Despite the numerous Career Enhancing Life Skills (CELS) newsletters that may pour into mailboxes, some may not be entirely sure on all that it offers students.
The program, as advertised on the Connecticut College website, is charged as being a four-year program through which students plan coursework and activities, look for a career-related junior-year internship and get help with job-searching as seniors.
CELS helps students find options for the future early, so that driven students can ensure that they are as prepared as possible when it comes time to move on from Conn and cannonball into the real world.
Cheryl Banker, CELS Counselor and Program Coordinator, spoke of some of the benefits of the CELS program.
“Unlike any other school, Connecticut College’s CELS program allows you to work with a counselor who will help coordinate your academic, co-curricular, internship and transition out of Conn – all together. CELS helps you create a plan from which to deviate at times, helping you to self-assess, and translate a liberal arts education into your future.”
The website claims that roughly 64 percent of Conn students enlist in CELS from each grade, but Banker said CELS usually sees 90 percent of each class each year for one reason or another.
“Freshmen year it’s a little bit less, sophomore year as they become engaged with us, the percentage goes up; but by senior year – between undergraduate advising, internship, job, career, fellowship, graduate school placement – we get to see almost every student.”
“We would love to see every Conn student. It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be pushed aside. It’s a gift of Connecticut College to offer a funded internship so that each freshman coming in is eligible to receive a funded internship,” said Banker.
The program is intended to assist students throughout the course of their four years at Connecticut College and beyond, securing student internships, prepping for job interviews and making the most of the resources available to Conn students.
Furthermore, a $3,000 funded internship stipend is granted to any student who successfully applies and follows through with the program, which is a quite desirable trait to many internship corporations.
Should a student decide to commit to the CELS program, their obligation starts as a freshman, by creating an electronic portfolio on CamelWeb to catalog their accomplishments.
Another targeted workshop students are encouraged to take their freshman year is in the CELS 2 seminar entitled “Intro to Personality Type,” in which students take a Myers-Briggs personality assessment test, something that some students find not to be a valuable use of their time.
One sophomore commented, “I hated that session. I don’t need a test to tell me that I work better alone than with a group. I think it was kind of ridiculous that they made students sign up for an hour and a half session to do that.”
When asked for her own thoughts on the purpose of the workshops, Banker replied, “The motto in the CELS office is that CELS workshops provide ‘Time and Place’ to get things done that normally would get pushed aside due to academics and co-curriculars. It’s mandatory you do the workshops to get the funding, so you have to go through the workshops, but we’re giving you the time and place to think about these things and push them forward, to create plans from which you can deviate.”
Fortunately, for those students unnerved by the earlier sessions, sophomore year shows a considerable pickup in the rigor and demands of the program, where students begin to format their ePortfolios and craft cover letters.
Sophomore year classes workshops “Skills to Resumé” and “Targeting Resumés/Exploration,” which require students to complete a cover letter and ensure that their targeted resume is completely up to date.
Some other concerns have been the manner in which CELS reaches out to students to do the program.
“It’s just all the ultimatums,” one student commented. “If you don’t get this done by this date, your life is over. Their emails can sound so threatening.”
One nonthreatening aspect of the CELS experience seems to be its counselors, whom students appreciate for their individualized attention and genuine care when it comes to personal consultations.
“Whereas in the group sessions it seems they rush through and aren’t really helping students as much as just trying to get through the task of the workshop, I’ve had a great experience with my CELS advisor, and that’s made a really big difference,” said one junior.
Beaming, Banker also expressed the inherent admiration the counselors have for the students they work with at Vinal Cottage.
“Just as the students can learn some valuable skills from us, we learn from them. We all love doing our job.”
