Professional Development for Undergraduate Students Majoring in the Biological Sciences

I seek the opportunity to create a professional development curriculum that would provide students a structured vehicle for developing professional confidence and self-awareness, and facilitate  early  success  in  an  increasingly  competitive ‘real-world.’ My desire to work on this idea as a Provost Teaching Fellow stems from the overwhelmingly positive student response to professional development activities that I have incorporated in several of my courses. I plan to work with other Provost Teaching Fellows, CNS Course and Curriculum, and the Career Design Center to design the most appropriate mechanisms for implementing this professional development  curriculum. I am confident that a well-designed professional development initiative would be warmly welcomed by CNS students and that it could be implemented in a fashion that was amenable to the curricula of interested CNS Departments initially, and potentially across UT colleges in years to come. Due to the diversity of academic majors within CNS, it is likely different delivery modes of professional development education will be  required. However, for the first iteration, I will  focus on students in the Biological Sciences due to my familiarity with career options available to students in this field.  Although the  CNS  Career Design Center is a valuable career resource to students, I believe the most helpful plan  would be to provide students with more consistent access to ‘real-world’ information by taking it directly to them in a classroom setting.