LLCC Connects Skills to Careers

Lincoln Land Community College has received a $10,000 grant from the Modern Language Association to help students identify and apply career-ready skills developed through humanities courses.

LLCC was the only community college selected to receive a Pathways Step Grant during the current grant cycle. The funding will support a project focused on connecting classroom experiences with skills students can carry into the workforce.

The project, titled “Thinking, Deciding and Connecting From Classroom to Career: Amplifying Humanities’ Durable Skills,” will incorporate undergraduate research projects into selected courses. Through that work, students will focus on skills including critical thinking, decision-making, communication and problem-solving.

The pilot courses are being led by full-time LLCC faculty members Marlene Emmons, Karen Sisk, Eric Stachera and Cara Swafford.

Students participating in the courses will also have an opportunity to present their work and demonstrate the skills they have developed to community workforce partners. A research symposium is scheduled for Dec. 10.

As another part of the project, LLCC will create digital and printed guidebooks outlining how skills developed through humanities education can translate to different careers. Students in one of Professor Laura Anderson’s graphic design classes will participate in developing the materials, providing another hands-on component to the project.

Dr. Corrine Hinton, dean of LLCC Humanities, Arts, Communication and English, said humanities courses provide students with skills that can remain useful throughout their personal and professional lives.

“We know that students who complete courses throughout the humanities, including literature courses, build skills and experiences like critical thinking, communication and collaboration that are integral to their personal and professional development,” Hinton said.

She said the grant project will give students a clearer way to recognize those abilities and explain how they can be applied beyond the classroom.

“Thanks to the work by our incredible faculty, this project will help students recognize and articulate those skills as they progress by using a framework exclusively developed for LLCC and directly tied to the employability skills that Illinois believes is essential to a future-ready workforce,” Hinton said.

More information about the Modern Language Association’s Pathways Step Grant projects is available through the MLA Pathways program. Information about humanities, arts, communication and English courses at LLCC is available through the college’s humanities program.