New USC Dornsife center cultivates key competitive skills in students of all majors

When you think about what a neuroscience major at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences might end up doing for a living after graduation, your first guess probably wouldn’t be “game engine developer at DreamWorks Animation.”

What if you knew that graduate had studied the way the brain makes decisions, and that they had traveled to colorful places around the world, and that they had worked with a faculty researcher to write computer code for an experiment? With that range of experience, it might not be so surprising.

But how would anyone know where to find such educational opportunities among the thousands offered?

Today’s competitive job market calls for graduates who understand how people tick, how to work with a team and how to solve problems that don’t make it into any textbook. At the newly launched Center for Applied Learning and Life Beyond College at USC Dornsife, students are encouraged to develop these cross-cutting skills and broaden their perspectives.

A partnership between the Office of Experiential and Applied Learning, Dornsife Career Pathways and the Dornsife Toolkit, the center serves as a comprehensive resource for students to get the most out of a USC Dornsife education and gain a competitive edge in launching their careers.

Andrew Stott spearheaded efforts to establish the new center. (Photo: Mike Glier.)

Former College Dean for Undergraduate Education and Academic Affairs Andrew Stott says that the center reflects the fundamental concept of a liberal arts education, which encourages broad exploration and connecting ideas. Stott was recently appointed USC Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Dean of the Graduate School.

“The Center shows students how to weave together their coursework with their educational experiences outside of the classroom,” he explained. “They should think of these features as being on a continuum that builds a unique, individualized skill set.”  

By creating an overarching center that helps students navigate the totality of their USC Dornsife experience, Stott hopes they will find it easier to see the full range of options available and select those that might best complement their aspirations after graduation.

Office of Experiential and Applied Learning

G Bajaj, a junior majoring in health and the human sciences, believes that education is a fundamental right as well as a rehabilitative force. Participating in the Prison Education Project (PEP), he is part of a team of students and faculty who design and teach classes — currently over Zoom — with people incarcerated in the California Department of Corrections system. Their goal is to provide a pathway toward a college degree for prisoners to pursue when they are released.

Each year, thousands of USC Dornsife students participate in experiential learning programs such as PEP, as well as professional internships, service-learning assignments, study abroad and guided research. For the vast majority, these iconic experiences define their time at USC and affect them for their lifetime.

The Office of Experiential and Applied Learning is where students can work with faculty and staff to learn about these practical activities for learning beyond the traditional classroom. Furthermore, the office helps students think about ways they might demonstrate what they’ve learned, be it through a formal paper, a journal, an artistic project or ongoing discussions with a supervisor.

Many colleges urge students to tie their experiential and applied learning directly to their major or career path. Tammara Anderson, associate dean for experiential learning at USC Dornsife, believes that these opportunities benefit students in multiple ways.

“Learning becomes meaningful through relationships and when shared and applied to life,” she says. “Students discover their identity and what they believe through real world experience, not data and testing.”

Career Pathways

Whether it’s arranging phone appointments with a CIA representative to learn about careers at the agency or helping students afford an unpaid summer internship, Dornsife Career Pathways helps align academic interests with individual career and professional opportunities.

Career Pathways does more than match students with potential employers. It provides a collection of resources that encourages students to first look inward, so that they understand which opportunities and careers would be personally meaningful. While it does focus on expanding professional networks, students can also take advantage of career advisement appointments as well as initiatives such as career development seminars, workshops and internships.

“Traditional career services are about preparing you exclusively for the job search,” said Stott. “This is a more expansive concept that inculcates the skills that provide students the agility to move across disciplines and career fields.”

Director of Career Pathways Octavio Avila highly recommends that Dornsife students begin engaging with Career Pathways during their first year. He says they should routinely ask themselves, “What is the purpose of my education? What do I want to do upon graduation from USC?” By thinking about these questions early on, they’ll be able to identify experiences and mentors who can help them connect their passion with their profession.  

“Students should commit time and energy to understanding their personality, and the abilities, interests, values and experiences that make up who they are as individuals,” says Avila. This will allow them to find meaningful careers that are both aligned with their goals and fulfilling.

The Dornsife Toolkit

Beneath the training provided by most professional programs, such as law or medical school, lies research in the disciplines found at USC Dornsife: Economics underpins business; political science bolsters law; chemistry and biology are key to medicine. More than that, these basic fields are at the root of practical decisions we make in our lives every day.

“The connections between the disciplines and their applications are not always transparent,” says Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs Richard Fliegel. “So we created The Dornsife Toolkit to help students apply course-based and experiential learning to practical problems.”

The Dornsife Toolkit is a signature collection of courses that develop a variety of intellectual skills that are usually acquired through work and life experience: becoming a dynamic communicator, writing grants, managing your personal finances and taking an entrepreneurial leap, for example.

“Training in grant writing helps students with an interest in the public sector create nonprofits and find positions with organizations that depend on grant funding,” says Fliegel. “Personal economics helps apply theory to the financial decisions we all make in establishing credit, purchasing homes and applying for loans to support business projects.”

Students can enroll in Dornsife Toolkit courses this coming semester that focus on legal rights, design, presentation of data and oneself, activism and contemporary health care. Many are taught by practitioners with deep professional experience in related fields.

The Big Picture

Stott says that the Center for Applied Learning and Life Beyond College is not meant to duplicate services offered by USC Career Services, but rather to complement them with programming and initiatives that speak directly to students in the liberal arts. In addition to advising services and event programming, students can find a variety of financial assistance programs, student research funding and scholarships to ensure that all can participate in a wide array of USC Dornsife learning opportunities.

While the center is currently based online, the goal is to be housed in an easy-to-access space on campus. “One day, we would love to see a brand-new, gleaming center in the heart of campus that any student can walk up to,” said Stott.