What is CEE?
As most students at Delaware Valley University know, the Experience 360 Program is a highlight of your college experience. The E360 program was created as a way for students to get hands on, real life experience in their field of work. There are multiple different activities that students can choose to complete their required credits. One of the most popular choices is a Career Exploration Experience, or CEE. CEE is not only an internship opportunity, but also a six-week, online class. The purpose of the class is to help students focus on their goals for the experience and for the future.
According to the E360 Program Resource Book “The CEE serves as an introduction to or exploration in the student’s discipline-related field. Each student will establish measurable learning objectives for the CEE at the outset, as well as complete reflective assignments”. The CEE is something I completed twice, and in my opinion, it was a great way to help me focus on field experience and set goals for myself during the experience, as well as for my future. This class is a great way to learn how to market yourself to future employers. In the CEE class, you will learn which soft skills you exhibit best, make a resume, and gain experience within your field of choice. Because the class isn’t academic-focused I feel like it complements the internship and helps you stay motivated to complete your work.
My Experience:
I completed my first Career Exploration in the winter of 2020 for two credits. The class lasted for six weeks and had multiple requirements that need to be completed by the end. First, you must set your objectives and write an essay about what you hope to accomplish and learn during your experience. There are also notes that you must read for each week and a discussion board based off of the notes. In total you will complete a total of six discussion boards and twelve responses to other students in the class. You will also be asked to make a resume, which is a great way to get feedback before it sent to employers. For your second essay you will be given a list of suggested essay topics: interview, professional shadow, or professional seminar. I choose to interview my employer, which helped me learn a lot about gaining connections and how to grow in my field. The last essay you need to complete is also your final, which is just a reflection of your experience. The length of the essay is based off the number of credits you took for the course. You will also be required to enter the hours you completed, weekly, which will indicate, at the end of the course, whether or not you met all the requirements to complete your set number of credits. Remember that each credit you take equals a set amount of hours. This is different for each major so make sure you estimate how often you will be working! The last requirement is an evaluation of your experience from your point of view and your employers’ point of view. This will be posted on delval.edu/experiencelink under the Experience tab for you to see how they evaluate you and how you evaluated your experience and your employers.
For my second Career Exploration, I only had to take one credit in order to fulfill my E360 requirement. The class is still six weeks long, but my essays required less content than my previous two-credit experience. I recommended this class to many of my friends when they began completing their experience. I think it really helped me focus on work because I was constantly checking to make sure my work was done and setting goals for myself really helped me ask specific questions and look for certain answers.
Resource:
A great thing about DelVal is the amount of help you can find here. The Center for Student Professional Development is a great place to go to for assistance. When I began looking into E360, I contacted Emmaline Armstrong, the E360 Advisor. She answered all of my questions, offered to hold a meeting with me, and was overall helpful while I navigated my way through the experience. I recommend that anyone who has a question or needs some guidance to email her.
Emmaline.armstrong@delval.edu
Written By: Sydney Paz