Susanne McGann and Dr. Gregory Clark, Department of Humanities

The initial aim of my project was 1) to evaluate the transferable skills of a Humanities education in the job market and 2) to help Humanities students recognize, articulate, and apply their knowledge and skills to future careers.

In order to reach the first aim, I continued the research that I had conducted in Dr. Clark’s Leadership in the Humanities class Fall 2011. My findings indicate that leadership skills are the most wanted skill-set in the economy today, and many of these skills can be developed from study in the Humanities. The figure below lists a few of the skills outlined by Dr. Phil Gardner, Director of Research for the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, as part as his research of employment opportunities for college graduates, many of which students in the College of Humanities exercise on a regular basis as part of their course work.

In order to reach the second aim, I collaborated with other Humanities students who participated in the Fall 2011 Leadership in the Humanities to compile my findings with a group of individual essays that explain to undergraduates in Humanities majors how their study is preparing them to be leaders. I reviewed, and edited these papers, wrote and introduction to the compilation and had a one of the other students write an afterword. This portion of the project took a lot more time than I had anticipated; the expected completion time-line moved back repeatedly. The unexpected delays and necessary collaboration required that I exercise a lot of the leadership skills I have researched, such as communicating clearly and persuasively, encouraging and mentoring others to do their best work, and never giving up, no matter how many times things don’t work out as planned.

In order to reach the second aim, I collaborated with other Humanities students who participated in the Fall 2011 Leadership in the Humanities to compile my findings with a group of individual essays that explain to undergraduates in Humanities majors how their study is preparing them to be leaders. I reviewed, and edited these papers, wrote and introduction to the compilation and had a one of the other students write an afterword. This portion of the project took a lot more time than I had anticipated; the expected completion time-line moved back repeatedly. The unexpected delays and necessary collaboration required that I exercise a lot of the leadership skills I have researched, such as communicating clearly and persuasively, encouraging and mentoring others to do their best work, and never giving up, no matter how many times things don’t work out as planned. Once I had the compilation together, I contacted the Humanities Advisement Center to publish the papers online and to introduce the publication to the student body. With the help of the Humanities Student Council, I worked with a group of eleven students to plan, publicize, and host an event the 18th of October to introduce the findings of my project to Humanities students. The event took the form of a Question and Answer, where students were able to ask questions based on leadership skills and the Humanities to a panel consisting of Dr. Clark, four of the essayists whose papers are included in the publication, and myself. We had over seventy students in attendance.

In order to prepare the papers for print and online publication, I formed a team of editors and a graphic designer to write 400-word abstracts and to create info-graphics for each essay in order to increase reader accessibility. I oversaw their work throughout the process, and met with them regularly to discuss issues, setbacks, and to approve the final product.

The printing is scheduled to be completed the first week of January. We are printing twenty copies, eight of which will be given to the essayists, and the rest will remain with the Dean’s Office and Advisement Center as student reference tools. The publication is also accessible on the Humanities Advisement website under the Leadership in the Humanities tab. Dr. Clark plans to teach the same course Fall 2013 and continue the publication in the form of a student journal with yearly editions.

I am very happy with the effects my project has had, and feel that it has a started to improve the conversation about the skills that Humanities education offers to students. Overall, I worked directly with a total of 42 people, including students and faculty, to carry out this project. It has been exciting to see this project grow and take on so many new facets with the help of a large and diverse team. I feel, however, that there remains a lot more to be done in terms of increasing student awareness about the value of their education in post-graduation life. I hope that the publication will at least act as a starting point for faculty and future students to work off of. Many of the teachers and members of the student council have expressed interest and desire to see more events and projects like mine occur in the future. As such, I may host a similar event in February.

Top Employable Skills

• Build and Sustain Professional Relationships
• Engage in Continuous Learning
• Plan and Manage a Project
• Seek Global Understanding
• Build a Team
• Analyze, Evaluate, and Interpret Data
• Communicate through Persuasion and Justification
• Create New Knowledge
• Mentor and Develop Others
• Initiative