What is the Career Awareness Program?
What are the prerequisites for the program?
How do I participate in the program?
How am I graded?
Why should I participate?

What is the Career Awareness Program?

The Career Awareness Program is a program designed to provide exploratory work experiences for those whose career aspirations are uncertain; to provide ongoing workplace experiences for those whose career goals are well-defined; to provide leadership and administrative experiences in educational and organizational work settings; and to provide opportunities for linking classroom academic programs with work-based experiential learning.

What are the prerequisites for the program?

1. Be in good academic standing (2.0 GPA) and obtain permission from the Experience-Based Education Career Awareness Coordinator.
2. Work a part-time work experience 6 - 10 hours per week.
3. Work sites can be on campus, in the local community, or off campus.
4. You will learn earn 2 - 3 Arts & Science Elective credits.  For 2 credits you must work 6 -7 hours each week and for 3 credits you must work 8 - 10 hours each week.
5. The course can be taken for a total of 6 credits towards degree requirements and you can earn a maximum of 3 credits in the fall/spring and a maximum of 6 credits in the summer.

How do I participate in the program?

1. Contact the Experience-Based Education (EBE) office or check out the Position Listings section on the web site to locate approved work sites.
2. Contact desired work site to obtain position (i.e. tell them you saw their information in the Experience-Based Education office, and you are interested in interning for them over the semester as part of the Career Awareness Program).
3. First time students should purchase Career Awareness: Discover Your Future! Students taking the course for a second time should purchase Career Awareness Repeaters: What's Next For You?
4. Attend GST 303 (orientation & information) on experiential learning session - class one.
5. Obtain a position description form from your Site Supervisor if one is not already on file in the EBE Office.
6. Develop a Learning Agreement with EBE staff member.
7. Attend classes regularly as scheduled.
8. Complete career related assignments, reports, and work sheets relating work experiences to classroom learning.
9. TA's , Lab Assistants and some special projects may have alternate assignments approved by program coordinator.
10. Work 6 - 7 hours/week for two (2) credits.
11. Work 8 - 10 hours/week for three (3) credits.
12. The Site Supervisor provides on-going supervision, and completes an evaluation form at the end of the semester.

1. The Faculty Sponsor will assign the final letter grade by using:
• Attendance at required class meetings.
• Evaluation of written reports and work sheets.
• Site supervisor's evaluation form.

Back to top

Why should I participate?
The Career Awareness program was designed as a complement to the Internship Program, and to provide non-majors with the opportunity to explore career fields in part-time, paid or non-paid positions. Participation in this program will not only allow you to learn about the nature of the world of work, it will also enable you to relate your experience as workers to what is learned in the classroom, and to gain experience as workers who will become productive members of a system.

Back to top