Distinguishing Purdue Calumet through experiential education

Our demanding, fast-paced society requires that colleges and universities deliver to students a high quality education in ways that enable them to be job prepared as quickly as possible.

To help our students manage the transition between the world of learning and the world of work, experience must be integrated into their education.

As our Faculty Senate considers the idea of advancing a formal experiential education requirement for every Purdue Calumet graduate, our campus is implementing a recently awarded $1.7 million U.S. Department of Education Title III grant to develop an experiential education program. Such a program, we believe, will contribute to improved retention and graduation rates-the essence of how we define student success.

Out of 268 applicants for the prestigious grant, Purdue Calumet is among just 34 recipients. One important way we plan to use the grant is for faculty and curriculum development-that is, training faculty to enable classroom and laboratory learning to fit most appropriately with an experiential component.

Experiential education is not a new concept. For years, college and university education departments have made student teaching a key aspect of teacher education programs. Student internships, cooperative education and undergraduate research are other examples of experiential education.

But a required, integrated education-work experience for every student IS distinctive and precisely what Purdue Calumet is attempting to champion.

Sincerely,

Howard Cohen
Chancellor