Employers and graduate schools actively seek students with a liberal arts education. You’re taking a broad range of courses, participating in extracurricular activities from student government to athletics, gaining practical skills through internships and campus employment, and getting involved in your community. Taken together, these experiences are allowing you to develop the breadth and depth of knowledge necessary to make a difference in our ever-changing world.
But it can be hard to articulate to others everything you are learning and how you would like to apply it. To help you develop this narrative, your Ideals into Practice portfolio prompts you with a series of questions based on six specific competencies: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Digital Literacy, Inquiry and Analysis, and Socio-Cultural Awareness. By actively reflecting on how you are gaining these skills both inside and outside the classroom, you will be able to take a holistic view of your education—and be better prepared to answer questions from employers and graduate programs about what you have learned.
These competencies have been developed and defined by the Ideals into Practice steering committee based on the following sources:
Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) VALUE Rubric
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Core Competencies
Bryn Mawr Digital Competencies Framework
National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies