abroad at the London School of Economics, and he finds his internship an excellent proving ground to apply and develop skills in marketing, engineering, and program management.
“Eaton stresses employee development, and everyone is open to providing outlets for personal improvement, particularly with the interns.” He has participated in presentations, meetings, research projects, and analysis-based discussions.
Brown works for Portage-based construction firm AVB. Last year she worked behind-the-scenes with the construction management company, Skanska. She finds the Monroe-Brown internship with AVB “much more hands-on,” she says. “A great deal of my work is on display, because I am responsible for writing, designing, and distributing newsletters and press-releases via print and e-mail.”
She created a slideshow presentation that plays in AVB’s foyer. And she frequently meets with the company’s Chief Operating Officer and other top executives. Like Hopper, she said she has developed confidence in presenting herself in the business world.
There are many opportunities for professional growth in Kalamazoo; just ask K’s Monroe-Brown interns.
Brielle Bethke ’16 did an independent internship at the University of Louisville Center for Neurological Surgery. There she assisted with physical therapy, conducted data analysis, shadowed physicians and researchers, and met people with a unique outlook on life. Her work is connected to a recent CNN Health Report story about a study of the applications of electrical stimulation in spinal cord injury. Two people with whom Brielle worked are featured in the story. She worked with Dustin, a patient in the study who, at age 18, suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Dr. Susan Harkema, the head of neurological surgery at the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute, was the supervisor of Brielle’s internship. Brielle is majoring in biology and earning a minor in Spanish. She is a member of the Health Guild and will study abroad in Caceres, Spain, during her junior year.
Bret Linvill ’15 (center) during his summer internship, flanked by alumni supervisor Jerry Mechtenberg-Berrigan ’97 (right) and Jerry’s son, Amos. Linvill’s was a Community Building Internship organized jointly with the College’s Center for Civic Engagement.
Autumn’s active in the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD). The Recruiting Expo and the Professional Development Institute are hard-to-miss fall events. And you often find CCPD staff speaking in upper-level classes and first-year seminars. Every day CCPD staff members help students with career counseling, with assessment tools, and with application materials. And fall’s the time CCPD reaches out to alumni and parents to invite their partnership in providing summer career development opportunities for students.
Alumni and parents, let us know if you will host a summer student, either through the Discovery Externship Program or as a K Intern in the Field Experience Program.
Externships: Short Homestay and Job Shadow
Past externship hosts, who have housed students and hosted them in their workplace for up to four weeks in the summer, become enthusiastic advocates for the program.
“John and Tyler were wonderful externs! Not only did we enjoy them tremendously, but we received such positive feedback from our colleagues who graciously spent time with them. The days were long and hectic, but our dinners were relaxed and full of conversations about their days, their impressions, the state of medicine, and more.” – Sherri Seifert ’83
“It is always great to connect with a current K student and to spend time sharing my home and work life. As I have become more professionalized in my career, I find I can more comfortably provide advice and insight into working in the arts.” – Bethany Whitehead ’98
“Discovery Externship is a special program that I highly endorse. I wish all college students could have such an experience. The students come well prepared and ready to try out new things. And we seem to benefit just as much as they do.” – Anne Dayanandan ’75
Other comments:
“I found it a lot of fun. I enjoyed showing our student what practicing medicine is like. It helped me reflect on what I was like at 19 trying to make similar career decisions.”
“Hosting a K student was a lovely experience. It was fun to get to share my experiences at and beyond K with her. When I was at K, wondering what I might do next, I had no idea what graduate school was all about. I enjoyed being able to offer a K student a glimpse of that next step and to provide some guidance about how to get there.”
“I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the extern about my own scattered career path. I reassure students that career paths do not need to be defined at graduation and do not need to be linear. I wish I had someone to talk to about such concerns when I was a student.”
“It’s great to see the level of intellectual curiosity that I remember as a hallmark of my time at K is still alive and well in the current student body. My extern made me feel as if the DNA of the college was still much the same–the students are there because they are truly engaged and committed to learning. That was nice to see.”
Internships: Summer Workplace Immersion
Externship host Bridget Blough ’08 (right) shares a day at the beach with her two summer externs.
Alumni and parents who select and supervise student interns for at least six weeks through the Field Experience Program are similarly effusive. They cite many benefits of involvement, including:
– Engagement with talented, idealistic, dedicated students;
– Enhancement of the projects to which interns are assigned;
– The real and valuable work undertaken by the students;
– The learning that goes both ways;
– The opportunity to see future leaders learn and grow by doing.
The program’s structure–a sliding-scale stipend, a learning contract, regular contact with the CCPD through reflective assignments, final evaluations, and official transcript notation–ensures that learning goals and mutual expectations are established and met.
