Integrating Professional Identity Development into Large-Scale CS First Year Seminar Courses
This lightning talk presents an initiative to integrate professional identity development activities into a large enrollment undergraduate CS First Year Seminar course. This CS majors only, required, one-credit hour course is an opportunity to excite students about computing as a profession. In fall 2024, inspired by Fink’s Significant Learning Theory, where multiple dimensions contribute to changing how a student lives their personal and professional life, we added a reflection assignment and an external engagement requirement to foster professional identity. This experiential learning required three different types of campus activities outside the classroom: resume and interview preparation, networking with professionals, and student presentations. The first month students are required to participate in a Career Services workshop for resumes, interviewing, or decoding job postings. The following month, students participate in one of several corporate partner activities or workshops, and the final month they attend a student project expo or research poster presentation. The last assignment has each student write a personal mission statement and write a letter to their current self from their sixty year old self! The letters and missions are emailed to the students the next semester, to remind them of their larger goals as a professional. What are next steps for measuring influence and adjusting course activities? We can require a student attend and write a reflection, but how do we determine whether these promote learning to value computing as your professional identity? Are there practical measures to increase potential for integrating excitement for computing?