Kristina P.

Bryant-Case
EDL 761
01.27.2010
About Campus Summary
Henscheid, J. (2008). Preparing seniors for life after college. About Campus, 13(5), 20-25. doi:10.1002/abc.267
This article is about what colleges and universities are doing to prepare their senior year students for
careers, not only first time paid positions, but also for a lifetime of career preparation. The author, Henscheid,
also hopes that her article would highlight good practices for institutions to adopt into their senior year
experience programs. According to the AAC&U (American Association of Colleges & Universities), students
who are good communicators, critical thinkers, qualitative and quantitative reasoners, globally literate,
sensitive to others, and bearers of a sense of civic responsibility and service are what they mean by liberal
and lifelong learners (Henscheid, 2008, pg.20).
Henscheid notes that these attributes are exactly what employers are looking for when hiring college
graduates. The employers are satisfied that students are prepared to work in teams and bring to their jobs
ethical judgment, intercultural abilities, social responsibility, quantitative reasoning, and self knowledge
(Henscheid, 2008, pg.20). They also feel that these attributes are good ones to have for first jobs. The college
graduates are lacking the skills for higher-level positions. Henscheid feels that the reason college graduates are
lacking in these lifelong learning skills is because of how they are prepared during their senior year courses.
Quite a few colleges and universities offer senior capstone courses as well as senior year experience courses
that focus on the academic training instead of socially and vocationally preparing students. Training students in
all areas of career preparation leads to more successful graduates.
There are five identifiable areas that are efforts to support seniors growth and transition to life after
being an undergraduate student. Those are Senior Seminars and Capstone Courses, Programs to prepare
students for their career, opportunities for students to make connections across coursework, events that celebrate
senior achievements, and activities that promote relations between alumni and positive transitions into being
active alumni. The best efforts in senior programs link curricular and co-curricular learning and the academic
world to life after graduation. When college graduates realize and utilize the tools they have been given to be

active critical thinkers and problem solvers, they also become able to build opportunities for themselves,
continue to develop themselves as professionals, and cultivate a life long interest in knowledge.
When I was leaving Heidelberg College, the student affairs division was starting to think about
implementing yearly courses like the First Year Experience course. I had the rare privilege of being a student
that attended the student affairs division meetings and therefore was a part of the planning of these courses.
Although I was personally less interested in the Sophomore Year Experience and the Junior Year Experience, I
think that the Senior Year Experience is especially important to develop. It surprises me how many of my fellow
senior students did not know how to craft a cover letter, balance a check book, or come up with their own self
directed projects. Of course there was a stark continuum, with some students who knew how to do everything
for themselves on one end and the supremely helpless on the other. I am still surprised even at the graduate level
that students ask for specific guidelines when attempting to write papers. I understand the value of a rubric, but
part of the test of writing a paper is being able to organize it so it is logical, flows nicely, and reflects the style of
the writer. I am always disappointed when have to adhere to rubrics, although it does make it immensely easier
to write papers.
I should mention that a senior year experience course should not only focus on vocational aspects, or
adult life aspects, but truly to inspire students to be good citizens and more importantly citizens of the world
who understand and value social responsibility and justice. I feel that often we hand students the keys to their
success without teaching them why it is important to be successful.
It raises a lot of questions for student affairs professionals including: How does one inspire good
citizenship? How can you push the envelope and have students gain valuable life lessons? Especially with
millennials, how can we get to question more and accept less? I think there are so many positive things to be
gleaned from the millennials, but I am definitely worried about their conformist nature. Student affairs
professionals need to make sure that they can validate their learning outcomes with Senior Year Experience
courses and make sure that seniors get the full benefit of these courses and leave the institution ready to embark
on a new journey.