Back in 2010, Apply for Your Future began as a pilot project for Dr. Mary Sefranek’s Intermediate English (INGL 3103) course with freshmen students. Dr. Sefranek narrated how she received an email from one of her students, requesting a recommendation letter, and explained how deeply astonished she felt by the way in which the letter was written. She began to ponder how many students come to college with little or no experience on writing requests for recommendation letters and other academic tasks. In her INGL 3103 course, students were required to prepare career portfolios, where they had to include a cover letter, transcript, résumé, personal statement, and attend the annual Job Fair at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
Years later, Dr. Sefranek became Coordinator for Basic English (INGL 3201), where she incorporated the project to the class. Since students who take this course are from their second year beyond, they come to the classroom with at least one year of college experience. It is for that reason Dr. Sefranek decided to transform the course into a class where students will have the opportunity to do career preparation, and improve themselves professionally and academically.
Every semester, students attend the event Apply for Your Future. The event itself is where former INGL 3201 students, who went through the same experience, and have recently participated on internships, give panel presentations where they share their experiences regarding their process, challenges, and cultural shocks they faced while being in their internships. Students find it fascinating when they receive advice from their peers, and get a younger and more precise perspective, unlike if they received it from a professor or instructor.
Students who are frequently invited to the panel are those whose fields are not commonly represented in job fairs, such as Agricultural Sciences and History. This is critical and essential for students to feel inspired, since they will listen to students from diverse fields who have had the opportunity to experience an internship.
Dr. Sefranek also mentioned that, last year, Apply for Your Future, which took place at the Figueroa Chapel Amphitheater, was filled to capacity and many students were asked to leave. However, this year, the activity will be divided into two days: Thursday, September 14 and Tuesday, September 19. However, the latter date will be postponed until further notice, due to Hurricane María. Both days will take place in Salón Mezzanine, at universal hour (10:30am to 12:00pm.) where four panelists will be participating per day. These presenters range from Physics to Agricultural Sciences, Political Science, and History. Surprisingly, one of the panelists is male and the rest are females.
Dr. Sefranek described Apply for Your Future as an “exciting and thrilling experience” seeing students transform into “academic superstars,” where they grow professionally and academically after going to internships. They become more bilingual by learning academic discourse in English and also develop social and cultural skills by going to trips, meetings, and interacting with people from different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds.
I managed to contact one of our graduate teaching assistants, who has taught this course for two years, Edcel J. Cintrón González, who describes Apply for Your Future as “important for our student population to be aware of the opportunities that are available for them and educate them into a holistic mindset.” Edcel explained that it is essential “to teach them the importance of being academically active during their bachelor’s degree.” His goal as an educator is “to teach my students that success in college is not only getting good grades in their courses, but rather encourage them to seek out opportunities to enable them to grow and craft their careers.”
Edcel also expressed that “The Apply for your Future 2017 Conference opens conversation between students about the importance of participating in internships and the benefits these have in their lives. With my expertise in ESL and academic writing, I encourage my students to practice their language skills and apply these into their own fields of study. I am happy to say that this is the second consecutive year one of my ex-students got invited to participate in this conference.”
Also our Interim Associate Director of the English Department and current Coordinator of INGL 3201, Dr. Sefranek, is looking for interns whose fields are not commonly represented in job fairs, including Nursing, Plastic Arts, Hispanic Studies, Philosophy, Kinesiology, Marine Sciences, and language programs other than Spanish or English, for future panels.