Two of the most common questions students ask their advisors are “What can I do with this degree?” and “Are there any jobs for someone who majors in this field?” Social Action Works aims to help activist-minded students find informed, empowered answers about their futures.
Launched in 2019, Social Action Works is a professional development initiative and design space in the College of Liberal Arts. Students can explore and integrate their emerging professional identities, fields of study and interest in advancing social change, says program director Liddy Detar.
Detar, an advisor in the College of Liberal Arts, says most students she advises find themselves living a disappointing dichotomy between what they study and care about and the often limited, service-industry jobs they have to pay for their studies.
“The old adage, ‘Don’t worry; someday you’ll get a real job,’ is not reassuring or kind,” she says. “And the urgent need for a degree that will change their relationship to their current working lives is profoundly tangible.”
Another common answer, “You can do anything you want with a liberal arts degree,” is no longer sufficient, she says. It doesn’t offer students anything in particular they can do with their degree, and the notion of being able to do anything you want implies a great deal of individual power, privilege and entitlement.
“For students coming from historically underrepresented communities, for students of color and low-income students, this answer is inadequate for how it obfuscates our responsibility to communicate the value of our disciplines in a real-world setting,” Detar says.
Social Action Works creates opportunities for students to explore their professional futures in the context of their majors and interest in public action. An undergraduate student-led group, Communities of Purpose, offers mentoring from faculty, community members and career development specialists, with proposed theme areas such as community health and reproductive justice, popular culture and social media, environmental justice and sustainability, globalization and others.
Also part of the initiative is a speaker series and digital story collection, Stories That Change Us, which highlights the personal stories of people who have created distinctive careers that incorporate social change projects. Speakers participate in campus-wide discussions, hold smaller focus groups and visit classrooms.
Social Action Works partners with professional development programs in the College of Liberal Arts, as well as programs in the colleges of Business, Education and Public Health and Human Sciences. It also participates in campus-wide career development initiatives such as the Diversity Careers Collective.
For more information or to get involved, contact [email protected].