The ExCeL QEP is focused on supporting the academic and career success of USF students and requires the support of all faculty and staff across the university to have a meaningful impact.
The goal of the ExCeL QEP is to foster the career readiness of undergraduate students by improving their engagement in experiential-centered learning experiences. The focus is specifically on those experiences that will positively contribute to graduates’ first destination outcomes: internships, co-ops, undergraduate research, and student employment.
Helping students identify the most helpful experience for their unique career and life goals, as well as articulating the competencies they are acquiring both in and out of the classroom, will be the key to their success.
As faculty and staff involved with undergraduates, you have an important role in the ExCeL QEP to help make this happen. If you supervise, mentor, advise, or teach students involved in internships, co-ops, student employment, or undergraduate research, you can start helping today.
Infuse ExCel Into your Course/Experiences Today:
1) Track: Handshake Experiences
Whatever your relationship is with students, you can encourage them to report their experiences through Handshake: Experiences. This can be done as an assignment or voluntarily; an addition to something you already have in place, or can replace what you are using now.
- For the students: This will allow students to add these valuable experiences to their Handshake profiles at the same time, making them more marketable to employers.
- For the course/department/college: Reports can be run to give departments/colleges details about the experiences of your students.
- For the university: This provides the needed details of these experiences to more effectively report student involvement in these valuable experiences and tell a larger story.
2) Assess: Career Readiness Report
Students are building Career Readiness Competencies everyday in and out of the classroom. The more familiar they become with these competencies and recognize how they are developing, the more capable they will be to articulate them to future employers or graduate schools. By providing self-assessment and outsider feedback using this common language, students can develop and track their competencies and see their own growth over time.
- For the students: This will allow students to self-assess throughout their student experience and request feedback from others. Valuable action steps and LinkedIn learning courses will be recommended to the student to develop areas needing growth.
- For the course/departments/college: We can run a report and give you the details about the self-reported and outsider perspective of your students’ Career Readiness Competencies. In courses, this can be taken at the beginning and the end, with feedback only requested at the end, to provide a pre and post-experience assessment. A PDF can be generated to submit for an assignment if desired.
- For the university: This provides a longitudinal view of student growth and provides insights into the experiences that are most beneficial to students.
3) Develop: Provide Professional Development
By encouraging our students to partake in professional development, we are not only helping prepare our students for successful careers, but setting the standard for continuous skill development throughout their careers. To help you do this effectively without a lot of extra work, we have created programs and curated trainings to benefit USF students.
Option 1: Career Modules
The Center for Career & Professional Development has developed a variety of modules that can be infused into any USF course. Each module includes full instruction and assignments pre-build to allow for minimal need for grading by instructors.
The modules currently available include:
Built to provide follow-up from the Career Navigator: Kickstart Your Career Journey which is mandatory for all students in their first year at USF. An opt-in version of the Career Navigator: Kickstart Your Career Journey is available as well.
By the end of this module, students will be able to:
- Identify potential career fields and/or job titles
- Research needed education, experiences, and skills for career field or job
- Discuss networking skills and professional advice needed for a career field or job
- Construct responses in preparation of an actual informational interview with a professional
- Create an action plan to gain the needed skills or experiences before graduation
Built to provide instruction on how to write a well developed resume and uses Quinncia, an AI tool, to provide bullet by bullet feedback to students.
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Differentiate between a resume and a CV
- Analyze a job description for skills to tailor a resumé
- Create contribution statements demonstrating how your education, experiences, knowledge, and skills relate to the specific requirements of a job posting or graduate school application (not included in instructions)
- Develop a resumé using the required elements
- Revise your resumé based on suggestions for improvement
More topics will be developed over the next academic year.
Option 2: Transition FWS/TSE Student Positions into Internships
Many student employment opportunities meet the requirements to be considered and internship and can easily be transitioned. This not only helps departments market the positions, but also can help students and employers recognize the value in the experiences more readily. FWS funds can be utilized for these on-campus internships and students may have the option to enroll in internship courses as well.
Option 3: Engaged Student Employee
This Canvas based program will allow your students to engage in a variety of training opportunities via workshop, webinar, LinkedIn Learning, and more. Upon completion, your students will earn a certificate and digital badge.
