As the summer approaches, many students are preparing to supplement their in-class learning with some practical experience.
Some students will go back to work at summer camp, some will pursue internships and others may take the time to travel and explore the world.
This summer Sally (the fictional history major we introduced last week) is headed to the Big Apple to intern with an advertising agency.
Sally might have a fantastic summer and fall in love with the field, or she may decide to cross it off her list of potential careers.
But either way, the academic advisers in Steele Building will have no idea about Sally’s summer, since UNC’s career services department is completely separate from academic advising.
It’s too bad, because Sally and everyone else at UNC could benefit from taking courses that would complement their “real-world experiences.”
A few basic questions — or better yet, a shared database with University Career Services — could provide an entirely new dimension to the limited knowledge advisers currently have about their students’ interests, academic or otherwise.
I’m not advocating for academic advisers to start doing full-fledged career advising —they have more than enough on their plates already.
But I am asking academic advisers to make a point to learn a little about what their students hope to do outside of school, so these students choose classes that could help them do more than just meet requirements.
