Senior-Year Experience Program Mission

SENIOR YEAR EXPERIENCE MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the Senior Year Experience is to provide KSU seniors with an opportunity to reflect on and provide closure to their collegiate educational experience, demonstrate proficiency, develop the skills necessary to
successfully transition to and navigate post-university life, understand the
civic and social responsibilities of being college educated citizens and connect with KSU in an ongoing relationship.

KSU 4401 Revised Learning Outcomes

Reflecting on Your College Experience

1) Students will reflect on and be able to express and integrate the personal and professional meaning of their collegiate educational experience, particularly in the area of skills acquisition (e.g., leadership, communication, teamwork, etc.) (knowledge, attitude and skill outcome)

Designing a Career Plan

2) Students will have developed a plan for pursuing their selected career path based on the awareness of the variety of post-graduate choices available to them. (knowledge & skill outcome)

3) Students will possess the tools needed to conduct an effective search for a career, graduate school or other post-graduate choice (e.g., resume writing, interviewing skills, etc.). (knowledge & skill outcome)

4) Students will be exposed to the resources, services and networking opportunities dedicated to ensuring their success  not only while they are KSU seniors, but also after they exit the institution (e.g. Career Services Center, Alumni Association, etc.). (knowledge outcome)

Transitioning to Post-University Life

5) Students will have learned about the academic history and traditions surrounding commencement. (knowledge outcome)

6) Students will be familiar with cycles of change and transition and life skills (e.g. stress management, financial planning, etc.) which will help them make a successful transition to their post-university life. (knowledge & skill outcome)

7) Students will understand the importance of civic and social responsibility and embracing a global citizenship perspective. (knowledge & attitude outcome)

 Additional Information:

The Senior-Year Experience (SYE) Program consists first and foremost as an elective course entitled: KSU 4401 Senior Seminar. This institutional capstone course is an elective course that prepares the student for the post-university experience. The course addresses the students’ reflection process focusing on their college learning experience by building a Reflective Portfolio/Private Portfolio. From this process, a Best of Show Portfolio/Public Portfolio is developed, which focuses on career preparation, graduate school preparation, community service and preparation for the student's emerging role as citizen leader in the local, national and global arenas.

As noted in the Kennesaw State University 2002-2003 Undergraduate Catalog
(p. 284):

Senior Seminar (KSU 4401): This institutional capstone course provides a structure for seniors to bring closure to their undergraduate experience while preparing for the transition from the university to the community at large. Within a structure learning community from a variety of disciplines, students will discuss the meaning of their undergraduate experience and develop an understanding of their role as alumni and productive citizens of the work force, community, state, nation and the world. Through the preparation of a reflective portfolio, involvement in a service-learning project, and a critical discussion of their short and long term goals, the students will prepare for the post-university experience.

Another goal of the KSU 4401: Senior Seminar is to have the students utilize the many resources available on campus to prepare them for their post-university life. The Kennesaw State University resources used in the course are: Career Services, Counseling Advising Program Services (CAPS), Instructional Technology Services (ITS), Presentation Technology Center (PTD), Ed Tech Center, Small Business Development (SBDC), Volunteer Kennesaw (VKSU), Alumni Society, and the Rare Book Room (Home of the KSU College Mace). This institutional capstone course relies on the cross-collaborative efforts of the colleagues from these Kennesaw State University resources, which provide information, training, marketable skills, and a connection to academic history for the college seniors.

Secondly, the mission of the Senior-Year Experience Program is also to provide a web-based resource for college seniors that provide information to better assist the college students with their preparation for post-university life and their roles as citizen leaders and alumni of Kennesaw State University.

Thirdly, a developing academic direction for the Senior-Year Experience Program is to become a resource for other departmental and college capstone courses, providing faculty and students with information of the developing a college portfolio, career and graduate school resources, and preparing for the role of the college graduate as citizen leader. Thus, providing the most recent and accurate information of being a citizen leader for the future graduates of Kennesaw State University.

The Senior-Year Experience Program is directly aligned with the academic trends for preparing college seniors. For example, in the United States of America,
public colleges and universities are refocusing their mission from consuming democracy to producing democracy. What does this mean? How does this
impact our institutions of higher learning? And most importantly, how does this impact our college students?

How is the senior seminar at Kennesaw State addressing the balance of career, civic engagement, and global citizenship? By having the students produce reflective portfolios that translate into a best of show portfolio, therefore, assisting the students in the discovery of how they produce democracy through their commitment to career and civic engagement. The student portfolios create a baseline document of how the student looks exiting the university. The portfolio helps the student triangulate the goals of career, civic engagement,
and global citizenship, using information such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook 2002-2003 (http://www.bls.gov/oco/), the University of Georgia Systems' Economic Development Studies (www.icapp.org), for the global economic prospective, the Organisation for Economic Development (http://www.oecd.org) and Second Nature, for addressing issues of the environment and sustainable education (http://secondnature.org).The portfolio process assists the senior-year students in making the best decisions for developing and sharing their time and talents for producing democracy as active world citizens, participating in global civic engagement, and enhancing their careers for world growth and development. (For more information of college portfolios, return to the Senior-Year Experience homepage and click on the link Your College Portfolio). For more information regarding the national movement of using portfolios in higher education, consult the American Association of Higher Education Portfolio Database at:
http://www.aahe.org/teaching/portfolio_db.htm

Although early in its academic development, the Senior-Year Experience Program at Kennesaw State University has broken new academic ground by offering one of the first institutional capstone courses in the nation for college seniors. According to John Gardner, Director Emeritus of the National Resource Center and one of the central academic leaders of the Senior-Year Experience Movement at the University of South Carolina, Columbia (http://www.sc.edu/fye/resources/syr/index.html), Kennesaw State University has taken a national leadership role it the movement. John Gardner, credits President Betty Siegel as beginning the Senior-Year Experience Movement in 1990, after she took academic action at a student’s request and created COM 499: Senior Seminar, a course to assist students in their transition to post-university life. For information of this crediting of President Betty Siegel on beginning the Senior-Year Experience Movement consult http://www.sc.edu/fye/401/401infopiece/history.htm.

For information of the first Senior-Year Experience Program Review 2001-2002, consult:
http://ir.kennesaw.edu/prog/prog_2001/default.asp

Go to links: Senior Year Experience and Student Profiles KSU4401 for programmatic information.

Send emails regarding this web site to: fbrantle@kennesaw.edu
This page last modified March 24, 2008
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