More details will be released soon.
Option 4: Graduate Gateway Initiative
This series of virtual and in-person workshops is designed to help students prepare to be successful in their graduate/professional school applications and programs. Workshops can be attended individually, but if a student attends 5 or more, they will receive a greatly discounted GRE Preparation Course. This program is sponsored by the USF’s Center for Career & Professional Development, Workforce Development, Office of Corporate Training & Professional Development, and Office of Graduate Studies.
Option 5: Career Presentations or Workshops
The Center for Career & Professional Development is available to present to your classes or student groups in-person, virtually, or pre-recorded on a variety of career-related topics throughout the year. Learn more about the topics available, and request a presentation today.
Syllabus Infusion
Including information about ExCeL and the Career Readiness Competencies in your syllabus can go a long way to helping students better understand how their courses are preparing them for success after graduation. Here are some ways to make this more transparent for students.
Here is a sample syllabus statement indicating your connection with the QEP:
Experiential Centered Learning Course Statement
This course is part of USF’s Experiential Centered Learning (ExCeL) program, designed to enhance your career readiness through meaningful experiences. Through intentional engagement, you’ll develop valuable skills and competencies that contribute to your future career and educational success. The assignments in this course are contributing to your growth in the following Career Readiness Competencies (CRC):
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Critical Thinking
- AI
Option 1
Course Schedule:
| Date | Work Due Before Class | Topics to be Discussed in Class |
| 1/9 | First day of class; no assignments is due | List the main learning objectives or topics covered during this class period. Example: Overview of Fluid Dynamics Fluid Properties |
| 1/16 | List readings or homework assignments that are to be finished BEFORE students arrive at this class period. It may also useful to include reminders about due dates for important assessments. | Example: Manometers, Fluid Statics Fluid Statics |
| 1/18 | Holiday (No Class) | |
| 1/20 | Example: Read Chapter 2 (Textbook pp. 74-92) Answer problems #13-36 at chapter’s end Find three entries in Fluidex Abstracts Database | Example: Turn in HW #2 Forces on Curved Bodies Bernoulli’s Equation as [CRC: Critical Thinking] |
Option 2
Assessment Description:
Analysis Project: Students will practice collecting, analyzing, and presenting data, which is a necessary skill for public health practitioners. Using SAS, students will complete an individual project, in which they will be
required to manipulate and analyze public health data. The analysis will include descriptive and inferential
statistics, as well as, an 8-10 page written paper. Students will also be required to report their findings in a
presentation to their fellow classmates. A standardized rubric (provided in Canvas) will be used to evaluate
student mastery. [CRC: Critical Thinking, Communication, & Technology]
Option 1: Internship Course
Week 1 :
- Complete the Career Readiness Report self-assessment as a pre-experience and submit PDF of results in Canvas [CRC: Career & Self-Development]
- Report Experience in Handshake and submit screenshot of submission in Canvas [CRC: Career & Self-Development]
Week 12:
- Complete Resume Writing Module in Canvas and submit final resume in Canvas for grade [CRC: Critical Thinking, Communication, Career & Self-Development,& AI]
Week 14:
- Complete the Career Readiness Report self-assessment as a post-experience and Share with 2 raters including your internship supervisor. Submit PDF of results with rater results included to Canvas and complete discussion board reflecting on areas of growth. [CRC: Career & Self-Development & Communication]
Option 2: Course with Undergraduate Research Attribute
Week 1 :
- Complete the Career Readiness Report self-assessment as a pre-experience and submit PDF of results in Canvas [CRC: Career & Self-Development]
- Report Experience in Handshake and submit screenshot of submission in Canvas [CRC: Career & Self-Development]
Week 15 :
- Complete the Career Readiness Report self-assessment as a post-experience and Share with 2 raters including your internship supervisor. Submit PDF of results with rater results. [CRC: Career & Self-Development]
Extra Credit Opportunity:
- Attend 2 workshops facilitated by the Center for Career & Professional Development and submit proof of attendance in Canvas. [CRC: Professionalism]
With your help, we can make every USF student career ready when they graduate.