The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) is helping students build their resumes with a new requirement for all the majors within the school. The Experiential Learning Expo is an event that has been around for the past three years in the Chamberlain Student Center Ballroom.
The event, which was held on Sept. 18 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., showcased several organizations from CHSS and also outside programs that are supporting students achieve their goals. This expo was a part of Dr. Stephen Fleming’s idea to have students get more experience in their majors within the CHSS, so they have a better idea of what they want to do in the future.
“We decided we wanted to make sure that students had like mechanisms to support experiential learning and we want to help open doors for students,” Fleming said.
Dr. Fleming is the associate dean for the CHSS, and in the fall of 2021, he put in place a requirement for social science and humanities majors to gain experience in hands-on learning. It helps them, according to the associate dean, learn about what they can fulfill within their education. Patrick Massaro, the associate director for career development and experiential learning, believes this will help students as well.
Experiential learning is a type of education where students can learn by doing things to get direct experience. Kent State University believes that this learning allows students to gain an appreciation of the world around them, professional development skills, and a sharpened understanding of their class.
“This requirement ensures that all of our majors have to complete some type of experiential learning by the time they graduate,” Massaro said. “This could be job shadowing, an internship, research with a faculty member, but also just getting some professional experience.”
The event had organizations such as the Disney College Program, RowanVotes, study abroad programs, the Museum of Anthropology at Rowan, and many more.
An example given by Massaro was if a political science major was looking for options to get experience, they would fill out applications for fundraising or polling. This isn’t like an internship or a job. In reality, the course they have to take is based on what position they find.
Students can receive hands-on experience through study-abroad courses. If they’re interested in business or politics, they could take a course in another country sponsored by the Rowan Study Abroad program to gain new perspectives and connections.
The Museum of Anthropology at Rowan University was present at the table and promoted their program led by Dr. Maria Rosado, who discussed how the facility provides opportunities for students in CHSS. They prioritize Anthropology majors and minors before accepting anyone else in the program, and those who qualify get to work in the museum.
“We help students get hands-on experience in doing work related to forensics, and forensic anthropology,” Dr. Rosado said. “We have so many human remains, students can learn how to identify them and they also take the course in forensic anthropology related to it.”
She listed the benefits of the program she coordinates as it helps students get hands-on experience, learn all information about the human skeleton, and they get to work with groups as well. For group research, at the end of the program, students can present their findings at a conference.
“They also travel to other countries, because I have a project with a museum in Chile that students can take every year and work on ancient human remains,” Dr. Rosado said. “Now in October, there are a few who are going to present these findings at a professional conference here at the university.”
Victoria Rosado, who was also at the table, is a senior modern languages and linguistics major who joined her mother and her students in Chile. She was able to gain real-world experience in translating languages to English, which has helped her prepare for her future career as a translator.
“I had to translate the exhibits of the museums into English and create new questions that are targeted towards children and young adults,” Rosado said. “I want to become a translator, I want to be able to help people talk without worrying if they cannot speak English.”
The expo went on in the early afternoon, refreshments were available for students and faculty as well as a raffle that anyone attending could participate in.
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