The mental health of seniors may take a toll as they wrap up their last semester and assess if they are adequately prepared for their future
The transition from being an undergraduate student to a full-time employee in the real world can be difficult. Therefore, most majors at Baldwin Wallace University require capstones or internships to assist in this lifestyle change.
Patrick Keebler, the director of the career center, said: “An internship does three things, it gives students a chance to earn money, gives them the chance to develop professional skills. And then it gives them a chance to develop networks and professional references.”
Keebler also said the career center has “senior check-in appointments” that students can make through Handshake. Handshake is an online platform with access to job and internship opportunities and relevant resources based on a student’s career goals. The senior check-in appointment allows faculty in the career center to touch base with seniors and see where they are at with their job search or if they plan to go into graduate school.
“I always tell students to develop mutually supportive relationships. You should expect and embrace change, because that’s just going to be part of your working career. You should also have a lifelong learning mindset,” Keebler said on adjusting to life after graduation.
These preparations are one of the ways BW works to ease the anxieties of seniors as they graduate. Another form of readiness is rooted from field experience. Field experience is when education majors are immersed into classrooms and observe teaching styles from professionals. As time progresses in their placements, the student will teach their own lessons, gaining real-world experience.
Katie Colabianchi, senior AYA education, English: integrated language arts major, said: “I feel the education department prepared me well. It’s been more work each semester, but it’s built up very nicely and gradually over that time.”
Anxiousness has risen a little bit for Colabianchi because “the responsibility is on me” regarding her being the lead teacher in the classroom soon. However, the excitement will overrule those feelings as she steps out of college classes and fully immerses herself in the middle school classroom, she said.
Capstones are a growing point for seniors in their last semester to ease any stress they are feeling about applying to either jobs or graduate school. The capstone experience is a course with a smaller number of students that is specific to their major. The Communications Sciences and Disorders major department requires their students to take a capstone as it has a focus on life after BW and their post-graduation plan. The course supports the students in both types of applications, although the majority of their students choose to further their education in graduate school.
Colleen Visconti, professor and program director of the department of communications sciences and disorders, said: “eighty-five percent of students majoring in CSD have applied to graduate school, of those students, 96% of them have gotten in.”
BW offers a variety of programs to further a student’s education on campus. Emily Muench graduated in May 2023, but she chose to continue her study at the one-year MBA program in the Carmel Boyer School of Business.
Muench did not decide if she wanted to apply for the program until February when her professors encouraged her to consider it. After getting accepted, Muench felt prepared in her readiness for this next course of her life with her undergraduate degree of Digital Marketing. However, she was still nervous having never previously experienced being a graduate student.
“The transition was nice because I didn’t need to learn a whole new campus. I felt better… a lot better equipped.” Muench said. “There was a lot less of a learning curve in terms of just adjusting to the environment.”
The Career Center offers appointments or drop-in hours with peer career advisors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday or 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. For more information, you can find the Career Center Department on Jacket Connect.
