While in school, many students choose to be involved in groups and organizations on campus. The Student Activities Center’s co-curricular transcripts allow students to show all of their involvement in any clubs and organizations they chose to participate in at Iowa State. 

Co-curricular transcripts are transcripts created by students and verified by faculty for future opportunities, and look like a typical academic transcript but instead of classes, experiences and involvement in clubs or organizations are listed.

Although co-curricular transcript systems are offered at many schools and universities around the nation, Iowa State launched its co-curricular transcripts in September 2016. However, it is still an unfamiliar program in terms of what it means and how it works among students.

“We wanted a way to demonstrate how out of classroom involvement on campus can lead to academic success,” said Tim Reuter, student organizations and resource coordinator.

There are three ways that experiences can be submitted to a co-curricular transcript-submission from a campus department, adding the information individually or through the student organization database.

Each student can submit their own on-campus involvements to be listed on their transcript. Some campus groups are able to submit a student’s involvement to their profile so they are marked “verified” on your transcript. Involvement can be verified by being added or approved by an organization if it is overseen by Iowa State. This gives the experience more accreditation.

Students can tailor each transcript by adding or taking away experiences to fit the transcript’s purpose. According to the co-curricular transcript webpage, transcripts accept 11 different types of campus involvement: community service, honors and awards, internships and study abroad trips, leadership experience, on-campus employment opportunities, publications, recreational activities, research, seminars, and clubs and organizations.

Reuter also emphasized the use of co-curricular transcripts, as the clubs, organizations and resources that can be added are right at a student’s disposal.

“We have a lot of rich co-curricular experiences on campus, so we decided to develop this system to document them as [students] move on to more opportunities,” Reuter said.

The transcripts serve as a complement to one’s academic transcripts and resumes. It shows others that a student had time to be involved in other things outside of classes and homework that would enhance and benefit their school life.  These transcripts can be given to future employers as a complement to a resume or to organizations as a way to set a graduate apart when it comes to receiving scholarships, or can be given along with academic transcripts when applying to graduate schools. 

However, once the transcript is put together, students are not obligated to publish and distribute it; a co-curricular transcript is private unless a student chooses to share it with others.

If you connect your CCT account with a non-ISU email, you can access it after graduating from Iowa State.

Iowa State’s goal is to get students involved in the 850 extracurricular clubs, organizations and activities that are offered on campus, adding to your experience here at Iowa State. You can find more info and start building your transcript at www.cct.iastate.edu.

“The CCT does really help demonstrate what students have learned in the classroom and have applied to real life,” Reuter said.