Networking/skill sets: Education beyond the classroom

mezzomom
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:18:38 +0000

I’ve been reading the thread about parents of college seniors, and some of the comments got me curious about the learning of our kids that is not necessarily in the classroom. I’d be interested in hearing what other parents/students have to say about those value-added experiences, whether internships or just day-to-day skills or growth that have come about during college.

I’ll use my daughter as the first example. She has a job as student manager of the campus center at her school, and the straightforward, nuts-and-bolts of scheduling, working with a diverse “customer” base (parents, profs, admin, and students), and deadlines are skills which will probably come in handy in the future.

She’s also become quite adept at a style of writing which in the business world would probably be considered sales proposals. When she decided to apply for an individualized BA, she had to go through a lengthy process, which included writing a proposal and defending it before a committee of profs and administrators. The process wasn’t overly onerous, but it is clearly designed to separate the truly-motivated from the less motivated. Since that proposal (which was approved), she’s used similar skills again and again; she currently has a proposal before the music department at her school to produce a collaborative concert of multicultural music and is waiting to hear if she will also need to do a presentation (sales pitch) at the next faculty meeting.

So what say you…what are those “extras” your kids/you are gaining that may not have been obvious when they first enrolled?