WHAT TO EXPECT IN A LEVEL UP COURSE

Each Level UP course section will use one of the powerful high impact experiences – undergraduate research, education abroad, service learning, or an internship - to help you learn the class material while also focusing on building a career skill and learning to talk about it. The main difference between a non-Level Up course and a Level Up course is the focus on preparing you for the job market with added focus on a career skill and the STAR method.

You’ll have intentionally designed assignments throughout the semester that allow you to practice and develop the career skill. For instance, in a course section emphasizing the career skill of written communication that uses the high impact experience of an internship, you might be asked to write within the workplace setting. This writing may take the form of briefs, standard operating procedures, research reports, blogs, and/or social media content. Writing forms that allow you to develop the technical skills necessary within your major while also preparing you for your career. Rubrics will be used at three key points throughout the semester to assess how you are progressing in the development of the career skill. Lastly, you will gain practice using the STAR method and be asked to reflect upon a specific situation during the internship where you used written communication skills. Faculty, peers and supervisors will provide tailored feedback on the career skill and the STAR method throughout the process. At the end of the course, you will have compiled a portfolio with pieces of academic work showing that you have developed the career skill.