Bold Careers Check Fall 2021 - Spring 2022

August 18, 2022

Career-Engaged Learning

Progress Specific to Bold Careers (QEP)

Goal #1: Expand Experimental Learning Opportunities

Develop an infrastructure to support a more diverse offering of experiential learning opportunities, including internships, undergraduate research, and community engaged learning.

Student Employee Career Readiness

With the ‘Runner Career Launch, each student worker engages in three professional development activities. The program standardizes areas of development for both student employees and supervisors in career readiness, on-boarding best practices, marketable skills, supervisory training, and performance evaluation. Undergraduate Research positions are a focus of this initiative.

Increase in Internships and Student Job postings from Fall to Spring

Internship Postings increase from 11,277 to 14,321
Job Postings increased from 36,380 to 44,811

The Najim Center launched 12 industry projects with new community partners providing students of various backgrounds and classification with real-world industry experience.

Pearl- Hospitality and Waste Management Divisions
Alameda Theather
Area Real State
DTSA Communities
Market Vision
The Good News Burger
Patton Trender
UTSA History Department
Pine Tree Solar
Citymester and the UTSA Honors College to create an experiential learning summer program

The University Career Center connected with employer partners to provide these additional experiential learning projects:

Engineering class
Foster students
Alamo Fellows
Student Athlete Event
Professional Businesswoman's Society

Civic And Social Experience (C.A.S.E.) Challenge
9 teams of multidisciplinary student groups identified community priorities in the areas of youth, environment, literacy, and economy and proposed practical solution pathways before judges.

Civic & Community-Engaged Learning

Increase the number of community-based nonprofit and public serving partnerships.
Rowdy Corps Community Scholars Program contributed over 20,7721 hours to local nonprofits and public serving agencies.
Social impact value of over $1,143,1862
45+ students with community-based experiential learning, community leadership and professional development, preparing students with marketable skills.
$5000 grant by the national organization Civic Nation to develop HSI “communities of practice” with campus and community partners to increase civic learning and social responsibility through voter education and engagement.

UTS Bold Career Amabassadors and Intern Program

Editing and upkeep of documents for the UTSA SECC campaign last fall in 2021
Provided 29 Page Website Review and Evaluation for the Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC)
Sponsored a collaborative student support project with San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) and IT Vendors to establish an educational ESports program including grant funding to launch the new program.
Serves as the collaborative support group at UTSA for the Northside Independent School District NSITE Program.

Student Testimonial: This internship taught me more about IT and virtual environments. I was able to learn project management skills, troubleshooting, user acceptance testing, and understand how important documentation can be. This internship was very helpful to me and has made me more confident in my future!- Jasman, UTS Ambassador

Undergraduate Research

Fall 2021 – Virtual Undergraduate Research Showcase was held
Spring 2022 – The Office of Undergraduate Research participated in National Undergraduate Research Week – April 18 – 22, 2022 at the UTSA Main Campus. Undergraduate students to gain hands-on research experience at upcoming showcase | UTSA Today | UTSA | The University of Texas at San Antonio
Grad School Boot Camp – The McNair Scholars program hosted a 3-day intensive seminar style workshop. 140 Students from over 16 colleges and universities learn the mechanics of graduate school and how to secure funding
Summer Undergraduate Research Showcase

Goal #2: Develop Experiential Learning Culture

Create a model of enhanced, strategic, and structured professional development to support faculty in developing experiential learning opportunities that intentionally address academic connections, career development, and transferability of knowledge and skills.

The HSI Collaborative which increases opportunities for experiential learning through the following programming:

Employer Summit
HSI Professional development held for students including a networking panel and training on how to effectively read job descriptions.
Virtual career fair
HSI partners include (not exhaustive):
- Abbvie
- Crowdstrike
- Allogene
- META
- PepsiCo
- Southwest Airlines
- Synopsys
- AppFolio
- Dolby
- JM Smuckers
- PaloALto Networks
- Siemens
- Vanguard
- Wal-Mart
- Warner Media

Representatives from the Career Center are participating in the Global Career Services Summit and contributing to a global discussion with career center executive leadership on the future of university recruitment.

The Career Center partnered with the First-Generation and Transfer Student Center, the Alumni Relations team, the Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design to build and launch the Roadrunner Network.

1,455 students joined the Roadrunner Network
1,707 alumni joined the Roadrunner Network

The Najim Center, the Career Center, the Alvarez College of Business, and Student Leadership & Volunteer Services collaborated to host the Roadrunner Experience Showcase where students presented on their internships, research, industry projects, and leadership experiences.