The CCPD is currently fielding inquiries and confirming participation for both extern and intern hosts for summer 2014. Alumni and parents may indicate their interest in either program online, and a CCPD staff member will respond by mid-November. As fall turns to winter, our students will head off for winter break, and the CCPD’s summer line-up will be complete.
So eventful was the junior year of senior Zoe Beaudry that she made sure the summer following was just as worthy in terms of experiential opportunities. Zoe studied abroad in Israel during her junior fall and winter terms. That was followed with spring quarter on campus, during which she worked toward her major in art. Then came a summer of two internships. The first found Zoe in Massachusetts, working with Israeli and Palestinian youth to build community across cultures and differences through art. The second half of Zoe’s summer was spent in Haiti, as an intern with International Child Care. ICC is a Christian health development organization that has operated in Haiti since 1967. It works to change the conditions of poverty that impact health and well-being. Zoe kept a blog while she was in Haiti. Its entries cover her first impressions and hopes and her first art session with children at ICC’s Grace Children’s Hospital. She also worked in the wider community. ICC’s community outreach program serves families of mentally or physically handicapped children in the community by sending hospital staff to their homes for weekly physical therapy or mental exercise sessions. News of her art sessions spread, and so she did artwork with children who participate in community inclusion program. The photo was taken after that session: Zoe is pictured in the back row, at left. Her blog entries are worth a read. Zoe’s senior year promises to be as rewarding as her junior year. Among other activities, she is a Civic Engagement Scholar (CES) for the program Partners in Art. The CES program is administered by the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement.
The new Western Michigan University School of Medicine (WMed) has announced a “preferred” relationship with Kalamazoo College, Western Michigan University (WMU), and WMU’s Lee Honors College. Prospective students from these institutions may apply to WMed through the American Medical College Application Service, a centralized application processing service available to applicants to first-year entering classes at participating U.S. medical schools. Students will be selected through the regular selection process and must meet all admission requirements. All things being equal, students from K, WMU, and Lee will receive preference in admission.
“We are excited about this relationship between K and Western Michigan University School of Medicine,” said Kalamazoo College Provost Mickey McDonald. “This acknowledges the strength of K’s Health Sciences Program and provides K graduates an opportunity to pursue a medical degree while remaining in southwest Michigan.”
Construction of the new medical school in downtown Kalamazoo is underway. Students in the first WMed class will begin their studies in August 2014.
Kalamazoo College students may not be in class during the summer, but they are busy cultivating their K-Plans, across the country and around the world, in externships and internships supported by the Center for Career and Professional Development.
This summer 109 students are taking part in the CCPD’s summer career development programs. The Discovery Externship Program, in its 12th year, offers 46 first-year and sophomore students the opportunity to test the waters of a possible career by living and working with an alumni or parent professional for up to four weeks. Externs and hosts agree that the intensity of sharing both workday and “porchtime” experiences leads to rich relationships and deep discovery about the reality of the working world. This summer discovery externs can be found shadowing alumni in hospitals and health networks, a maritime museum, an organic food truck, dentistry and veterinary practices, financial and consulting firms, a school in India and a farm in Michigan.
To ensure the educational quality of their workplace experience, interns enrolled in the CCPD’s Field Experience Program agree with their supervisor on a learning contract outlining mutual goals and objectives for their summer together. They commit to regular structured reflection about their workplace experience, and they receive evaluation feedback at the conclusion of the internship. This summer, 63 interns are spending at least six weeks working with alumni professionals, Kalamazoo area non-profits, social justice organizations, and a wide range of independently-secured experiences across the country. Most Field Experience Program interns receive a stipend to help defray the costs of their unpaid experiences.
Externships and internships challenge students to apply theoretical learning to practical situations and to examine assumptions about work and careers. One current student mid-way through her internship described her summer work experience as “both gratifying and challenging.” She said, “In many ways this internship is not meeting my expectations and is showing me how off-base those expectations have been. These past three weeks have helped me rid myself of assumptions I held, and have given me new ways of thinking about how work at a non-profit can be done.”
The CCPD is already at work recruiting hosts and supervisors for summer 2014. Alumni and parents interested in offering a workplace experience to a student may contact career@kzoo.edu to request more information about becoming part of the Discovery Externship Program or the Field Experience Program.
Suzanne Curtiss ′14 has been running things at International Child Care (ICC).
Literally, running.
Curtiss is the ICC student intern working out of the Christian health development organization’s headquarters in downtown Kalamazoo this summer. ICC is partnering with the Warrior Dash II mud run in Walker, Mich., near Grand Rapids on an event in September, and Curtiss has been charged with getting the word out. So she laced up her running shoes and has been running the streets of Kalamazoo to deliver news releases to Kalamazoo-area news media, running clubs, and anyone else who will listen.
