Grant program: Student Learning Experience Grant Program (SLE)

Grant recipient: Michael Everton, Department of English 

Project team: David Coley and Sean Zwagerman, Department of English

Timeframe: January 2019 to November 2020

Funding: $4,150

Course addressed: Both undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of English

Description: The goal of this project is to enhance students’ experience in the English Department’s alumni/career mentorship program, The English Network (www.sfu.ca/english/the-english-network.html). A common concern of undergraduate and graduate students majoring in, or considering majoring in, English and other arts programs is a perceived lack of career opportunities. The English Network addresses this concern. Through the Network, nearly 100 graduates of SFU’s English Department are now available to meet with current and recently graduated English majors for interview and resume advice, networking with other professionals, job shadowing, and internships. However, uptake by current students has been less than optimal, even though alumni have been eager to participate, students have expressed a desire for career guidance, English departments across North America have implemented similar programs, and The English Network was designed according to best practices and in close collaboration with Career Services. We want to investigate how current students experience The English Network, what obstacles or doubts keep them from taking action, and how we can better promote its potential to our students and offer it as a model program for other departments and faculty at SFU.

Measuring Effectiveness: 

• The most important measure of the project’s success will be an increase in the number of students taking advantage of The English Network. Currently, less than half of 1% of English majors and minors avail themselves of The English Network (15 of 406). 
• While ambitious, we believe the project will be successful if we can raise that percentage to 5% one year after implementation of the report’s recommendations, and 10% after two years. Also important, however, is the student experience in the program. 
• Crystal Chokshi will devise strategies for evaluating that satisfaction with the program, but we tentatively envision conducting exit interviews with students and with the mentors who have been working with them and amalgamating this feedback in an annual report to the department’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee going forward.

Knowledge sharing: Our primary concern is to improve The English Network, and toward that end we will share our consultant’s report and findings with the English Department’s Executive and Undergraduate Curriculum Committees so that they can translate its recommendations into policy via an “Action Plan.” We will also share the report with SFU Career Services. There is also, though, national interest in the success of The English Network, as illustrated byt he Conference Board of Canada. We will package the report and our “Action Plan” and update the Conference Board, which asked the Undergraduate Chair to keep it abreast of the program’s success. The most important audience, however, is the SFU undergraduate population. Once the “Action Plan” is in place, we will re-launch the program, communicating the revised and renewed program to both mentors and future mentees.

Keywords: English; Network; Connect; Consultation; Alumni; Post-Graduation