You are wise to consider an Applied Study and Experiential Learning 
Term (AST) as part of your academic experience. Employers and graduate schools look for students with one or more career-related experiences.
Your AST will be a practical, supervised work-learning arrangement. You will be expected to be a critical thinker as you observe and reflect on your experience.
By embarking on at least one AST, you will be able to accomplish the following:
It is a mutually beneficial arrangement which meets the organization’s goals and your own professional and educational goals. It is NOT primarily a job set up to help you make money. You will benefit from your AST personally, academically, professionally, and in some cases, financially.
Personally, you will boost your maturity and self-confidence, improve your human relations skills, develop life-long learning skills, and enjoy a greater understanding about career decisions.
Academically, you will be able to integrate classroom theory with real-life experiences, understand the relevance of your coursework, increase your motivation to learn, and use resources not available on campus.
Professionally, you will get a chance to explore a potential career field, develop career-related skills and abilities (including effective job search, cover letter, resume, and interviewing techniques), establish a work history, observe professional people and behavior, and build a network of professional contacts, potentially developing mentoring relationships; and gain a competitive edge for employment or graduate school.
And finally, financially (60 % of our ASTs are paid) you might be able to subsidize your tuition costs, save money toward the next semester’s tuition, and/or pay for items like books, transportation, or child care.
Please explore this website to get all the details and options available.
Have a good Semester.
Dr. Elaine Rundle-Schwark