She encourages everyone to join ICC′s Labou Pou Timoun (Creole for “Mud for Kids”) running event to help raise money for ICC’s childhood poverty and health initiative in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The mud run, held September 21, is a 3.1-mile obstacle course that includes man-made obstacles and “tons of mud,” she says.
Susanne Curtiss ’14
Working with ICC on the mud run has been Curtiss′s first real public relations experience and the English major (with a business minor and concentration in media studies) loves it.
“The work that ICC does is really inspiring, and I feel very honored to be able to spend my summer working to promote the organization and its international projects and involvements” said Curtiss.
ICC operates in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti with a children′s hospital and another that serves tuberculosis patients. It’s working to change the conditions of poverty that impact health and well-being in those countries.
Curtiss′s classmate, Zoe Beaudry ’14, also has an internship with ICC and will head to Haiti in August to work at ICC′s Grace Children’s Hospital on art projects with the patients. At the end of her six weeks there, she will compile the projects into a photo book for distribution in Haiti and back in Kalamazoo.
At tonight’s Major League Baseball all-star game, players from the National and American Leagues will contend to make their team number 1. But it takes someone really special–like Gail Raiman–to be number 1,833. Today (July 16) Raiman became 1,833rd member of the global professional network known as the Guilds of Kalamazoo College. The special number corresponds to the year 1833, when Kalamazoo College was founded.
A graduate of the Class of 1973, Raiman majored in philosophy, studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, and completed a career service internship for then house minority leader Gerald Ford. After graduation she worked in the Ford Administration and later held executive positions for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, and the national trade association Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. She serves on the College’s Board of Trustees and the Alumni Association Executive Board. And now she’s joined the Guilds LinkedIn group, becoming the 1833rd member of the extended K community to do so since the Guilds launched their LinkedIn network in June 2010.
Other new Guild members admitted along with Raiman this week include Jeff Outslay ’06, an MBA Associate at Delta Airlines in Atlanta, Georgia; Leslie Knox ’01, a case management professional at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York; Riley Lundquist ’16, a rising sophomore and summer engineering intern at Eaton Corporation outside Kalamazoo; and Elinor Epperson ’13, an aspiring video editor and public historian who just graduated in June.
The Guilds of Kalamazoo College launched in January 2008 as part of a strategic initiative to engage alumni professionals in current students’ career development. In January 2013, five Guilds became seven when the Arts & Media Guild and the Education Guild joined the Business Guild, the Health Guild, the Law Guild, the Nonprofit & Public Service Guild, and the Science & Technology Guild.
Reaching the 1833rd member mark is the result of sustained outreach and growth on the LinkedIn professional networking platform, according to Joan Hawxhurst, director of the Center for Career and Professional Development. Overall membership in the College’s Guilds is up 40 percent compared to last year. Guild members seek and offer mentorship, career advice, summer and entry-level positions, insight into industry trends, and networking opportunities.
Kalamazoo College will host the fourth annual Sustainability SIP Symposium on Monday, April 29, 6-9 p.m., in 103 Dewing Hall on the K campus (1200 Academy St.), co-sponsored by the College’s Guilds and Environmental Studies Program. Free and open to the public, the event will feature student presentations of sustainability-related Senior Individualized Projects (SIPs) ranging in topic from English to Economics. Audience members will have time for questions following each presentation, and an opportunity to meet student researchers at the interactive poster session and reception beginning at 8 p.m. in Dewing Hall Commons. Refreshments will be provided by the People’s Food Co-Op.
Student presentations include:
Mysha Clarke: Energy Recovery in Landfills: A Jamaican Case Study
Monika Egerer: Ecosystem Services on the Mariana Islands: Implications of bird loss for a wild chili pepper species
Rebecca Rogstad: Zane, the Curious Little Zooxanthellate
Shoshana Schultz: Inverting the Atlas: Mapping Geographically Based Food Security in Kalamazoo
“The annual symposium recognizes the scholarship and research that many K seniors devote to their SIPs (a graduation requirement) and showcases the breadth and depth of sustainability-related work taking place at the College,” said Joan Hawxhurst, Director, Center for Career and Professional Development.
This year’s Symposium is the first since the reorganization and expansion of the Guilds to include seven career path clusters: Arts & Media, Business, Education, Health, Law, Nonprofit & Public Service, and Science & Technology. Sustainability infuses the conversations and collaborations in all seven Guilds, and the Sustainability SIP Symposium showcases how this value cuts across disciplines and departments and informs the work of all professionals.
