Career Development

The Reflective Assignment is a primary method of illustrating the ways in which your internship experience has been significant, with a particular emphasis on how your pre-professional experience, in the context of your Kalamazoo College education, is preparing you to embark on a career.

The Reflective Assignment, along with your Weekly Reflections, provides a basis for recommendation to the Registrar that a notation of your internship be placed on your academic transcript.

During the Spring Quarter 2004, the Experiential Education Committee requested a revision of the Career Readiness dimension of the K-Plan. Below is the revision. We ask all Career Development Interns to review this structure as an outline for the reflective component of your internship experience, as the Reflective Assignment should focus on addressing your progress on at least 3 bullet points within each realm of the Career Readiness dimension of the K-Plan (knowledge, skills, attitudes):

Career Readiness

Career Readiness is the ability to apply one's experiences and self-knowledge to the formation and pursuit of career goals. It is the development of transferable skills and attributes that allow students to succeed in a changing job market. As students explore a range of interests and possibilities that are increasingly challenging and require higher levels of responsibility, they develop the essential attributes of flexibility, adaptability, self-confidence and maturity. By the conclusion of the college career, students have a repertoire of skills that will facilitate their transition from the world of academics to the world of work. Career readiness emerges when students:

Knowledge

• Understand that they can pursue career opportunities that involve work that matters to them rather than settling for jobs they are merely qualified to do
• Understand their values, interests, and aptitudes as developed and tested through experience
• Understand that there are various career paths that can be fulfilling, not just one
• Understand the training and experience required for entry and practice in each of their potential career fields
• Know to look not only at the functional nature of a career field, but at its contextual nature as well
• Know the steps necessary to identify, pursue and secure opportunities in fields of interest

Skills

• Are able to apply knowledge within the context of varied and unfamiliar circumstances
• Can apply theory and concepts learned in and out of the classroom
• Are prepared to translate knowledge across academic disciplines and career fields
• Can articulate their beliefs, values and potential in making the transition from college to work
• Have acknowledged and tested their intuitive, interpretive judgment, and critical thinking skills
• Can effectively use their oral, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Are able to view problems and opportunities from a variety of perspectives
• Realize they have the capacity to solve complex problems

Attitudes

• Have developed a sense of hope and enthusiasm for the future, tempered by an understanding that most people need to pay their dues at first
• Want to take initiative in personal and professional pursuits
• Are tolerant of rejection and understand it is usually dissimilar from failure
• Are willing to invest time, energy and faith in a process where success may not be guaranteed
• Are curious to look past the face value of experiences and discover their meaning
• Believe that educational success is a direct result of how they apply knowledge and skills rather than a culmination of what the College has or has not 'given' them
• Understand that the transition from college to career involves the significant step from an introspective and relatively passive experience (education) to the 'act-and-produce' nature of a professional life (career)
• Wish to seek purpose and fulfillment in their careers, refusing to settle for less
• Take a liberal arts education and use it to live a liberal arts life