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We have very high aspirations for your sons and daughters. We want to help them lead richer, fuller lives. We want college to be a life-changing experience for every student that comes to North Carolina Wesleyan. One important part of that process is h elping students prepare for a career, or, more likely, several careers. We believe that a liberal education can be a wonderful way to prepare for work.
Every few years surveys are done of US corporations, asking them what they look for in college graduates. With surprising consistency, the same four qualities appear at or near the top of the list each time:
Notice that employers are not so much worried about the specific factual knowledge of new hires -- there is more concern about the graduates' ability to engage in lifelong leaming in a social context. Notice also that employers are concerned about charac ter as well as intellect.
Responsibility, communication, teamwork, problem-solving. A liberal education addresses all of these vital career qualities by encouraging students to take charge of their own education. We provide numerous opportunities for students to discover and dev elop their potential. A student can join an intercollegiate or intramural athletic team. She can volunteer for a community service project, perhaps helping children learn to read or building a home for Habitat for Humanity. She can participate in a theater production, or become a leader in a sorority, or become involved in a research project with a faculty member, or complet e an internship in a social service organization or a local business.
Students will also have the chance to develop their vital career skills in the classroom. They will be asked to collaborate with other students on research studies and lab exercises. They will be expected to write papers, lots of papers, and to give for mal oral presentations. As the students move through their four, or perhaps five or six years of college, they will be asked to take on an increasingly active role in their classes, becoming mentors and tutors as well as students.
Your sons and daughters probably do not know what kind of work they will be doing in a few years, and we don't either. Many of them are likely to wind up in careers that currently do not exist. We can be fairly confident that most of our graduates will make several career changes over the course of a lifetime. Whatever career path the students take, a liberal education will be a great way to prepare for the job market of the twenty-first century.
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