By Katie Land, news editor
For many college freshmen, the first year of courses does not provide a strong real-world application to the careers they hope to prepare for. The early advice and attention of a professional can be a great advantage as students choose their fields of study.
Often students begin school undecided as to a major, and even those with a chosen field of study do not have an opportunity to experience a practical connection to their future occupation, until they face a challenging internship farther into their academic career.
To bridge this gap, Andrew Kos, Oakland University special lecturer, created an innovative and career-oriented project for his Writing 160 course, by bringing in professional Oakland alumni to mentor freshmen on an individual basis.
“As a university, we need to offer more of these kinds of programs,” Kos said. “It is what the 21st century learning paradigm is calling for and what our country is calling for—a pedagogy that reaches beyond the classroom and its single teacher and engages the whole community in teaching and learning.”
With the help of Oakland’s Office of Alumni Engagement and Luke Fleer, associate director of Alumni Engagement, nearly 30 OU alumni volunteered to e-mentor freshman students.
The Writing 160 assignment required an in depth research project surrounding each student’s career of choice. Students had to learn about and create scenarios representative of typical on-the-job problems.
The scenarios were designed to show a worker engaging in effective persuasion, information gathering, project collaboration and professional ethics. Through focused mentor dialogues, the students were able to gain insight into the specific careers they are interested in.
This mentoring experience inspired some students with confidence in their choices, and helped other students to change their minds and explore new fields and careers to find the right fit.
Emily Howard, an OU student who plans to be an entrepreneur, was excited about her e-mentoring experience. “The mentors had more answers than I had questions. And I had some good free-wheeling conversations about starting up a business, which is my ultimate purpose—something maybe in clean energy.”
Howard was able to discuss her career interests with four different alumni; three in Michigan and one in Tennessee. At the same time, after speaking with her alumni mentor, student Karin Spencer decided that psychiatry was not the field for her, and chose to look into a different career path.
This collaboration has the double benefit of connecting freshmen students to the professional world and at the same time, allowing OU alumni to participate and support the university in a very real way.
“This is a great mentoring opportunity for OU alums to connect with students,” Fleer said. “Whether an alumnus is local or nationally based, it is great to allow them to share ideas about job scenarios and offer feedback and guidance to students who are interested in their field of study. This is a truly meaningful way for alumni to engage with the university.”
Thus far, the program has been well received and generated positive feedback, something Fleer and Kos hope to build upon in the future.
“We look forward to continuing this effort in up-coming semesters,” Kos said.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities for OU alumni, visit the
Alumni Relations website.
