CHICOPEE — Amanda Munson picked nursing to study at Elms College, but not because she loved it.
“(Nursing) was not my passion,” Munson recently told The Republican.
She said she chose it because of the higher wage that the career paid upon graduation, even though her true love was writing and poetry. Problem was, she couldn’t picture what a career in words might look like.
It was a course in William Shakespeare, Munson said, that sparked her interest in writing.
When she left the nursing program, she transferred to the college’s liberal arts department, working closely with school advisers to help her transition successfully.
That’s all part of the plan for the Experiential Learning Program at Elms College, which is designed to help current students and recent graduates like Munson to find their passions, channel it in careers and change their futures.
Munson switched her major last summer after her first clinical experience working at Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital through the program.
“I felt like (the job) stayed with me when I went home,” Munson said. “I had to do some soul searching to see what I really wanted to do.”
Jennifer Granger Sullivan, the director of the experiential program, said her door is always open. Her program aims to connect students with real-world experience, so they can see what it’s actually like on the job, Granger Sullivan said in a recent interview.
“Then, they can ask themselves, ‘Do I like it?’ Or say, maybe, ‘I don’t like it. What next?’” she said.
The program is a pillar of the college’s strategic plan and was implemented more than four years ago to focus on all students having an experiential learning opportunity.
The experiential program and the college’s career center work with over 100 community partners to offer a range of pathways to career options. Such employment paths have been expanded to all majors.
Students also have options to learn abroad, conduct research and explore internships.
In the past, experiential learning was limited to clinical preparation for students in selected majors, such as nursing or education.
Multiple pathways to explore
When Granger Sullivan was in college, she majored in history and “thought I only had one option, and that was to become a teacher.” Not so with program at Elms. Because every degree is supported in the program, students can explore multiple pathways if they like, which helps if a student’s career path isn’t yet clear, said Granger Sullivan.
Elms College always has offered some sort of experiential learning, but this program is designed to include all students, Granger Sullivan said.
Granger Sullivan said the program wants to help provide clarity and direction for all students who want or need it.
“Students can think about if the path they are choosing is relatable, what brings them joy and fuels their passion, and then gives them the ability to understand what is next,” she said.
In the program, students have a chance to take what they have learned in the classroom, head out and practice it at internships in industries that they are passionate about. Perhaps best, they then learn to translate their experiences into a meaningful career, Granger Sullivan said.
“In Amanda’s case, it was meaningful to her and the women she worked with at The Care Center,” said Granger Sullivan. The Care Center is a social services organization in Holyoke that help young mothers and low-income women go to college.
The Care Center’s poetry is a hidden gem, Granger Sullivan said. There, as a poetry and literature intern, Munson said things have come full circle.
Munson was able to work through some of her biggest professional challenges, which included getting in front of people to speak, learning to prepare lessons and measuring if those lessons were useful, she said.
“Sometimes the poetry worked for the class, and other times it did not, ” she said. “It was learning to understand the craft.”
The community engagement courses are a great start to get students prepared for success in their future careers, Granger Sullivan said.
Munson also facilitated readings with authors Danusha Lameris and Jericho Brown and assisted the Care Center students in working on their own versions of Lameris’ “Small Kindnesses.”
Munson said she connected with center students on a personal level and as a collaborative editor in the production of the “Nautilus II,” the center’s journal of student poetry and art.
A reading of the class version of “Small Kindnesses” was given at the center’s annualfundraising event, hosted at The Log Cabin in Holyoke in June.
The most rewarding part of the program was building relationships and rapport with the women at the center, she said.
Munson worked at the center throughout the spring semester, and she said her last day at the center was bittersweet, feeling both excited to graduate but also sad to leave the center and its clients.
Munson said talking through the nursing and writing internships helped to set her up for success in a career she was actually passionate about.
With a variety of scholarships, the institution’s goal and experiential program is ahead the curve, Granger Sullivan said, and to do it for all majors is a benefit for the students, facility and community.
“Sometimes you don’t know if you are passionate about a position until you have been in one,” Granger Sullivan said. “The more experiences you have, the more you land on your feet. It is getting a major start.”
