Academic Requirements & Career Exploration Project

Instructions:

By now you should have reviewed your Academic Requirements* page in your Student Portal and taken the FOCUS 2 Career Assessment following the instructions in the Career Lesson folder.

Please hit enter after each question and type in your answers in detail. You must use this template file to complete your project. Note: This is the capstone project in this class and it is worth 20% of your final grade.

I. “Academic Requirements (AR)” Activity

*Instructions: Steps to access your AR page in your Student’s Portal. Instructions are also posted under the Career Exploration Lesson in Blackboard.1. Go to http://www.mdc.edu

2. Click on “+ Portals” 3. Select “Student Portal” link

4. Sign in using your user name and password 5. Select the link for “My Degree Audit” under the Quick Links area (now called AR for Academic Requirements.) 

• Review your AR (Degree Audit/Academic Requirements) closely. It is important you feel comfortable reading this.

• Become the expert in your own educational plan.

Answer the following question:

1. In your own words what is your “Academic Requirements (AR)” document?

Type in your answer……

2. I accessed my Academic Requirements area in my student portal:

____Yes ____No

3. Do you have any questions about reading and interpreting your Academic Requirements area in your student portal?

____Yes ____No

If yes, type in all your questions here.

II. Career Exploration Project

Instructions:

Hit enter after each question and type in your answers in details.

When you participated in the FOCUS 2 activities, you were asked to think about and jot down your ideas about the following questions.  Please answer these questions in details in this assignment. See this GOOD sample assignment (used with permission) (Ctrl+Click to follow link)

· My Academic Strengths Self-Assessment:

1. What are the courses that you excel at?

2. What are the courses you may need some assistance with?

3. How do you think this information will help you succeed in college? Be specific about your results and how they relate to your personal goals, academic plans, and courses of action you may wish to take.

· Work Interest Assessment (Work Interest Holland Career Code)

1. Are you more Social, Investigative, Artistic, Enterprising, Conventional or Realistic?

2. List your top three codes and explain what your code means.

3. How will your knowledge of this self-assessment information help you define careers and educational tracks that match your interests?

4. Discuss the occupations that matched your results that you are interested in exploring further?

Self-Assessment

5. What occupation did you review?

6. What level of education and area of study must you obtain before working in this occupation?

7. What are some of the job duties in this occupation?

8. Does this occupation correspond to your values or does it conflict with your values? Consider things like family life, work-life balance, financial goals, traveling, etc.  Be specific and thoughtful in your response.

· Values Assessment

1. What are some occupations with majors that match your values?

2. Look at the Job Tasks that are presented:

3. What is the Work Interest profile?

4. What are the skills needed for success in this career, the values associated with this career, the working conditions you can expect, and the educational requirements? Explain

5. What is the career outlook (is there going to be a greater demand for this type of worker in the next five years?)

6. What are the earnings?

7. Research at least 2 professional associations associated with careers you are interested in. Join at least one or follow them on social media

· Which professional association did you join?

· Their Website address: __________________

· Their mission/objectives:

· List a few benefits of joining the professional association (networking, local conferences, newsletters, etc.):

Skills Self-Assessment

8. Have you selected occupations with skills you have identified as your top skills?

9. If not, how will you prepare yourself to develop these skills?

Was this project helpful? Did you learn new things you didn’t know about your career?

Type your answer here.

This Capstone Project will be graded as follows:

Academic Requirements (AR) & My Academic Strengths Self-Assessment:	Thoughtful and comprehensive response to all questions in this area using standard English grammar and spelling	20%
Work Interest Assessment	Thoughtful and comprehensive response to all questions in this area using standard English grammar and spelling	20%
Self-Assessment	Thoughtful and comprehensive response to all questions in this area using standard English grammar and spelling	20%
Values Assessment	Thoughtful and comprehensive response to all questions in this area using standard English grammar and spelling	20%
Skills Self-Assessment	Thoughtful and comprehensive response to all questions in this area using standard English grammar and spelling	20%
	Total Possible	100%