Changes

Since I have come to Swarthmore, something I have heard students complain about again and again is that courses we take in the college are too theoretical and they do not prepare us for internships/jobs within the industry itself. Implementing a hybrid course that aims to teach students concepts actually in-use within the industry of interest and matching them with shadowing/mentoring opportunities could help students feel more prepared in applying for jobs and long term internship opportunities. One department that this idea could be especially useful for is the computer science department. We could create a course where students could learn about current tools and software used to develop apps currently, they can develop their own ideas for apps using the design thinking process, they can be matched with industry professionals to shadow for a few weeks and then they can start implementing their own ideas with mentors who can help them think about technical skills or more conceptual ideas. <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color:#ffffe0;">Strategic Priority #7.3 (Jackie Le 2021): Liberal Arts Consortium</span></span></span> </div></div>Swarthmore College is known for its academic rigor, which places a lot of stress on students as they struggle to find a balance between their social life and classes. This balance has been exacerbated by the virtual learning setting and the transition from virtual to in-person. Despite the few resources available to students, they are either too busy with their work to utilize them or do not notice them. This is not a solution, but rather a source of interest that may open up opportunities for solutions to be implemented. This approach involves collaborating with other liberal arts colleges (LAC) in the LAC network. By sending out invitations and surveying students from other LACs about their experiences with mental health, academic workload, and resources available to them, we may learn how Swarthmore College can improve its own student ecosystem. It is from these correspondences that data can be gathered and synthesized to produce results that can be used as an impetus for administrators and students at Swarthmore College to prioritize this issue, of which freshmen and international students are most affected by. Collaboration will also occur with members of the Aydelotte Foundation, whose focus centers around LACs as institutions and the direction they are heading towards over time. Questions such as: Wonder where Liberal Arts is going as an idea?Interested in the wide landscape of higher education at these challenging times?Thinking about structural inequality in higher education? are relevant to issues these students are facing and can be used as a springboard from which to discuss resources that may be offered to improve the quality of life for students at Swarthmore College. Again, this strategic priority focuses more on expanding the network from which resources can be pooled and utilized for students.