Hamilton prepares students to be active citizens with a rigorous education and substantive career-related experiences.
Because Hamilton promises it will help students find their futures. This campaign will ensure all students, especially those with financial need, have the requisite skills to engage in career preparation, build networks that lead to successful outcomes, and develop self-confidence and marketable life skills.
Many of the most coveted internships are unpaid or in markets that are so expensive students are unable to pursue these opportunities without additional resources. Hamilton offers numerous options for internships, including summer internship funding sources, that provide important ways to explore careers.
A new Experiential Learning Center will align the 60 or more existing programs that include experiential components under one organizational structure to provide greater awareness of such opportunities, more consistent implementation, better assessment, new options for synergy and outreach, and more intentional connection to postgraduate career opportunities.
“I personally think there’s going to be a greater demand in 10 years for liberal arts majors than there were for programming majors and maybe even engineering, because … you need a different perspective in order to have a different view of the data.” — Investor Mark Cuban
Leaders and influencers get it: A liberal arts education remains the best preparation for a life of meaning, purpose, and active citizenship. One has to wonder if the polarization afflicting society is caused, in part, by the recent obsession with specialization and an abandonment of the critical thinking and communications skills that define a liberally educated populace.
Hamilton fulfills its promise to help students find their future by providing a fundamental, rigorous, evidence-based liberal arts education in the classroom. But the world our students are entering is increasingly complex and competitive. Experiential learning often complements the concepts taught in the traditional classroom with the hands-on application of theory and knowledge in the laboratory, studio, community, or workplace and helps position students for success after college.
Today, employers and graduate schools expect students to have first-hand knowledge and insight about their chosen field. For most career fields, that means students must have at least two internships, career-related experiences, or research positions when they graduate. For many industries, this is the minimum.
Many of the most coveted internships require financial support or are in markets that are so expensive students are unable to pursue these opportunities without additional resources. The situation is especially acute for students receiving scholarship aid. Not only do these students often have multiple pressures on their limited financial resources, but many lack the necessary job-search skills, or the personal and community networks that can help them secure jobs, research positions, or internships. These students face a double barrier to securing their future.
Because Hamilton promises it will help students find their future, this campaign will ensure all our students, especially those with financial need, have the requisite skills to engage in career preparation, build networks that lead to successful outcomes, and develop self-confidence and marketable life skills. We will achieve these objectives by providing all students with the financial support needed to pursue meaningful and marketable career-related experiences throughout their four years at Hamilton. A new Experiential Learning Center will align the 60 or more existing programs that include experiential components under one organizational structure to provide greater awareness of such opportunities, more consistent implementation, better assessment, new options for synergy and outreach, and more intentional connection to postgraduate career opportunities.
Michael Burchesky ’17, who is pursuing his doctor of audiology degree at Vanderbilt University, says, “It was through the Career Center that I acquired the skills to analyze my passions, interests, skills, and values to research possible careers.”
