For Faculty and Staff

Career Exploration offers programs, services and appointments to support Macalester students as they learn about themselves, explore careers, and search for jobs and internships. Some of the ways we can help include:

Career and pathway exploration – Using concepts from Life-Design, Gallup Strengths, and self-exploration, students learn about themselves and career opportunities
Writing effective materials– Resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn
Networking – Engaging alumni, employers, and other contacts in their fields of interest
Interviewing – Behavioral, Case (Consulting) and White Board (Technology)
Negotiating – Salary, details of job offer etc.

How can Faculty and Staff engage with Career Exploration?

We are here to help you support students!

Faculty and Staff Career Champions

Macalester College Career Exploration invites faculty and staff to become Career Champions! As a Career Champion, you’ll play a vital role in supporting students’ professional and career development. This can be achieved through one-on-one interactions, incorporating career-focused activities or guest speakers into your curriculum, collaborating on events like alumni talks, and sharing information about our programs, services, and events. We recognize that you are already contributing to students’ career growth, and these connections are crucial for the success of our diverse student body. We aim to support and celebrate these valuable relationships and conversations.

By becoming a Career Champion, you will join an esteemed network on campus, gaining access to exclusive resources, workshops, and updates. Additionally, you’ll be eligible for nomination for our annual Faculty Career Champion and Staff Career Champion Awards, acknowledging your significant contributions to student career development.

What are the goals of the program?

Provide easy access to career resources, support, and training to faculty and staff across Macalester College to support them in having career conversations with students.
Empower staff and faculty partners to see themselves as career influencers and to actively share resources and have conversations with students
Recognize faculty and staff at Macalester College who engage in career conversations with students and help students connect with them.

How can I get involved?

Complete our registration form and we’ll connect with you!

Resources For Advising Students

Advising questions for Career Champions – Based on our Career Exploration Model, these questions can help you start career conversations with students.

Student Resources – This list of resources are free and available to all Macalester Students who are exploring experiential learning.

Leveraging Your Role as a Faculty Member – Your role as a faculty advisor is powerful. Learn how you can leverage this when speaking with students about career-related topics.

Internship and Equity Considerations – Focus areas that Career Exploration highlights in considering and addressing equity issues when meeting with students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Collaboration Opportunities

In-Class Activities and Discussions

Career Exploration advisors present on a variety of topics including career exploration and job search skill development topics. We work with faculty to tailor offerings to best meet the needs of your students. Presentations range from a brief introduction on our services (5 to 10 minutes) to a full class meeting – or several! We are committed to finding overlap with what you are already teaching and any topics that reflect the career curriculum.

Want to learn more or request a visit? Check out the form

Add your own lesson on Career Networking to your course. Use our plug-and-play lesson plan to get started.

Career Advising for Students

Faculty and staff often refer students directly to the career advising staff. Common topics include but are not limited to: major selection, clarifying skills and interests, job search questions, and graduate school planning.

We can assist students exploring their career options no matter where they are on that journey. Students do not have to have to have a path completely mapped out before coming to see us.

Students can schedule appointments via Handshake. To refer a student directly, please email John Mountain at [email protected]

Lunch and Learn Events

Unlocking Opportunities: How to Guide Students Toward Meaningful Internships

Date: Tuesday, October 15
Time: 11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Location: THDA 202
Audience: Faculty and Staff
Lunch will be provided

Did you know that 76% of Macalester students complete at least one internship or research experience during their time at Macalester? If you work with students as a supervisor, instructor, advisor, or in any capacity, you’ve probably had conversations with them about these amazing opportunities. If you would like to better understand internships at Macalester, this lunch and learn will help you to learn more about:

Why internships are beneficial for students (including the ability to register them for credit!)
Resources and tools available to help students find internships
Barriers students face in finding or completing internships
Registering internships for credit
The Macalester Summer Internship Grant Program (MSIG)

Please register here by Friday, October 11 at 12 noon. Lunch will be provided.

Questions? Contact us at [email protected]

Collaborate on field-specific or major-related events

Career Exploration collaborates with diverse campus departments and student organizations to offer career exploration and planning events. Please complete the request form to provide details and we will be in touch to determine next steps.

Academic Internships

Internships are designed to provide students with structured, off-campus, learning-work experiences in a wide range of community organizations in the Twin Cities and around the world.

Organizations provide challenging, substantial work experiences for students and agree to supervise and evaluate their performance.
Host organizations receive valuable work contributions and energy from creative, highly motivated, inquisitive students who may one day enter the workforce in that field.
Students engaged in internships bring relevant real-world experience into the classroom to shed light on the theoretical.

Helping Students Plan for Internships

Students may approach a faculty member for advice as they begin brainstorming potential internships, seeking input on types of experiences or particular sites that have the potential to move them toward their intellectual and career objectives.

Faculty can help students thoughtfully explore their options.

What does the student wish to gain from the experience: Exposure to a given field and the work involved? Technical skills? Personal growth/sophistication? The selection of a major and career research?
Who is the best person to act as faculty sponsor for this particular internship? Sometimes the same experience may be examined through significantly different perspectives based upon the discipline of the faculty helping to design and assess the experience.

The Faculty Sponsor Role

The faculty sponsor is the professor responsible for overseeing the academic direction of the learning experience in the internship by helping the student make the connections between what they are experiencing and what they are studying. It is imperative that the internship have the academic integrity to warrant credit, and the professor’s involvement in the planning, processing, and evaluation of the experience is the key.

The academic internship director provides ample support and information to assist the professor and student throughout this process.

A faculty sponsor may be different from the student’s academic advisor.

Developing a Learning Contract

The student and faculty sponsor work together to plan all aspects of the internship and complete a Learning Contract, which includes discipline-specific learning objectives and relevant learning outcome measures.

While a position/job description describes the intern’s role and responsibilities, the learning objectives should describe what the student hopes to learn from the overall experience, especially as it pertains to their course of study. Learning outcome measures are vital for assessing learning and attainment of the learning objectives.

Use the Developing the Learning Contract Quick Start Guide (gdoc) to help the student in developing their learning objectives, learning tasks/strategies, and evaluation and learning outcomes.

For the Academic Advisor

Career Exploration works with students, faculty sponsors, and community partners to create intentional, academically relevant learning experiences. The primary academic objectives of internships include:

Providing opportunities for students to examine first-hand knowledge and theories learned in the classroom for their wider impact on society and the world at large.
Providing opportunities for students to evaluate and apply a body of knowledge and methods of inquiry from an academic discipline.
Providing students access to a larger or different “laboratory” of equipment and/or situations not easily obtained or available on campus.
Providing students expanded opportunities for self-directed learning.
Enabling students to develop work competencies for specific professions and to explore career interests and form networks.
Providing opportunities for students to develop intellectual and professional partnerships.

However, as you advise a student, keep in mind there are other ways an internship may be a positive curricular option. For a student struggling with decisions related to the choice of a major or career, an internship can produce valuable experience and insights that provide motivation and direction. A meaningful internship can also be a great option for a student you see as being “burned out” or disillusioned with school. The real world connection can serve to re-invigorate the student and get them in touch with the value of completing a degree, perhaps more clearly seeing their education as a means to a desired end.

Review Internship Policies and Requirements for more information.

Please feel free to refer students to the Career Exploration office for a consultation about possible internships. We will help brainstorm options, develop a search strategy, create/refine a resume and cover letter, prepare for interviews, and manage all documentation to register the internship for credit.

Faculty are also encouraged to contact Jinna Johnson, at [email protected] to explore incorporating experiential education/civic engagement in courses, and/or to learn ways to be an effective faculty sponsor.

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