1.

1: Welcome

Please visit the Meet Your Instructors page, and view the instructors' intro videos and contact
information.

1.2: Course Overview

Hi. I'm doctor Gabra. Welcome to University

Studies one, AC, the UCLA College
to career transition, Module 1.2, where we will go over sort
of the course, a structure and
expectations and how to engage
with the course. So as an overview of what I will be sharing with you in this module is how to
engage with the course
and the modules. I will review the course
learning outcomes, the structure of the
course and requirements, self reflection
assignments, and how to stay
connected with me. So this is an asynchronous
online seminar, meaning that you will
have the opportunity to move through the
modules at your own pace, so long as you submit any assignments and quizzes during
the deadlines. We will have two live
synchronous sessions with instructors and career center
content experts to answer any questions that you may have and to
provide feedback. So even though this is an asynchronous course, we do want to have
opportunities to connect with and engage with you and really
humanize this experience. You will also have an opportunity
to engage with your peers and instructors via discussion
board engagements. And so you'll
have at least three discussion
board prompts during the six week
summer session. In order for you to move
to the next module, you will be required
to complete a very short quiz and a self reflection
assignment so that you may move
to the next module. And finally, we will
have a social event at the career center at the end of the
summer session to celebrate this
accomplishment of completing the
course and to foster connection and
resource utilization so that you will
continue to be connected with us and our great campus
partners to support you through the college to
career transition. So by the end
of this course, you should be
able to express the value of a research
one university, including its
transferable skills, and how to
market that when you move on to
your next chapter. To identify university
campus resources and describe their
services and really interact and
engage with them. You will be able to
demonstrate how to approach undergraduate education with intention, to reframe and express
the relationship
between majors, transferable
skills, and career. To demonstrate
the awareness of career readiness, competencies, to
identify the dimensions of the college to
career transition, and assess your
academic growth and personal and
professional development through self reflection, which I think is such a gift to be able to give
yourself the time to
reflect on who you are, what you're learning,
how you want to grow, how you draw
connections between what you're
learning inside and outside of
the classroom, and to think about
your values, your skills, interests, strengths, personality, and how you want
to contribute once you graduate
from UCLA. So the first module will be a welcome and an
overview of the course. The second module, we will go in depth
and really unpack what it
means to attend a research one university. What is its
mission? What are the transferable skills
you're going to gain? And the great news is, even if you
don't intend to pursue formal
research at UCLA, there's still a
place for you here. And there's still so much that you will
gain and acquire that you can connect to post graduate
aspirations. We'll also reflect on this notion of sense of
belonging and how you can sort of find
your place at the institution
and make it fit for your
goals and needs. We will also in
Module three, really think about
intentional engagement in curricular and co
curricular opportunities. There are so many
opportunities at UCLA to engage that it
becomes overwhelming. And for many of you, you had to sort of
check off the boxes and do 1,000,001 things
just to get into UCLA. And now that you're here, it's really time to
be intentional and think about what
does meaningful engagement look
like for me, because it looks
very differently for every
individual student. And we don't want
you to just come in here and check
off the boxes. We want you to engage in opportunities
that are going to be very fulfilling. In module Four, we will talk about the
relationship between major the
self and career. There are many
misconceptions and myths that your major has to directly correlate
with your career, and you have to have your major all
figured out, and that's going to determine the rest
of your life. And we will show you
the research and the data and, you know, give you much food
for thought to really be intentional
about pursuing a major That piques your curiosity that aligns with
your interests. And much of that is going to have you look inward to think about what's
important to you and how you can draw connections between coursework and post
graduate aspirations. And then we will have our amazing career
center educators talk with you about
early career engagement and career readiness
competencies. You know, thinking about life after UCLA doesn't have to happen at your very last
quarter at UCLA. The earlier you start thinking about things and working with our
campus partners and with advisors. And faculty to, you know, help hone those
skills and give you the language
and the confidence to be able to market
that and tell your story the smoother this
transition will be. And finally, we
will revisit this notion of
the college to career transition
that you'll be introduced to
in Module two, to kind of really
think about sort of your next steps and
your next plan. With regard to
course requirements, you are required
to complete quizzes at the end
of every module. These are very,
very short, multiple choice
quizzes just to ensure that you are gaining some of the content that we
are sharing with you. You will also have self reflection assignments. The goal of the
self reflection assignments isn't to provide you with sort of tedious busy work, but rather to give
you intentional time and space to reflect on very, very important
questions so that you have a sort
of greater clarity, and you are much
more in tune with who you are
and your values and how you want to be connected to UCLA
and grow here. And finally, your
final project will be a personal action plan and a letter to your
future self. All of the
assignments can be found on the Brew
and L earn site. For your first assignment, we want you to think about what do you hope to
gain from this course? What do you hope
to accomplish at UCLA and beyond? We're excited to read your reflections and to
learn more about you and to really
sort of tailor this course to your needs. And as I've mentioned, you do not have to go
through this alone. Through this
class, you will be connected to some key
campus resources. But also, we wish to highlight some
campus resources, including the
career center, the Alumni Association, counseling and
psychological services, academic advising, and,
of course, faculty. These are key players
in supporting you through the college
to career transition. And we'll also be sharing with you throughout
this course, different
resources that can support you along
this journey. And we invite you
to stay connected. So my visiting hours are by appointment,
please e mail me. All of my information
can be found on the Breen Learn course
site. You've got this.

