Scott Sprenger, associate dean in the College of Humanities and professor of French, explains how BYU’s Humanities+ program is helping students understand the value of the humanities.
PROVO, Utah (May 30, 2014)—Translating the skills gained through literature and language classes is becoming increasing valuable to career-bound university students.
At a recent Humanities Center Conversation Series, Scott Sprenger, an associate dean in the College of Humanities and a professor of French, explained that as students are able to translate their humanities skills into the professional world, humanities students can go more places than they think.
Sprenger has been a major asset in researching and working on BYU’s Humanities+ initiative, a program that encourages and helps humanities students use their skills in the job market. Matt Wickman, director of the Humanities Center, said, “Scott has been an important part of what happens in the college, and Humanities+ is a forward-thinking initiative by BYU.”
Sprenger’s years of research and work with Humanities+ will lead him to France this fall where he will become the new provost with the American University of Paris. “Most liberal arts colleges are looking for a way to translate what they do into career outcomes,” Sprenger said. He explained that although the American University of Paris and BYU are very different, both schools have a large majority of bilingual students poised for opportunity in the global marketplace.
At BYU, many students take for granted their language skills because serving a mission is part of the culture; however, “there’s no other place in the country where this situation exists,” Sprenger said. “Much more thinking could be done to leverage this unique asset.”
Students need to be constantly reminded of the value that their language and literature classes have beyond academia. And professors need to be reminded that the vast majority of their students will not follow in their footsteps.
“It’s important for faculty to think about who the students are and where they want to go,” Sprenger said. “We often fall into the trap of treating students as future professors when really only very few follow in our footsteps. There’s a way for students to study the humanities subjects they like and gain valuable skills that will make them competitive candidates for careers.”
So where do humanities students go?
As the Humanities+ blog and the college’s recent data visualization project show, BYU humanities grads take their degrees into a variety of careers and fields. Sprenger said that this is evidence that humanities students can go pretty much anywhere, if they prepare themselves with Humanities+ types of skills and experiences.
Sprenger, citing research done by Phil Gardner of Michigan State University, said that 70 percent of hiring of recent college grads is “major independent”—more important are relevant skills and internship experiences.
So what are the essential skills for students entering the job market? Sprenger, again citing Gardner, said that there are 12 essential skills that make the grade: understanding, evaluating and interpreting data; communicating effectively; using and analyzing data; engaging in continuous learning; creating new knowledge or processes; understanding practices of a company or organization in a global setting; and so on.
Humanities+ works to help students gain these skills alongside their humanities education.
Sprenger recognized the amazing work of the college and particularly the advisement center in making the Humanities+ program increasingly successful. In the space of five years, the college has gone from having 3 to 4 percent of students doing internships to about 25 percent of students now gaining experience through internships. The college is also positioning itself as a resource for all BYU students to professionalize and globalize their skills.
“Amazing things are being accomplished,” Sprenger said, “but there’s more progress that can be made.”
For more on Humanities+ and the value of the humanities for students, visit the Humanities+ blog.
—Stephanie Bahr Bentley BA English ’14