Category: Parent & Family News

Early in graduates’ careers, it is important to find professional opportunities that not only support them from a financial perspective, but that also support them from professional development and personal growth perspectives, too.

Over 260 Carleton students embarked on an externship this winter break. This is the largest number of students to participate in the Externship Program in the fourteen years since the program began. Externs have opportunities to engage in-person, remotely, or in a hybrid format this year. If your student did an externship, you’re probably curious about what they have been up to in their externship. Ask what they learned about themselves, the world of work, and the new connections they made during their experience!

Internships are a fantastic way for Carls to get real-world experience in a field of interest, fine-tune career goals, develop new skills, and build professional networks. They typically run 6-12 weeks long and provide a high level of structure and mentorship that both deepens a college student’s understanding of the world of work and enhances their hireability within a short period of time. Often touted by employers as the top feature that they use to evaluate prospective employees, internships also expand the options students have to choose from upon graduation.

Carleton’s Career Center is continuing to evolve its programs and services to meet the increasingly diverse needs of Carls. In addition to opening doors to opportunity for signature experiences like externships, 30 Minutes, Scholars trips, and internships we are also focusing attention on how students from different backgrounds may become involved with the Center.

On October 15, the Carleton community will be celebrating many rich and diverse summer experiences of our students at the 2021 Research and Internship Symposium. Nearly 200 Carleton students will be presenting their work. We are also offering a virtual poster session for family and friends featuring select students who are not attending the event in person.

As Carls begin classes again this week, I can’t help but reflect on where we’ve been over the last 18 months and how that has shaped our expectations for resuming in-person learning on campus. What we know is that our team of professionals and students in the Career Center are excited to welcome and work with all Carls as they create their stories for life beyond college.

As our students are moving out of the residence halls this week, I am reminded of the episode of “Friends” where Ross was moving into his new apartment in New York City. Ross, Rachel, and Chandler were struggling to get his couch up the stairwell of the building. As they reached the first turn of the stairs, Ross kept saying “Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!” to get the couch in the right angle to move onto the first landing. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful and ended up dropping the couch back to the ground floor.

As your student moves out of Carleton’s residence halls for the first time or the last time, we hope that they have found healthy ways to pivot this academic year without getting stuck in place or having to start from the beginning. (And, even if they haven’t, we are happy to meet them where they are and help them to climb those stairs.)

At long last, it’s springtime in Minnesota, which has nudged many of us outside to tend to our gardens and yards. As my family and I embarked on our search for a new tree for our front yard, we soon found ourselves overwhelmed by the number of options.

Like many people, I went to Google and searched for, “best small tree for front yard in Minnesota.” To nobody’s surprise, Google produced close to 40 million varying opinions.

My spouse suggested that I take a photo of our house to a local garden center for an expert opinion. Once there, I found a friendly and helpful professional who was able to listen to my preferences and needs and then direct me to a narrower list of options for me to pursue.

Carls need your help! The Career Center is learning that students have not secured internships for this summer at the rate that they have over previous (pre-pandemic) years. We are also observing that student applications for internship funding (which requires an internship to be secured) are down. This concerns us. We’d like to help make sure all of our students have access to meaningful internship opportunities this summer. We’re asking parents, alumni, faculty, and friends of the college to help. Please consider posting an internship opportunity at Carleton AND ask at least three others in your network to do the same. 

As the parent of a Carleton College student, your support can help to foster your student’s self-advocacy skills, which are foundational to their career journey. Through self-advocacy skill development, students learn strategies to help them take charge of their lives, maximize their strengths, and transition to adulthood with the skills necessary to navigate their chosen career; such as the ability to communicate their needs and goals, to make decisions about the type of support needed to achieve them, and to find people who will support them in their journey.