1.3: The College to Career Transition

So welcome to University Studies one Module 1.3, the College to

career transition. So in this module, we're not here to
talk about career advising or how
to get a job. We're here to talk about a developmental
process that happens during a transitional
period in life, specifically from college to professional career. Now, if you can't tell, I'm super
passionate about this topic, and
here's why. This is a lived
experience for me. As a former transfer
student and first generation student,
when I graduated, I hit a cross roads and
fell a bit alone and lost and felt like I
had very little support as I was navigating this transitional
period of my life. I like to call
it my early 20s exponential crisis that eventually led me
and what propelled me to want to be in a
helping profession. And it's really why the reason why I entered
higher education. So I'm incredibly grateful to be a part of
this course and this movement to
share more and create awareness about the college to career
transition. As I'm hoping that
we can normalize it as an experience and hopefully
offer support to college students
like yourselves. So before we can define the college to
career transition, it's important that we define the word
transition, which means the process or a period of changing from one state to another. So think
about
it like this. You've likely
been in school for the majority of
your life, right? Like, we really hold on to the student identity
that we carry. For some of you, that may be more traditional
students, you've been in
schooling for like 20 plus years. For others,
maybe you've had a break or you've
been working concurrently
as you've been navigating your
undergraduate studies. But ultimately,
we hold on, and we take great pride in our identity
as students. So when you graduate,
it's exciting. It's a new part
of your life that you're navigating,
but you're kind of, you know, saying
goodbye to that student identity and welcoming a whole
new sense of self. And as part of
that, there's kind of this expectation
to feel like you have to have it
all figured out or that you're supposed to know what it is that
you want to do. It's a stigma,
I think that just kind of exists. But the reality is
is that we don't really know what it is that we necessarily
want to do. I know that I'm still figuring it out as well. So that's kind of
what the College to career transition
focuses on. So it's the
emotional, social, and professional
transition, college students experience
as they navigate the change in their
identity from a student to a
working professional. So as a society, we've kind of
been, I think, conditioned to focus on
the end goal, right? The destination, rather than the journey itself. So what we're hoping to kind
of inspire you as you're moving through
this course is to focus on your undergraduate
journeys, right? Rather than the
end destination of graduation and
finding a job. It's more about
the journey through and who you
will evolve and become, which will help
support you as you start the real
world, so to speak. And keep in
mind, you know, we're constantly
going through periods of self discovery
in our lives. And you know, for some, they may not necessarily experience this transition or this
period of
self discovery immediately after college. It may be something later on that they
experience in their careers or in some other facet
of their life. But all in all,
it's completely normal to go through
this process. It's a very
important part of who you are as
a human being, and it will
help contribute to your growth in
your development. So based on the research, we've identified three key developmental areas
that are impacted by the college to
career transition. We'll go into each
of these areas and unpack them in the
next couple of slides, but we'll just
introduce them here. So the first is the
emotional sense of self. The second is the
social sense of self, and the last one is the professional
sense of self. Now, it's important to note that these three
areas intersect. They are not
linear, so it's not a process in which
you would go through. And for some, it
may just be a bit different as this
is a very unique process to the individual. So for some, maybe
one of these areas is felt more prominently versus for someone else. It may be all three areas.
