General Education Touchpoints

Together, the First-Year Experience, Mid-Collegiate Experience, and Senior Capstone form an intentional, developmental sequence that supports students’ academic and professional growth across their undergraduate career. The First-Year Experience introduces students to UC, fosters a sense of belonging, and initiates reflection on strengths, goals, and foundational career skills. The Mid-Collegiate Experience deepens this work through experiential learning, disciplinary methodology, and more advanced career education outcomes, allowing students to apply and refine their skills in real-world and professional contexts. The Senior Capstone then serves as a culminating experience in which students integrate disciplinary knowledge, Baccalaureate Competencies, and prior experiential learning, while formalizing their post-graduation plans and demonstrating readiness to contribute as professionals and lifelong learners.

The University of Cincinnati’s first-year experience is part of the very fabric of the university. Woven into the General Education Core as a key touchpoint, it promotes the achievement of academic excellence and is student-centered. UC Great Beginnings is the first-year experience guiding document which supports the goal of extending higher learning beyond the walls of the university classroom to incorporate the greater community and workplace while concurrently providing students with a sense of belonging and connectedness to the university.   

Courses meeting the First-Year Experience (FYE) touchpoint target five learning areas to create Bearcats that are...

1. Life-long Learners: Developing academically strong students who are successful at the university and beyond.
2. Connected and Engaged: Giving students information, opportunities, and skills to empower them to be involved on campus and engaged with peers, faculty and staff, and cultural life of this large, urban, research university. 
3. Critical and Reflective: Providing space and opportunity for students to reflect on and build their own views of the world through growth in critical thinking. 
4. Professional and Career-Ready: Prompting students to start to think about their professional path after graduation.
5. Mentally and Emotionally Well: Developing students who are mentally and emotionally healthy and able to successfully navigate college life as a developing adult.   

Purposeful mid-collegiate programming and student reflection will continue to provide on-going support for students as they proceed through their college career. Components include:

• One or more mid-collegiate Experiential Learning (EL) courses or academic experiences (service learning, co-op, internship, study abroad, UC Forward, peer education, student teaching, exhibition, performance, clinical experience, student teaching, student research). EL experiences must be:       
       - Intentional: Experiences are structured and mapped; instructors behave as facilitators               - Learner-Centered & Holistic: Student growth – both personal and academic – is central               - Collaborative and Contextualized: Experiences are authentic and occur within the learner’s           community or communities; real world complexity is embraced       
       - Personal: Facilitators and learners participate in guided activities that enable them to predict, react, and reflect on the experience from their own perspective        

• Methodology.  Each academic major program requires academic training in the understanding of the systematic methods and history of the discipline/profession (course or experience determined by unit or major)

Mid-Collegiate Experience Career Education Outcomes

1. Development of professional tools and artifacts
   a. Students will effectively communicate their skills and experiences through the development of appropriate professional tools/artifacts (resume, portfolio, CV, interview skills, etc
   
   
2. Development of cross-cutting professional skills through experience-based learning
   a. Students will demonstrate the following cross-cutting professional skills through appropriate experience-based learning:     
        - Oral and written communication
        -Critical thinking
        -Leadership
        -Teamwork, collaboration and problem-solving
        -Ethical judgement and decision-making
        -Innovative approaches
        -Students will draw from experience to provide examples of the impact of these cross-cutting professional skills in professional settings
   b. Continued self-assessment and articulation of goals
        -Students will draw from experience to reassess their aptitudes, strengths, weaknesses,              preferences and values as they relate to professional development
        -Students will develop specific short- and long-term professional goals which will serve as the    basis for a post-graduation career plan taking into account necessary training and               credentialing

A culminating senior experience that enables students to transition to a profession or graduate program and continue to pursue life-long learning and social responsibility.

• The capstone experience is designed to demonstrate proficiency in the Baccalaureate Competencies and in the content/skills of the program/major.  As a culminating experience, the capstone should require interdisciplinary and contextual perspectives (course or experience determined by unit or major).  Note: a capstone course is usually 3 credit hours but can be determined by the unit or major. Replace with your text

 Capstone Experience Career Education       

1. Connections between theory and practice
        -Students will use innovative problem-solving       
2. Formalization of post-graduation plan       
        -Students will finalize their post-graduation career plan       
        -Students will learn how to conduct an effective job/graduate school search