The Gustavus Adolphus Chemistry department participated in the COMPASS workshop to help us consider the fragmented experience our undergraduate students have with professional and soft-skill development. Through the workshop, two chemistry faculty members worked together to develop an intentional and consistent professional development plan that would be accessible to all students. The plan includes activities and authentic experiences threaded throughout the chemistry curriculum. For each semester, the faculty partnered with the STEM Career Counselor from our Career Development Center to help students explore topics related to self-assessment, goal setting, preparing application materials, and career exploration. In addition, our curriculum has been updated to include CUREs (course-based undergraduate research experiences), so all students have an authentic research experience prior to graduation. In this presentation, we will present the details of the professional development plan along with observations about the impact of the initial implementation efforts.

Leveraging the COMPASS workshop to develop an accessible, authentic professional development plan for all chemistry students at a small liberal arts college

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ACS Spring 2023

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