The key, and I think
like the anecdote behind all of this
is adaptability. That's kind of what is needed in order for us to find right a new sense of normal
and to help us move through
this transition. And that's how any type
of changes, right? To kind of move through a change or a transition, it's just finding
adaptability and a new sense of normalcy is what's
going to help us, right, readjust
and then kind of feel at ease once more. The first area is the emotional sense of self, which is
quite
multi layered and can feel and be
very uncomfortable. This was actually
the most challenging aspect for me personally. And the reason why is because it was
unanticipated. It was surprising, to
be honest with you. And that's because
graduation is a joyous time, right? Like, I know for
me, I was super stoked to be nearing graduation. I
was burned out. I was tired. The thought
of being in school anymore was just kind of like, I just
needed a break. I had at that time
been interning, I had an idea of what
it was I wanted to do. So when I started
to feel, I guess, mixed feelings about graduating and
the real world, you know, the excitement,
but also coupled with some of the
anxiousness, the fear of the unknown. There was a level of isolation that I kind
of felt and that, you know, I felt like, Oh, I should be
feeling excited. I should feel like excited about what
I want to do. Why do I feel, you know, kind of the dichotomy
of feelings, which can create
kind of uncertainty. And these were all
unexpected feelings, right that I kind
of carried with me. There's also this
pressure of feeling like you have to have everything
all figured out. I can't tell you
how many times when I speak
with students, and they share with me
very openly about how they're nervous
about graduating because they don't have
anything together. They don't have
it figured out. My response is always, I don't even have
it all figured out. I don't know that anyone
really ever does. You know, we're
constantly changing and evolving as
human beings. And I think some
of this is that there are these societal
markers, right, that are placed
where we have to hit certain
accomplishments at certain points
of our lives. So you know, you graduate, and then you find
your dream job, and then from there, maybe you decide
to, you know, find a partner and share your life
with them and buy the house with
the picket fence, so on and so forth. When in reality, I
don't think any of these markers
really ever exist. It's kind of a
facade, but we hold ourselves to
them, which creates, I think a lot of pressure, and it creates
shame if we don't necessarily meet
those markers. Also, social media
doesn't help with this. You know, studies
show that there's a association
between high rates of social media use
and depression. And the reason for that is because on social media, everyone's typically showing
their
best self, right? So when we're looking
on social media, we're seeing, Wow, that person has
it together. Like, Oh, my gosh, look
what they're doing. I'm not doing
that. And so that just kind of makes
this whole process, and I think experience
much more complex. Tan maybe even was, like, 20 years ago or so. So the other piece is also this
notion of
inflated expectations of what post
undergraduate studies supposed to look
like, right? How we're supposed
to feel about being in this new phase
of our life that we shouldn't be
feeling nervous or embarrassed by
maybe what we have or have not accomplished,
so to speak. And so this is what
led me anyway, to my early 20s
existential crisis, where it really
allowed me to kind of look inward and
have a moment of self discovery
where I really had to look and
see who I am. What are my values?
What is it that I'm hoping to kind of do
throughout my life, and what I need to do
to kind of get there. And now I can actually look back
and tell you, just even based on
my work experience, that life is not linear. Absolutely not
linear whatsoever. My road has been
incredibly windy, twists and turns,
ups and downs. And you know what? I
wouldn't change it for anything because I
wouldn't be who I am. I wouldn't be
where I am today without all of those
twists and turns. Next piece is the
social aspect of the college to
career transition, which focuses more on redefining one's
social identity. So this has to do with the notion of social structures
and connections. So, you know, you've
been a student. You've had certain
friend groups or mentors or folks that you've really connected with
during this time. Even when you think
about your day to day, right,
your schedule, the way in which you would socialize
with friends, with family,
with colleagues, whatever it may be. All of these structures and connections are being redefined
as
you transition into a new phase
of your life. And it's not
just you, right? There's so much change
that's happening around you because
your colleagues, your friends, they're
graduating too. And many of you
may be relocating, whether it be for a job
or to go back home, moving closer to home, or maybe, you know, you're starting graduate
school somewhere. And with all this change happening around
us, you know, with regard to
our day to day, our relationships, right, also change,
the way in which we interact and we
engage also changes. And so in a time when we really need
the most support, we often feel that
lack of support, just because it's
something that's kind of evolving and
happening around us, not only to us, but to those
around us as well. And that lack of social support can result in, you know, a decrease
in your well being. It can impact
your self esteem, especially if you feel
like you're alone and kind of your feelings and kind of the experience that you're going through.
