At the University of Memphis, the Office of Student Leadership and Involvement and the Office of Career Services have teamed up to create an initiative called the "SLPCs" – Student Leadership and Professional Competencies. The SLPCs were designed as an integration between Seemiller’s Student Leadership Competencies, NACE Career Competencies, and Project CEO. The six competency clusters are Teamwork & Collaboration, Learning & Reasoning, Professional & Strategic Planning, Communication & Digital Technology, Self-Awareness & Personal Behavior, and Leadership & Civic Responsibility. You can view the color branding and marketing of their competency clusters below.
Through strategic marketing, each SLPC was able to color code and advertise different engagement opportunities on campus. Different events such as guest speakers, workshops, and membership in certain organizations are all labeled with logos for any corresponding SLPCs. By using clear and consistent branding, students can quickly identify events that correspond with one of the competencies. View the full calendar!
The University of Memphis has also created a resource called the “Involvement Menu” that helps students get started with some different ideas for gaining exposure to these competencies. We love the creativity in this menu, providing a relatable way for students to digest a large amount of information and opportunity. View the full menu for more!
After each engagement opportunity, students then have the ability to log a Self-Reported Experience in Engage. Students provide information on the opportunity, as well as a reflection. Once approved, the experience then appears on the student's Co-Curricular Transcript under the header that corresponds to the competency. This process allows students to use their co-curricular transcripts for scholarship requirements, reflections in 1st year seminars, and applications for student leadership positions. It also provides students valuable language about what they are gaining from their experiences.
To help with planning their competency development, students are able to use a resource developed by professionals at the institution to support goal setting. You can view an example of this goal-setting template below.
Additionally, the University of Memphis also employs 15 students as “Involvement Ambassadors” who help educate their campus about SLPCs, as well as Engage in general. Ambassadors present in first year seminar courses, orientation sessions, involvement fairs, and more.
We hope you are able to take some ideas from the University of Memphis to implement in your own programming!