The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has added a new career class to help students get ready for future jobs and internships.

The class, titled LAS 203X: Professional Career Preparation, is taught by Angela Wagner, the career education coordinator with LAS Career Services. Included in the course are topics such as resume writing, interviewing, offer negotiations, cover letters and other topics that are career-related.

“The unique thing about the class is that it’s for any LAS major,” Wagner said. “No matter where you are in your place or what career you want to do it’s information you should be doing anyway.”

The class is designed to make it easier on students to get all information in one place without having to make continuous trips to their academic advisers and the career center.

“It’s all packaged and ready for them,” said Taren Crow, director of LAS career services. “We don’t really know what else [students] don’t know and they don’t know what questions to ask us.”

The course was created after LAS graduates gave feedback on a post-graduation survey. A recurring request indicated graduates wished a course existed to help them with career-related subjects. 

“My favorite part is seeing the impact you make on the students and seeing them succeed,” Wagner said.

Funding for the class came from a grant provided by John Deere. The grant is available for any university or office to apply for that would help students with future career opportunities, Crow said. 

An alumni donation helped in being able to pay the student undergraduate assistants who help with the class and share their advice on the topics relevant to the course. 

Currently, there are about 80 students enrolled in the course, and they are hoping to have more in the future.

“The ultimate goal is to have it be a required course for all Liberal Arts and Science students,” Crow said.

In Spring 2019, there will be four, eight-week classes being taught for any LAS students. The class is satisfactory/fail and open to sophomores and above.

Students can apply for the course through AccessPlus as soon as registration is open for them.

There are also other major specific career courses taught within the college, such as Career Development in Math and Statistics, Careers in Computer Science, Cutting Edge Chemistry: Research and Career Opportunities and a Performing Arts Seminar.

“I highly recommend every student take a careers course,” said Dawn Walker-Chalmers, who teaches Career Development in Math and Statistics. “There’s lots of stuff out there that we are not taught and it can be really hard and really sad out there. Take it seriously.”