And it's all about,
I think, to, like, having to re identify and establish a social
professional identity. So this has to
do also with adjusting to new
norms as well. But being that
you are entering, let's say, the
workforce or a professional
work environment, you're also
navigating what it means to socialize, right in those
professional environments with
your colleagues. But also, how do you maintain your
professional identity, right and your
responsibilities while also mating and fostering those social relationships
outside of work. This is all an
adjustment period, and it takes time to kind of find your flow again. And it's also
kind of a thought of like developing new
connections as well. So as a student, you know, you may have established really great
professional relationships
with faculty, mentoring relationships with internship
supervisors, volunteer supervisors that
you've worked with. And it's not to say that
those relationships will be severed and that you won't
maintain them. Now that you're
entering kind of new spaces and
new environments, you're going to be looking and seeking new, right, professional
relationships, mentoring relationships,
role models. So once again, it's about kind of, I
guess, starting new. And whenever you're
starting something new, it's a bit
challenging, especially when you
felt like the expert, right in your previous environment and
your previous life. And so it's really
just giving yourself that permission
and that grace, right, to find and re establish those
new connections, while also determining how you maintain the
existing kind of relationships
that you have. Last, we have the
professional sense of self. And when we speak to the professional aspect of the college to
career transition, we're not talking about
just getting a job. We're talking more
about the importance of adapting to a
new environment from college to workplace. So what's interesting
about this piece, and I know for my
experience as well, is that I think as a
recent college graduate, we may go into a professional
work environment with an idea or
an impression of the experience
and skills we have and thinking that they are I don't want to
say up to par, but I guess it's the
best way to say it. Up to par with
what is kind of expected of us in the professional
work environment. What's interesting is that a recent survey of over 1,200
business leaders revealed that 40% of
leaders feel that recent college
graduates are unprepared for
the workforce. So what does that mean? It means that
there's definitely a discrepancy between what college graduates,
you know, feel that their preparation
is with regard to entering a work
environment and what employers are
actually seeing. And this is kind of this can be shocking or
jarring, right? As you're entering
a new space, a new environment, you're also may
be realizing that you weren't
necessarily prepared of what
was expected for you or how to navigate a certain professional
situation. This is where
it's so important to think about
transferable skills, which we'll talk a little bit on
the next slide. But it just speaks to
the fact that it's so important to think about who you are as
an individual, but also going
beyond your major, going beyond the
academic piece, and how you can engage in co curricular and
extracurricular activities to support you and help in building these
transferable skills. And the last piece has to do with inflated
expectations. I know, personally myself, I had a very
different perception of what it would be like. I think, like,
my first job or what my first
experience would be like. For one, I thought that I would find a
job like that, which was not the case. It took me a
couple of months to find my first job. But also, I had
also this idea of, like, that I would just, like, jump in to, like,
a mid level position. You know, when I would see entry level positions, I kind of looked
to them and said, Well, I'm more
experienced in that. I had these
internships. I should be able to kind
of just jump in. And little did I realize, No, there's so much
value, obviously. And I don't want to say climbing the ladder from, like, a hierarchical
standpoint, but more so that
there's value in really learning in every position
at every level, because it's going
to help support you as you do, eventually, I don't want to say
climb the ladder, but move into various positions
throughout your career. And also this notion of
the dream job, right? That you're supposed
to graduate and you land your dream job, and it's the
best thing ever. I don't believe in
dream jobs anymore. Well, I don't believe
in a dream job. I believe that there
is a dream job for you during different aspects
of your life. We are constantly evolving and changing as
human beings. Our interests
are changing. And with that,
I think what your dream job would
be will change. So I think holding on to that and knowing
it's actually more exciting to know that as you grow in
your profession, as a person, that
there are going to be new and upcoming
endeavors for you to get yourself kind of involved in and to help
with your growth. So I love the statistic. I love sharing it
with students. Always shocked whenever
we talk about this, but this just
kind of proves that your major does not define your
career trajectory. 75% of college
graduates do not work in a field directly related
to their major. So what does that mean? That means that what you choose to engage
in, right? While you're in
your undergraduate studies is going
to help support you in your transition into your
professional careers, and that it's
really what you do outside of
the classroom, that's going to help
support and inform what you choose to do in your postgraduate
kind of life. So transferable skills
once again are key. Um, and supporting
you as you identify what
profession or what career you
want to pursue, and also in helping you to adapt and be successful in a
work environment. So some top
transferable skills identified by employers
are problem solving, teamwork, communication, leadership, and
work ethic. And these, yes, you
will definitely gain from the work you
do in the classroom. But once again, there's
so much more beyond the classroom
itself that will help you support in
building these skills. So you've probably seen these campus
resources before. There's so many more, not limited to these
five listed here, but wanting to just
kind of highlight these five resources
as it relates to the college to
career transition and really helping
to support you as you navigate your journey here and
then life beyond. So academic advising, which is where I'm from, we can help in terms of
acknowledging and
providing direction and guidance and
connecting you with resources to support. The career center,
obviously, career engagement, and so many
helpful resources, including the
career educators to support you as you're navigating your options and
your interests. The Alumni Association,
it's never too early to engage
with alumni. They have a lot of really great programs
that will allow you to connect with
mentors with A Lm, so many amazing programs, including co curricular programs
to support you. Counseling and
psychological services for many reasons to
support your well being, but they also have
wellness skill groups that are designed
to help you with some of those transferable
skills we talked about to kind of build
and hone on those. And also, they
can help you in building your plan, you
know, moving forward. And faculty, of course. Beyond faculty just being an
amazing resource, many offer career
related courses, mentorship opportunities, opportunities
inside outside of the classroom
through research. Um, and never
forgetting that everyone that works
in these spaces, we've all lived
this experience, and we could share
with you, you know, what our experience
was like and what resources we used
to support ourselves. So as this module
comes to a close, I invite you to reflect on your understanding of the college career
transition and what emotions kind of came up for you as we were
talking about this. How might you address
any apprehensions that you have in relation
to this transition? And what insights
resonated with you during this module? And what resources do
you feel you could benefit from as you're navigating this
period in your life? And are there
any obstacles that you feel will prevent you in accessing
these resources? We invite you to stay connected with all of us, any one of your
instructors. We are so happy
to be here and support you through
this entire process. So if you ever
want to reach out, don't hesitate to
connect with me via e mail so we can set
up a time to connect. And don't forget.