Civic & Community-Engaged Leadership

Integrated UTSA Engaged (Givepulse) platform into Blackboard to create direct access for faculty & students to seek and identify community engaged learning opportunities

UTS Bold Career Ambassadors and Interns Program

Students designed and scheduled to participate in 60-minute Cyber Security panel for 700 participants at the the Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC) Annual Meeting at LaCantera Conference Resort in San Antonio.

2022 Agenda | Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (tasscc.org)

Goal #3: Provide Support for Students Engaged in Experiential Learning

Provide resources and services to help students understand and articulate the skills and knowledge they develop as they engage in experiential learning, thereby increasing their career readiness.

Implemented first paid Student Innovation Academy for Spring 2022. Personal/professional development program to sharpen career readiness skills. Access to an assigned mentor, guest speakers from industry, faculty, and an assessment of employability skills.

Student Testimony: I am writing to express my sincere gratitude to you for making the Student Innovation Academy possible. I was thrilled to learn of my selection for this honor, and I am deeply appreciative of your support. I am thankful for the shared knowledge within this atmosphere. The financial assistance you provided will be of great help to me in paying my educational expenses, and it will allow me to concentrate more of my time on studying. The experiences from this opportunity have aided in my personal, professional, and academic development. Erica, Senior, Public Health

Implemented first What’s In It For Me (W.I.I.F.M.) Institute in summer 2022: This 8-week immersive summer experience was designed to allow students the opportunity to explore creative approaches to solve real-world challenges within an organization. This summer our students worked on a marketing project with AT&T

Student Testimony: WIFIM has been a great experience that's been teaching me how to view my future career. At first, I was very apprehensive about looking at opportunities and internships, but WIIFM has helped me understand what I want from my life at college and how to pursue my future. This experience has built my networking skills, my perspectives, and most importantly, my excitement for my career. Angel, Sophomore, Marketing

Student Funding

Increased sponsorships with organizations, which increases the potential of experiential learning opportunities for UTSA students. Over $80,000 in sponsorships for 2021-2022
Awarded the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board $250,000 grant. A portion of these funds were distributed to compensate students working in unpaid internships and to increase hourly wages for lower paid positions.

THECB grant creates more paid internship opportunities for UTSA students | UTSA Today | UTSA | The University of Texas at San Antonio

$25,000 Grow with Google Grant exposes students to technical training on Google products which are marketable skills.
The Federal Work Study Experiment funded $400,000 for students in off-campus positions related to their field of study.
Over $50,000 dollars awarded to support Undergraduate students engaged in research

Facilitated student skill building sessions to include

Design Your Life
Creative Problem Solving
WOW Goals – in partnership with the Panhellenic Council. During this challenge, teams of 4-6 worked on challenges or issues that they have seen or encountered at UTSA and proposed project solutions to campus Leadership.
Career Innovation Summit
CliftonStrengths

Increased engagement with VMock. This platform provides students with resume scoring, interview preparation, and tools to create a marketable LinkedIn profile.

10,826 students are active within VMock.
- 6,981 students joined VMock (over the last year)
- 6,303 students uploaded a resume to VMock for scoring (over the last year)

Civiv & Community-Engaged Leadership

Conduct experiential reflection sessions regarding community site placements and the student experience.
Provide community leadership development modules such as individual leadership styles and group dynamics, conflict engagement, compassionate integrity, listening and communication skills, and servant leadership model, civic literacy and UTSAEngaged (Givepulse )platform training.
Host one on one check-ins with students and conduct weekly surveys to assess and develop reflection session topics, capacity building opportunities and provide support and resources for challenges regarding school and/or community site placements.
Building pathways to connect students to opportunities offered by the various offices of the Department of Career Engaged Learning according to their field of study and career preparation priorities.

Joshua Le is a Majoring in Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Operations interning at Family Services Assignation Best Buy Teen Tech Center. This organization's mission is to empower individuals and families to transform their lives and strengthen their communities by helping provide families with tools to help gain financial stability, improve their children's education, and obtain healthcare.

Student Testimony: My work contributes to equity because I help build, maintain, and educate students on items such as robotic machines, music production studios, and 3D printers. These tools can cause quite a financial burden, so this is a great place where students after school can learn these skills and traits. Working through the Rowdy Corps Program I am able to work in the community and assist K-12 students with the opportunity to explore paths and learn more about STEM