QEP Preparing the Pride: Experiential and Work-Based Learning

In the fall 2022 semester, The University of North Alabama (UNA) launched its new Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP): Preparing the Pride: Experiential and Work-Based Learning. Part of UNA’s reaffirmation process for accreditation, Preparing the Pride is a five-year plan that aims to increase opportunities and student engagement in undergraduate experiential and work-based learning across four domains:

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Work-based Learning

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Mentored Research and Creative Activities

Service-learning

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Immersive Learning

The overarching goal of Preparing the Pride is to create a culture where students embrace curricular-based experiential and work-based learning and, upon graduation, are more prepared for the world of work or to continue their post-graduate education. A thorough analysis of UNA’s institutional framework, strategic plan, and priorities led to the development of the QEP, and it reflects the institution’s commitment to continuous improvement. UNA has established major student learning outcomes (SLOs) for the QEP and will engage in continuous assessment of the SLOs over the next five years to determine the impact of student engagement with experiential and workbased learning. Central to the assessment of the student learning outcomes will be the inclusion of a critical reflection assignment, whereby students will consider how their experiential and work-based courses build expertise and the ways in which new skills can be applied to other situations, courses, and their career.

Your University of North Alabama Career Center staff is happy to announce the return of a campus wide, all majors career fair this spring semester, currently scheduled for April 12, 2023. When asked about what one would like to see in relation to career events, one dean responded “bigger, more, and more relevant.” In response, the Career Center is looking forward to collaborating with all colleges, deans, faculty, and staff to deliver precisely those outcomes in a variety of opportunities for our students.

To meet the “bigger” challenge, the Career Center sent out a “save the date” to over 3,000 employer contacts as a result of a collaborative effort of shared contacts among the colleges, with almost immediate feedback from employers like Lockheed Martin, Big River Broadcasting, and Alabama Broadcasters Association.

Regarding “more relevant,” we are aware that financial firms employ not only finance and accounting majors, manufacturers employ not only engineers, and medical facilities employ not only doctors and nurses.

All of these organizations, including public and non-profit, hire for creative positions in marketing or public relations, for psychologists in human resources, and for business management in medical or even governmental agencies. An event like this can provide opportunities for a diverse group of students with a wide variety of majors to interact with a diverse group of employers. This event also aligns with the goals of the university to increase experiential learning which is a probable outcome from interactions with these employers on our campus, the goal to increase diversity and inclusion evidenced by connecting students from varied curricula with many different employers, and the goal of defining our institutional identity as work-force focused by increasing the potential for students to intern or work with fellow UNA students and alumni locally, regionally, and globally.

In response to “more,” we plan to host more college and degree specific events for the fall semester such as panels, employer classroom visits, and networking mixers, while the spring semester will feature the larger campus-wide all-major fair. Of course, these events need active participation to be successful. In addition to our current students, we would welcome any of our alumni to joy us as exhibitors or to enhance your own careers We hope you will consider participating in this opportunity to collaborate and interact with our deans, faculty, staff, and students!

If you run into Dr. Cindy Stenger at a basketball game, she may start to brag about one of her student’s research accomplishments. Helping students learn to engage in original research, make conjectures, and eventually present their findings is one of the most rewarding aspects of her work at UNA. “A few years back, we had a QEP that was oriented toward undergraduate research, and we got a lot of support to work on projects with students and to take them to speak at conferences,” Stenger said. “So, we started doing that, and, looking back, that focus on working with undergraduates on research projects was a defining moment for me.”

As a professor of mathematics, her passion for student engagement is no secret, specifically, she prefers working across disciplines and with teams of likeminded scholars. Her prior career, working in the tech industry as senior research analyst and then as an applied mathematician, set this course. “I have seen a lot of changes in my 20+ years at UNA, I would not have predicted that undergraduate research and a masters in math would eventually consume 75% of my teaching load,” she said. “My time working in industry over in Huntsville showed me how mathematics could be applied to real world problems. Working with a team and using my training in higher level mathematics, generalizing the results in order to solve a practical problem, brings me a lot of satisfaction.”

In 2018, Dr. Stenger began working on the CODE project with faculty at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology to crowdsource bioinformatics research. So far, she has led over 50 undergraduate research projects, with paper publications for five students to date, and prestigious internships such as deCode genetics in Reykjavík, BioTrain at HAIB, and the Prokop Lab at MSU. For a comprehensive list of student projects: https://www.una.edu/math/undergraduate-research.html. Dr. Stenger has coauthored with CODE faculty on several papers with 57 citations of their contributions. “This March we have an article in Comprehensive Physiology that names our work here at UNA,” she said. “I am so proud of what we have accomplished.”

When I started at UNA, I was a music education major because I always knew that I wanted to teach something. After bouncing around with different majors, I eventually found Foreign Languages. I was involved in several student organizations, including the Marching Pride, the German Club, Model U.N., and several others. I really appreciated and enjoyed the variety of opportunities that were offered to me. I met my soon to be wife in the university band. Through Model U.N., I gained perspective on global issues that I had never thought about before, and the various groups within the Department of Foreign Languages allowed me to use what I was learning within the community One of the most significant community projects that I participated in was Spark for German and the support of the department was instrumental in my being able to be involved. This experience helped me gain valuable teaching experience, while at the same time, provided elementary and middle school aged students the opportunity to learn German. With the recommendation and encouragement of my professors, I applied to be an English teaching assistant in Germany through the Fulbright Scholarship, and eventually learned that I received the grant for this prestigious opportunity.