You've got this. No doubt in my mind,
that you've got this. And when you do have
a doubt in your mind, know that we're
all here to be there of support. So to mark this
module as complete, please take the
short quiz on Brew and learn and submit assigned
reflection. And then you can move
on to the next module.

2.1: The Research University and Transferable Skills

Hi. Welcome to Module 2.1, the Research University and Transferable Skills. Really excited
to share with you the mission of a
research university. We're going to go over the California
Master Plan. And if you've never heard of that, you're not alone. Many students I meet have
never heard of the California
Master Plan, but it's so
critically important. So I'm excited to
introduce this to you. If you haven't yet
heard about it. We're also going to
talk about sort of the difference between the College of
Letters and Sciences and the schools at
UCLA putting UCLA within sort of context of this California
master plan. And then really unpacking the mission of a
research university, the kind of
skills that are required to engage
in research, and how you can find value in a research
university, whether or not you decide to pursue formal
research or not. And if you are interested in pursuing
formal research, we're going to highlight some key research centers on campus that I'll
support you with that. And I will close
this module by talking about
transferable skills and the transferable skills
that you can acquire by attending a research one university
such as UCLA. So the California
Master Plan, I did not hear about this until I was a
graduate student, and it blew me away because I think it's such valuable
information and can provide great
clarity and can support high school
students make an informed decision about the institutions in
which they apply. And so in 1960, the Regents and the State Board of
Education approved this master plan for higher education
institutions in California so that the three distinct higher education public
school institutions don't have
competing demands. So, for example, the UCs, the Cal States and
community colleges, the UC, their mission
was to produce and disseminate
research and have a pipeline to graduate and
professional school. The Cal States, their main mission
was to produce the next professional
workforce and to have a
pipeline two career. And of course, California
Community Colleges open access anyone who would benefit
from instruction. This has great
implications on sort of the type of curriculum and
majors that you will find at these
institutions. One isn't necessarily
better than the other, but it definitely informs
curriculum design. For example, because the
UC's main purpose is to produce and disseminate
research and have a pipeline to graduate and professional schools, Major isn't necessarily directly
correlated with career. Much of the academic disciplines that
you will see, particularly in the College of
Letters and Sciences are very theoretical
and broad. And the curriculum
is designed in a way to get you to
think about, right, through evidence
based research, the why, not just the what and the
how of something. Now, at the Cal
State system, because there
is this mission to produce the next
professional workforce, you'll have specific
majors that you won't find at UCLA that are directly
tied to career, such as criminal justice, forensics, business
administration. Even at UCLA, you know, business economics isn't business administration
specifically, right? Now, this doesn't
mean that UCLA doesn't prepare you
for the career. And it doesn't mean
that the Cal states don't value research. They just didn't want to have competing
missions, right? So they've created this California
master plan. When I've shared this with students in my seminars, they've had this
ah ha moment, like, Oh, that
makes sense. That's why certain classes kind of felt a
certain way. But when they
realize this, they have a greater
understanding sort of of the
bigger picture and can lean into learning sort of the why of something and
how to think, think critically, ask
compelling questions, approach our world's
greatest challenges with innovation, through collaboration, and through evidence
based research. So I hope that when
you reflect upon this, that it's not discouraging for you that you
don't feel like, Oh, I made the
wrong choice. You're here now. So I invite you
to think about, now that I know
this information, what do I do with it and how can I connect
with UCLA? And so just kind
of zooming in to UCLA sort of from the larger California
master plan, I want to take this
opportunity to, you know, distinguish between the College of
Letters and Sciences and the schools, right? So We have the School
of Public Health, the School of Music, the School of Nursing, the School of
Public Affairs, the School of Education, the School of Engineering, just to name a few. As you can
see
the schools, there is a direct sort
of correlation or a connection between
coursework and career. That applied sort of experiential
component is built in to the curriculum. The College of
Letters and Sciences is so broad, right? Letters, anything in the humanities and
social sciences. And the sciences
is, of course, anything in the life
in physical sciences. There isn't necessarily
a direct correlation between anyone
major and career. So, for those of you in the College of
Letters and Sciences, you know, it's okay to explore and think about
what interests you, what you're curious about, and to start drawing connections across
