“A student-faculty creative project challenges you to think like an artist, musician, writer, or performer. Creative fields require the development of specific skills, but also personal vision and flexible thinking. Courses in creative fields at the introductory level place an emphasis on developing the basic craft of each artform, so that you have the essential building blocks for your creative work, but at the level of a student-faculty creative project, the emphasis is more on developing your personal creative vision under faculty mentorship, and on using the appropriate elements of craft to give the fullest possible expression to your vision. In basic music theory classes, for instance, you learn about the range of musical structures that make up the language of music, and do some elementary creative projects to develop appropriate skills, but at the level of a student-faculty creative project you would actually compose music, learning how to use the elements of music for your personal expressive goals. For students interested in pursuing creative work beyond graduation, this kind of creative mentorship has obvious benefits  as it provides a guided experience for  working with the creative process and developing the skills needed to support your evolving vision. Even for students who have totally different career goals, however, this deep engagement with the creative process fosters an approach to creative problem solving and flexible thinking that you will find helpful throughout your life and across a range of careers. Creativity is an engine for growth, both personal and professional, no matter what you do.” – Professor Petri Flint, Humanities, Fitchburg State University

“Participating in an internship during your undergraduate career offers many benefits to students. Students that participate in an internship have the opportunity to apply skills and knowledge learned in the classroom to real world contexts. This helps to solidify learning and give valuable context to ideas learned in the classroom.  Students that participate in internships also have the opportunity to build marketable professional skills that are strongly desired by employers. These skills can be field specific like getting hands-on experience with a particular software or gaining experience with particular client populations as well as soft skills, like working in a professional team, professional communication, and project management. In addition to building knowledge and skills, students that participate in internships get the chance to try out various fields and positions to see if it is a good fit for them. Students can confirm career fields of interests and rule out options that are a poor fit. It is just as valuable to learn what is not a good fit for you professionally in order to know what next steps to explore. For many students internships are a foot in the door to a career field or even a specific company for hiring entry level positions. Internships are great opportunities for students to learn more about themselves, their strengths and the field they plan to go into after graduation and if that’s not enough, participating in internships improves career outcomes for students. Students that participate in internships have greater odds of being employed in their field of interest within six months of graduation and tend to have higher starting salaries than their peers that did not participate in internships.” – Lindsay Carpenter Connors, Director of Career Services and Advising Center, Fitchburg State University

“Studying abroad is a crucial part of the undergraduate experience. Whether it is a short term faculty-led program, semester, or internship abroad, international experiences allow students to gain global competencies and network for professional opportunities. Studying abroad is a life-changing experience that will stay with a student well beyond their undergraduate years. In many cases, it encourages them to work/live abroad after they graduate. Interacting and navigating different cultures during a study abroad experience allows students to develop a better understanding of the world they live in and become more accepting of societies other than their own. Students often describe studying abroad as eye-opening and one of the best experiences of their lives!” – Nicole Salerno, Assistant Director of Study Abroad, Fitchburg State University

“Civic engagement is taking responsibility for improving your community. It refers to addressing any social problem. When students practice civic engagement, they contribute to the creation of a community of excellence. According to Up to Us (2023), Many people begin participating in civic engagement by connecting with others who share the same mission and values. It can be as simple as starting a conversation about local issues (in-person or on social media). In 2004, the University of Maryland’s Coalition for Civic Engagement and Leadership (CCEL) stated that students prepared for civic engagement can:

• Contribute to their communities in ways that are similar to their own values;
• Demonstrate the knowledge, awareness, and understanding necessary to contribute to a culturally diverse world;
• Identify core personal values and base their own actions on those values;
• Apply academic and disciplinary knowledge, as well as personal experiences to addressing social problems.

When students engage and work together through civic engagement as a high impact practice, they can provide value and improve the quality of life for the community, thus providing social change through collective action and political involvement and awareness. As students practice civic engagement they understand their community and themselves; they heighten economic and community development by enriching the lives of their neighborhood residents and local business, thus improving the lives of the community in general.” – Dr. William Cortezia, Education and Coordinator of the Douglas and Isabelle Crocker Center for Civic Engagement, Fitchburg State University

“Student research at the undergraduate level offers a plethora of benefits to students. Benefits include theoretical application, student engagement, problem solving, and collaboration. When students participate in research, it requires them to apply what they have learned from lectures, readings, and class activities to a more tangible, real world situation. Often the research process allows what the student has learned to seemingly ‘come to life’ and ignite student passion and motivation for topics of interest. The research process is almost always accompanied by obstacles the researcher must overcome, which allows students to make use of problem solving skills. Additionally, research requires various degrees of collaboration. Often students will need to collaborate with peers at different stages of the research process. At the undergraduate level, students will also need to work with, to some extent, professors and/or research advisors. The collaborative process allows for the student to interact with both peers and professors in different ways than they may be used to and in ways that are more closely related to how they will interact once they leave a university setting. The above mentioned benefits of undergraduate student research can be  found through the entirety of the process, from identifying the problem to sharing findings. The entire research process is a great experience to prepare students for either future graduate study and/or future careers.” – Dr. Jessica Alsup, Exercise and Sport Science Department and Former Co-Chair of the Undergraduate Conference for Research and Creative Practice Committee, Fitchburg State University

“Writing is an integral part of engaged learning within and beyond the university, across the entirety of one’s life. Students write for classes, of course, but they also write in academic contexts that focus on transitions to spaces beyond the classroom, such as when they write at internship sites or keep a practicum log. Writing also happens in workplaces and civic spaces. We write in our daily lives, often for non-obligatory purposes, when we reply to social media posts, journal, or engage in personal interests like contributing to fanfiction sites or sharing travel tips on a blog.” – Julia Bleakney, Julia, Jessie L. Moore, and Paula Rosinski, eds., Writing Beyond the University, 2022, p. 1

“Depending on the chosen field, college graduates will spend at least 20% of their time writing various pieces of communication (e.g., emails, reports, resumes, and letters) (Anderson, 2014). In addition to the amount of time graduates will spend writing, employers tend to look for candidates who have more developed writing skills and are more likely to hire, retain, or promote those who have higher writing skills (Anderson, 2014; Faigley, Daly, & Witte, 1981).” – Laura M. Fischer and Courtney Meyers, “Determining Change in Students’ Writing Apprehension Scores in a Writing Intensive Course: A Pre-Test, Post-Test Design,” 2017, p. 69