Silver Lake College prepares students for future

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Matt Goff, right, helps Silver Lake College student Alexis Almond fill out an application for a fall position during a recent on-campus job fair.

Résumés in hand, Silver Lake College students recently flocked to the college’s first on-campus job fair.

The fair was part of SLC Works, Silver Lake College’s recently adopted Work College model, which offers an enhanced educational experience integrating work, learning and service throughout a student’s college career. Students have the advantage of earning a degree while gaining professional skills, avoiding debilitating student debt and building their career portfolios.

“Incorporating work experiences into students’ class schedules will help them in every dimension of their college career and provide opportunities that lead to their ultimate goal: getting a job in the career of their choice,” said Matt Goff, newly appointed dean of SLC Works. “Silver Lake College students will come out of college with significantly more experience than those candidates they are competing against.”

The fair drew students like freshman Victoria Bond of Manitowoc, a math major and chemistry minor, who has been working as a library assistant. She was applying for positions in her areas of interest, one as an assistant to a math professor, and another as an assistant to a science professor.

In the fall of 2016, starting with its freshman class, Silver Lake College became the first institution of higher education in Wisconsin to adopt the Work College model.

The program will encompass the upper classes in the next academic year, more than doubling the number of participants. The program model aims for 100 percent employment of the college’s full-time residential students, who are required to work as a condition of enrollment.

Freshmen and sophomores focus on liberal arts skills, such as communication and critical thinking, and apply those skills in on-campus positions. Juniors and seniors move up the ranks to supervisory positions on and off campus, where they will acquire management and leadership skills.