disciplines. You know, the
world doesn't exist in isolation
and sort of under one academic
discipline or a major. The more you can draw connections,
for example, between what
you're learning in your literature class and what you're learning in your history class
to understand the historical context of that period of time, of the novel in which
you're reading, it's going to
add dimension. It's going to add texture
to your knowledge. So we also invite you
to be intentional about what kinds of experiences
and opportunities outside of the classroom you wish to engage in, because again,
that'll add dimension to your profile and
your portfolio. Now that we've
looked at the California Master Plan and sort of the context of
UCLA within that plan, I'd like us to zoom in on the mission of a
research university. I know many students
who have come to UCLA because it's
their dream school. And that's great.
That's okay. It's an amazing
place to be. I've loved being here
for the past 20 years. But many students also
don't realize that this is a highly rigorous research
one institution. And the mission of a
research university such as UCLA is to
produce research, right through
publications and a scholarship and to disseminate it
through teaching. And so what is it? It's the systematic
investigation, right? So that's important.
There's a system to it. There's a methodology into the study of materials
and sources, so not just sciences
and beakers, but it could be
anything from the letters and sciences in order to
establish facts. So it's not just about
opinions and what we think and reach
new conclusions. So we're always trying
to advance knowledge. So I want to
take this moment to underscore
the importance of diversity to a
research university. Because if we had students from the same educational background,
socioeconomic background,
same, you know, high school or community
college training, we wouldn't
necessarily have diverse perspectives
and viewpoints, because even though
there's a methodology, and we're examining
facts and it's evidence base,
what we bring, our perspectives, how we evaluate
that research, and what we
contribute to it, our contributions to the scholarly conversation, really depend on sort
of the diversity of our student body and our faculty and our staff. And so what does
research require? And I think this is
what's really exciting because even if you never saw yourself as
a researcher, you're already doing
these great things, and you have these kinds of skills and qualities, and it's a matter
of honing them. Reading, analyzing,
creative thinking, writing, you'll be doing quite a bit of
that in college. But curiosity, that's the most important thing. What are you
curious about? That's what's going
to continue to motivate you in
your studies. And it's also an
amazing quality you'll want to continue to hone throughout your life. And so these are all
wonderful transferable
skills, right? Critical thinking,
reading, analyzing, creative thinking, writing, in
depth knowledge. These are all
transferable skills that employers are looking for regardless of the field or industry, because what
and
the how may change, but how you approach
any kind of problem or solution requires these type of
transferable skills. If you are interested in undergraduate
research at UCLA, we have two incredible undergraduate
research centers. So one for the humanities and social sciences, URC Ha, and one for the
sciences,
URC Sciences. I encourage you to
connect with them. They are incredibly
supportive. They are champions of
undergraduate research. They can show you
how to connect with faculty in pursuit
of that engagement. And if this is something
that interests you, I want you to think
about what is a research topic that
you hope to pursue? What would it
entail? And how can your community of scholars support you in
this endeavor? So take a moment to
reflect on that. Feel free to
pause if you're interested in
sort of looking up these research centers. And for those of you
who are not interested in pursuing formal
research, that's okay. There is a place for
you here. At UCLA. In fact, this is an opportunity in
your coursework to really hone marketable skills
and competencies, such as complex
thinking, data analysis, communication,
and working both independently
and in teams. You're also able to gain tangible experiences
that students may speak about
concretely, such as project
management, self directed learning, application of
theory, hands on experience in
a lab or a site. And understand
the connections between research
and practice. How is research
embedded into various careers or
fields or sectors? This is something that is a really great, thoughtful
practice, right? Thinking about
the relationship between research
and practice, what does the data say? What does the
research say? Right? Really thinking in those terms can help
you make data and form decisions as you engage in creative thinking
and analysis. So, for your self
reflection prompt, that is due on
Brew and Learn, identify the skills you hope to develop in Home. How might you develop
these skills at UCLA. And this can
be both inside and outside of
the classroom. It could be through direct research
opportunities or not. Again, key
campus resources are here to support you, and they're working in
collaboration with us. So I invite you
to reach out. Again, visiting hours
are by appointment, so please e mail
me and all of my information can be found on the
Breen Learn site. You've got this.
