To better prepare students for the workforce, St. Mary’s College of Maryland sought to redefine a liberal arts education.
Through a data analysis of local industry needs and students’ experiences, the Learning Through Experiential and Applied Discovery (LEAD) initiative emerged. Among the initiative’s goals is the incorporation of professional career development skills such as communication, teamwork and project management within the core curriculum and in every discipline at St. Mary’s College.
Under the LEAD initiative, each student, upon arrival at St. Mary’s College, develops a Career and Leadership Development Plan to align their educational experience with their career interests.
“Our LEAD initiative presents a very compelling story to prospective students,” said Dr. Tuajuanda C. Jordan, president of St. Mary’s College. “We know that a liberal arts education is tremendously powerful because of the communication, critical thinking and reasoning skills a student develops as part of their education, which, in turn, provides the skills for success in graduate school and the workforce, including that very first job.”
To assist with internship and career preparation, students have access to the online Job-IQ program which offers resume, interview and networking assistance. Alumni mentors also serve as a resource.
Beyond career exploration courses, students can fulfil core requirements by taking “inquiries” which offer multidisciplinary perspectives on the five topics of justice, climate, the western world, music and public health. Due to high demand for these courses, three additional topics — visual culture and media, Latinx Americas and gender and power — were added to the curriculum.
“Their inquiry work provides a broader sense of what it means to study a topic like ‘public health’ — something that they may have come to because of an interest in medicine, or in helping their community,” said Jordan. However, the inquiry “ends up exposing them to a wide range of disciplines that contributes to how we understand health outcomes for different populations.”
