The 2026-2027 Integrative Learning Award supports Boston College faculty members across disciplines who are seeking consultation as they develop courses focused on career readiness and student formation. Their course revisions serve as exemplars for the Boston College community.

Why did you decide to apply for this grant?

Having taught this Senior Capstone course three times, I have iteratively evolved its structure based on prior experience, student feedback, and review and input from department colleagues. I felt the course had a solid foundation, but I was excited to get another “set of eyes” on the content and experience, with the goal of more meaningfully integrating the professional development course components. Far beyond my expectations, I benefitted from a full-team approach with colleagues from the Career Center and CDIL, which helped me to elevate key elements of the course structure, assignments, and sequencing.

How has your approach to the classroom changed as a result of your collaboration with the Career Center and CDIL?

This year, I spent more time on the front end of the course having students consider their purpose, their strengths, and their learning goals as they shaped the Learning Contract that forms the roadmap for their Capstone placement experience. I also challenged students to align their Learning Contract more carefully with the professional development opportunities they hoped to pursue over the year. I hope that the result will be a more cohesive and meaningful alignment across the Capstone course, placement experience, and preparations for post-graduate life.

What changes, if any, have you noticed so far in students’ sense of purpose or engagement in learning in your course this semester?

I undertook a new approach to professional development assignments this year, creating a “choose your own adventure” opportunity for students. They select 4 assignments out of 11 options, allowing them to tailor their learning to what they need most. It has been fun and interesting to see which assignments are meaningful to which students, based on their prior experience, Capstone placement experience, and individualized post-graduation goals.

What is one specific change you made to this course as a result of this collaboration? This could be a revised assignment, a new approach, or something else.

Students complete quarterly self-assessments of their Capstone performance over the year. Thanks to input from the Career Center and CDIL, I incorporated some new reflective elements that allow students to consider their big dreams and purpose, alongside practical considerations, as they plan toward their next steps post-grad.

In what other ways are you/do you plan to incorporate what you learned from this collaboration into your work with students?

Based on this grant experience, I was able to expand the professional development opportunities for students, ensuring that they can take advantage of all that BC has to offer. I plan to add more opportunities to the course over time as I continue to expand the “menu” of professional growth options available to students.

What advice might you have for someone wanting to do something similar in their own teaching practice?

Many of the professional development opportunities I’ve incorporated into this course were gleaned from existing resources and opportunities offered through the Career Center. While I had previously liaised with the Career Center, this process helped me to distill a number of new opportunities that I hadn’t yet incorporated into my Capstone course.

I would suggest integrating Career Center opportunities as structured professional development assignments in Capstone and similar courses. Whether it’s Mentor Match, Eagle Exchange, Big Interview, or a field day visiting with local employers and organizations in the field, these opportunities are readily available to integrate with course content and learning. I coupled these with discipline-specific professional development assignments to offer students a wide variety of opportunities that they can tailor to their needs, interests, and career aspirations.