175: Evaluation as a Career Catalyst: Preparing Undergraduates for the Workforce

Real-world evaluation projects provide a rich context for students to develop career skills, regardless of their specific career plans. The National Association of Colleges and Employers delineated eight career readiness competencies: career and self-development, communication, critical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork, and technology. This demonstration will illustrate how undergraduate students with diverse majors have developed skills in all these areas by working on evaluations for the local nonprofit community through Western Michigan University’s Evaluation Lab. For each competency, we will center the Evaluation Lab’s student-evaluators’ perspectives on their experiences and showcase examples and stories from their work. Attendees will gain insights into how to support undergraduate students working on evaluation projects to develop cross-cutting professional skills, build their confidence, and enhance their résumés.