What another amazing semester with my Professional Development Anthropology class! Although this class was the smallest class that I had for this course, it actually was beneficial that it was this size. With only three students in the class, we were able to visit several ECU offices and administrators and learn much more information as to what they do for students at ECU.
The major objectives of this Professional Development Anthropology class were:
1. To recognize what type of practical skills that students have acquired through their coursework;
2. To recognize how these practical skills whether specializing in archaeology, cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, medical anthropology or other anthropology subspecialities can assist students in obtaining jobs that are based in the field of anthropology or not necessarily anthropologically-related;
3. To research and learn about specific job opportunities and internships related to student’s area of interest;
4. To provide an opportunity for various organizations at ECU to present information on practical skill building strategies for students; and
5. To provide a forum for students to learn from other students about the practical skills that students have acquired through their anthropological training.
After all of the site visits, the class discussions and our special lecturers from the 3rd Annual ECU Anthropology Alumni Lecture series, it was time for each student to present their presentation on what they plan to do with their anthropology degree. Each student has the freedom to present their presentation in any format – formal or informal and in any method that they wanted.
My students – Jesse Miller, Molly Street and Jacki Smith — all gave outstanding presentations and I was so pleased that they expressed more definitively what they wanted to do with their degrees after graduating from East Carolina University. To me, this is the major outcome of this class! I felt very proud of their accomplishment. Additionally, I felt that they felt more at ease about choosing anthropology as their major!