Last week the Liberal Arts Advantage (LAA) opened a career preparation survey to students of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS). The questions in the survey cover areas such as internships, networking, collaboration opportunities and awareness of DU’s existing services.

“The purpose is to collect information from our students about their impression of these areas so we can adjust these programs as necessary,” said Kristin Kemp, director of community relations and communications for AHSS. “It helps us identify what we’re doing well and where there are programming gaps that we can fill in, based on student feedback.”

According to Kemp, the survey has received about 45 responses so far, and they are hoping for over 200 responses by the time the survey closes at midnight on Wednesday, April 30.

The LAA program started two years ago, according to Kemp, and serves AHSS students in providing opportunities outside the classroom and special advising and career services preparation. This includes event series like the Courses to Careers series. LAA sent a similar survey last year, which received about 250 responses.

“Last year in spring quarter, we did basically the same assessment survey, and we’re using that as a benchmark to assess this year’s survey,” said Kemp. “The survey is almost identical so we can compare apples to apples and benchmark year one to year two.”

Kemp said that feedback from last year’s survey showed that students appreciate programming and events at the university level, the divisional level and the departmental level. This year LAA added more targeted event programming that was specific to departments or majors, or specific to certain career opportunities. For example, the AHSS Alumni and Employer Tell All on Tuesday, April 29, will have the specific theme of “Innovative Careers in Government and Non Profits.”

“Generally, what we discovered was that students wanted more of what we were already doing, which was great to know,” said Kemp. “That correlates with the student awareness level of what we’re already doing, which is not as high as we’d like it to be. Sometimes students respond that they want to see things that we’re already doing. That’s an opportunity, because it means we’re already doing what students want, we just need to make them aware of it.”

In the future, Kemp said she imagines the LAA continuing to do what it does now, but with a broader awareness level among students and an increased student participation rate. She said it is too early to tell what the survey feedback from students will say this year.

“We’ll make adjustments to the programming as needed and as possible based on the feedback,” said Kemp. “We hope that students will continue to express an interest in their school providing these kinds of opportunities, but we’re going to offer them no matter what.”
Kemp urges AHSS students to complete the survey by Wednesday.