Don't forget to take the quiz and submit yourself reflection
assignment, so you can move on
to the next module.
2.2: Sense of Belonging at UCLA and Beyond

Hi. Welcome to Module 2.2, sense of belonging

at UCLA and Beyond. So an overview
of this module. First, I invite you to reflect on your
connection to UCLA. I will introduce
you if you have not already been introduced to
Strayhorn's work. He's done
extensive research in higher education
on sense of belonging and its
implications to student learning
and engagement and their connection to
their institution. I will demonstrate how you might consider crafting your connection to CLA. And
then I will also
talk about sense of belonging from the context of being a
transferable skill, that this is something we want to think about even beyond college in terms
of our career paths. And finally, I also want to share and highlight
some key resources for support that
will foster sense of belonging and help you develop
that connection. So before we
really get into the content of
this module, I invite you to reflect
and feel free to pause for a few minutes to really think
about this? Now that you're aware of the mission of a
research university, right, which is to produce and disseminate research, to really advance
knowledge. Do your values and interests align
with this mission? Do you feel a
connection to UCLA? And remember, from
the previous module, even if you don't intend to pursue formal research, you're still getting that
academic
training, right? You're still learning
research methodology. And so there's still so much value to
gain from it. But do you feel
a connection? Do you feel like
you belong? I hope you do. Your feelings and
experiences matter. UCLA is a very
large campus with so many opportunities
for engagement. When I first came here
as a graduate student, I was incredibly
overwhelmed with all of the different
opportunities for engagement and all
of the resources. I felt like my coursework
was just so much. And how was I going to, you know, continue to be as involved as I
was in undergrad? And you know, I think it's important for us to, you know, share with you that
feeling a sense of belonging is
a human need. It's a motivating force. It can have great
implications on how we feel, our confidence, and how we're able to contribute, but also to gain
from the experience. So your relationship
to UCLA matters. And I've shared this
in previous modules, and it's worth emphasizing over
and over again. Your journey is your own. There is not one cookie cutter
way to do this. So I invite you to
imagine how you fit into a research university
and consider what you would like
to learn and experience on
your journey. You know, I was
teaching a seminar, and we were talking about engagement and engaging
in campus life. And I had a student who was a
parenting student. She had a young son, and she was almost in tears listening
to her peers, talk about all the student orgs
they were part of these great research opportunities they
were engaging in. And, you know, she
was very vulnerable because that's the kind of space we had in class, and shared that she
didn't have the time or the capacity to do all of those
things, you know? She was a
transfer student. She had a young son. She would basically
do her homework, care for her child, go to her classes,
work part time. And, you know,
she did have support from her family, but she wasn't able to engage in the way that
we were talking about. And so that taught me a
very valuable lesson, that engagement looks very differently
for everyone. And we met several times
in visiting hours. And we determined
that for her, meaningful engagement
and finding that sense of belonging was really
through office hours, engaging with
her faculty and instructors in
office hours. She had the time and
the capacity for that, and it directly helped her with her coursework. And that was more than
enough for this
particular student. And in fact, the
relationships that she cultivated over time really gave
her the confidence, the connections,
and the experiences to apply to
graduate school and to get admitted into
graduate school. So I invite you to
be kind to yourself, to give yourself grace, and to really reflect on what is
meaningful to you. I want to take
this opportunity to highlight a couple of quotes from the
assigned reading, which is Charles
Strayhorn's publication that focuses on
sense of belonging. And his definition of
sense of belonging. In terms of college, sense of belonging
refers to students' perceived
social support on campus, a feeling or sensation
of connectedness. And the experience
of mattering or feeling cared about,
accepted, respected, valued by and important to the campus community
or others on campus, such as faculty
staff and peers, this is so
important, you know, it breaks my heart
when students share with me
that they don't feel that sense
of belonging. That signals to me that
my colleagues and I, we need to think
about how we can make that happen
and how we can invite students
to reflect on sort of what
that meaningful connection could
look like. Because, as this
very next quote, Highlights, it's a relational reciprocal
relationship. There's a reciprocal
quality to it. So sense of belonging
is relational. And thus, there's a
reciprocal quality to relationships that provide a sense
of belonging. Each member benefits from the group, and the group, in a sense, benefits from the
contributions
of each member. The university needs
you just as much, and maybe a little more so than you
