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Science

Careers & Experiential Learning

Career Services

1134 WSC 
801-422-3000 

Careers & Experiential Learning facilitates exceptional opportunities for students to achieve their career and life goals. Whether it is helping students discover their purpose, find meaningful experience, or build valuable relationships with alumni and employers, our goal is to help students design their best future.

Career Services

E-mail: byucareerservices@byu.edu 
Website: https://careers.byu.edu

Students will find mentored assistance with career exploration, graduate school preparation, resumes, mock interviews, networking, online profiles, and access to career networks. Students can take the Gallup Clifton Strengths assessment to better understand how their unique talents and personal strengths can sustain their success in college and beyond.

Experienced Career Directors are assigned to students in each college, and they provide individualized career guidance and assistance connecting with alumni, industry professionals, and career-building opportunities, including treks to visit professional environments. Several career directors are physically housed in the colleges they serve (Engineering, Math & Science, Life Science) in addition to the services available to all students in the Career Studio, located in the Wilkinson Center.

The Career Studio is available for drop-in, no-appointment-necessary services where students can actively work on their professional documents and have conversations about their Strengths with experienced career mentors. Our career mentors share best practices and strategies based on the most up-to-date employer feedback collected regularly by recruiters looking to hire BYU students.

Students may log into Handshake at handshake.byu.edu to gain access to hundreds of and job and internship postings. Every year Career Services facilitates thousands of local, state, and national recruiting opportunities through on-campus career fairs, interviews, information sessions, and targeted networking events.

Experiential Learning

E-mail: experiential.learning@byu.edu
Website: https://experience.byu.edu

Experiential learning is defined as learning through experience (Kolb, 1984). While learning may naturally occur through any given experience, not all experience produces experiential learning. At BYU, four foundational characteristics distinguish experiential learning from ordinary or chance experience and foster inspiring learning:

  1. Inspiration: Inspiring Learning is “learning that leads to inspiration or revelation” (Worthen, 2016). Learners are invited to actively engage the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the realm of inquiry in which they may be involved (see Moroni 10:5).

  2. Intention: Learning outcomes describe the knowledge, skills, or abilities the learners should have after successfully completing the experience.

  3. Integration: High impact practices are utilized and avenues to apply learning are identified. Application of emerging inspiration, knowledge, skills, or dispositions are fostered.

  4. Reflection: Learners engage in purposeful reflection. Learners consider what they have learned (what), ascertain meaning (so what), and how their learning can be used in future career or life plans (now what).

BYU has a strong tradition of experiential learning which includes research with faculty, doing field study or field work, completing an internship, going on a study abroad, or participating in a variety of culminating learning experiences such as capstones, competitions, festivals, or performances. Additionally, involvement in clubs, student employment, or service learning are among the myriad of campus opportunities available for students to create inspiring experiences.

Our experiential learning professionals facilitate, promote, and provide trainings with a primary purpose to help students find and create inspiring experiences. Students who learn to seek, recognize, and act upon inspiration in their experiences form a foundation for lifelong learning.

Academic Internships

E-mail: internship@byu.edu
Website: https://experience.byu.edu

Internships provide an opportunity for skill development, perspective, mentored supervision, professional connections, and the ability to apply the academic learning occurring on campus. The internship experience is an opportunity for undergraduates to confirm they are on an academic path that suits their talents, abilities and interests. The office oversees department internship programs to assure that students and faculty are compliant with the university internship policy and legal obligations with internship providers.

Students seeking academic credit for internships must receive prior department and university approval and complete formal registration before commencing. Course offerings vary according to student and program needs. Registration in a department's 199R, 299R, 399R, 496R, 599R, or 688R course is required for internship credit. Individual departments specify course numbers for clinical, practicum, or other applied, experiential learning courses. Credit varies, generally ranging from 0.5 to 12 credit hours. Grades are based on both academic and work-related accomplishments.both academic and work-related accomplishments.