2016 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Institutions of higher education aim to prepare students for successful professional careers. Success if often measure by job placement upon graduation which reinforces the training of students for a job. Some argue that higher education should be more focused on developing engaged, active citizens.

Bok's (2006) developed a framework that outlines eight components that higher education should be developing in students to they can be productive citizens. This session will review the outcomes and impacts of student development of these eight competencies through participation in student organizations. The primary purpose of this research was to analyze the impact of student involvement in student organizations on students’ development of core competencies during their experience at the Midwest university. Data was collected through surveys from 6 semesters of graduating students. This presentation will focus on the analysis conducted to determine if students in student organizations develop these competencies differently than students not involved in student organizations. This presentation will also discuss if there is a difference in development based on gender, job, service vs. non-service organizations, leaders vs. members, a student’s self-reported level of engagement, the number of semesters involved and the number of student organizations a student is involved in during their university experience.

Following the presentation, participants will engage in a discussion on how student organizations can be facilitated to deepen student impact and better prepare students to be engaged, global employees and citizens.