need it, right? Your ideas, your
experiences, your perspectives,
you know, how you read the
The, you know, academic coursework,
the readings, the research,
your perspective is incredibly
important, right? You add such
richness, right? You are a gift to
the institution, to this teaching and
learning endeavor. So not only do you gain, but others benefit from your
contributions here. And so thinking about
your connection to UCLA and crafting that
with intention, right? Some things I invite
you to consider. And it could be one or all of these
things, right? Depending on your needs, your capacity, and what engagement looks
like for you. So connecting to your
coursework and your major, UCLA is
challenging. It's hard for smart
people by design. It's meant to
challenge you in ways that you have
never imagined. It should be challenging,
but not miserable. If you're miserable in every single class,
every single quarter, come and talk to an
academic advisor, because we might want to rethink the program
that you are pursuing. It should be aligned with your strengths,
your skills, your interests, not to the point where
it's too easy, but you want to have
that connection to it. Want to be
excited about it. Of course, there's
the occasional one or two
classes, you know, I can think of a
couple in undergrad that I'd be happy
not to take again. But it shouldn't be
your entire major. Build relationships
with faculty, staff, peers. You know, a reason to go to office hours
beyond just learning about more content
in the class is to build that
rapport with faculty, to find out, you know, why they pursued
this career path. How did they know
they wanted to research their specific
field of interest. It's an opportunity to connect on a human level. Right? And staff
all across campus, are invested in
creating programs and initiatives and
learning opportunities and resources for
your support. And of course, with
your peers, you know, when I think
back to college, I'm still friends with some of my closest
friends from college. It's amazing
what that time of life right,
can give to you. With regard to
joining clubs and student orgs or living
learning communities, I would invite
you to think about what is most
important to you. What is fulfilling for you and not just feel
like you have to check off all the
boxes and get involved in as many
things as possible. It's really quality
over quantity. And then reflect on
your evolving needs. You're going
to continue to grow and evolve throughout college and seek support to fulfill those needs. You
don't have to
do this alone. All of this is setting
the foundation for that college to
career transition. Opportunities at UCLA, that foster sense
of belonging, we have the student
organizations leadership and engagement, Sole. We have the undergraduate
research centers, we have UCLA living
learning communities. And these are just a few. This is not an exhaustive
list by any means. We have the Academic
Advancement program, Bruin Resource
Center, first to go Program,
Transfer Center. The list goes on and on. But if you are kind
of reflecting on this and needing support,
connect with us. We will be able to connect you to the appropriate
resource for support. So at this time, I would like you to just kind
of pause and reflect, do you feel a sense
of belonging at UCLA? Why or why not? How may you cultivate that
connection to UCLA? How can we help you cultivate
that connection? Again, it's not solely just your responsibility. We are here to
support you in that. And one of the last things I want to kind of end with is this
notion that sense of belonging is a
transferable skill, honing skills of
self reflection, community building, fostering
communities of care. These are all
essential to overall all well being
and fulfillment, even beyond UCLA. I hope that when you enter your next chapters in life,
wherever you land, that you feel a
sense of belonging, that you feel you matter, that you're contributing, that you're respected. And
that's going
to come if you're really in touch
with your values. So reflect on
your values and the values of your future
career or employer. Do those values align? You may not know
what your future career is or
your employer. But if you start
practicing this now, that'll stay with you, and that'll be there with you as you're
thinking about sort of where you want
to land after college. What kind of work culture would you thrive in? How do you want
to contribute to an organization
or field, right? Every organization
or field typically has a vision, mission,
objectives, and so you want to kind of
think about alignment. And of course, I want
to remind you of key campus resources
that we've introduced you
to throughout these modules to support you along this journey. And finally, I just want
to close by saying, you belong, you
belong, you belong. UCLA does not make mistakes when
they admit you. It's highly competitive to come get accepted to UCLA. And you have
demonstrated that regardless of your educational
background, you have the ability
to thrive here. It now at this point, it's what do you
want to gain? What do you want to do, and how do you want to grow so that you are prepared
for
your next chapter. So again, stay connected. Please feel free
to reach out if you would like to connect during
visiting hours, which are by appointment, and all of that can be found on Brew and learn. So
you've got this.
Don't forget to take this short
quiz and submit any self reflections
that are due at this point before you can move on to
the next module.