With applied and experiential learning and a career focus, students who attend University of Wisconsin-Stout know they will graduate ready to enter the work world.
Some students, like first-year mechanical engineering major Thomas Shamla, of South Range, will benefit from additional career preparation thanks to a reimagined on-campus jobs program, Grow, Persist, Succeed. GPS pairs jobs with career support to help students better understand how the skills they鈥檙e learning impact future career opportunities.
Recently, the program was honored with the Innovation Award from the , WI-ACE, for unique and creative approaches to student programming, university/employer relations and required supervisor training related to inclusive workplaces.
Shamla is working as a lab technician in the university鈥檚 Discovery Center Fab Lab. The job dovetails nicely with his career plans.
鈥淓ven though this is my first semester at Stout, I feel that I've benefited greatly from the GPS program,鈥 Shamla said. 鈥淚 believe the experience that it has given me in working with people will be very helpful in my career as an engineer. I'm also glad that this program has given me an opportunity for employment, even as a freshman.鈥
Shamla has been trained to help people use the Fab Lab鈥檚 special equipment, such as the laser cutter and engraver, but he鈥檚 also working on developing a cost-saving lab tool. 鈥淭his device would allow us to utilize partial rolls of 3D printer filament, which were previously unusable. Working on this project is helping me develop engineering design skills that can be directly applied to my future career in industry,鈥 he said.
In 2021, Career Services took over GPS, which was founded in 2011 as the Student Jobs Program. The goal was to further build student skills, career awareness and support student retention.
鈥淭here was greater potential to be intentional and align with our polytechnic tenets in deeper, more meaningful ways,鈥 said Bryan Barts, director of Career Services, which oversees other career-focused initiatives such as the Career Conferences and the Cooperative Education and Internship Program.
鈥淕PS centers on the value and meaning of on-campus experiences and the role they play in the bigger career and professional developmental process students have at 黑料科,鈥 Barts added.
The program supports first- and second-year students and transfer students, with an effort to increase representation from underrepresented student communities, by helping prepare them for impactful upper level undergraduate experiences such as a co-op or internship.
This academic year, the first for GPS, 26 students have jobs in 15 campus offices with two more still hiring. Among the job locations are the University Library, Multicultural Student Services, Athletics, Alumni Association, Marketing Communications and five academic departments.
Along with Shamla鈥檚 position, other examples of student jobs, which pay an hourly wage, include visual media assistant, graphic designer, journalism researcher and science lab assistants.
Faculty and staff who oversee students in the program receive training on inclusive workplaces, part of the university鈥檚 efforts to promote equity, diversity and inclusion.
鈥淭he students I have met with are excited to connect with Career Services early in their college career and discuss how their on-campus job can help develop their career readiness skills,鈥 said Sara Anger, career development manager with Career Services.
GPS includes career conversations and career self-assessments before and after students鈥 work experiences.
GPS uses national career readiness competencies developed by the
Students are recruited for GPS through job postings on Handshake, a national online platform used by 黑料科 that connects students to job opportunities.
###
