Early College Career sessions are designed with first-year students in mind, however, any class year is welcome to take any session within the track.
On this page:
Communication and Presentation Techniques
This workshop will focus on bringing to life thoughtful and engaging presentations and discussions. This session will provide tips for a successful presentation, including how to organize visual materials and how to communicate and engage with a live audience.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Learn the best practices for delivering information in a presentation.
- Understand the varying techniques to share different types of information and media.
- Know the pitfalls that can detract from a presentation.
- Develop the skills to connect to audiences.
- Understand the techniques to meet an audience before presenting.
- Consider the varying perspectives of an audience.
Girl Talk: Find Your Voice and Own the Room
This session will empower Gettysburg College women to speak with confidence! Eisenhower Institute Women and Leadership expert Dr. Anne Douds shares her own powerful story about finding her voice and becoming an advocate for justice and victims’ rights. A former trial attorney, author, and now educator, Dr. Douds speaks with authority from the courtroom to the classroom. She shares practical advice on speaking in public. You’ll learn how to “own the room,” speaking to not only inform but to inspire. Participants will walk away from this session understanding how to have difficult conversations with civility, and how to use your authentic voice and experience to have a meaningful impact.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Prepare to speak in public.
- Learn to use personal experience and passions to create a message that resonates with a broad audience.
- Discover how to address challenging conversations with confidence and purpose.
Meeting Important People: What You Need to Know
Ever get nervous before meeting someone important? Do you wonder what to say (or not say)? As a Gettysburg College student, you will have opportunities to meet influential people, from campus officials to policy makers and world leaders. It’s a great chance to make connections and build relationships that can enhance your career. Prepare to impress! In this session, you’ll learn from an experienced communicator how to plan an engaging conversation, and how to make the most of your chance encounter. Learn the dos and don’ts of effective networking, create an effective elevator speech, and learn to craft a follow up that gets a response.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Learn how to ace planned and unplanned conversations.
- Practice presenting yourself with confidence.
- Determine the value of each encounter: Informational? Connection? Mentoring? Sponsorship?
Career Planning Jumpstart for Liberal Arts Students
The Center for Career Engagement seeks up to 100 students interested in learning about how the skills they’ve acquired in classes, co-curricular experiences, summer jobs, and more transfer into skills sought by today’s employers. If you have used your critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and technical skills as a student at Gettysburg, we hope you'll join this session where we will explore how employers are looking for you. We will narrow down possible career options, as well as build on your existing experience and find related experiential opportunities. We will also take a look at career interests and review the tools you can use to go to the next step!
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Better understand how to identify and articulate your transferrable skills.
- Learn how to access the resources available to you through the Center for Career Engagement.
- Leave the session with clearly articulated next steps in your career exploration.
Adult Conversations: Navigating Interpersonal Relationships in the “Real World”
While you’re navigating the “real world,” you’re bound to interact with new people and situations that throw you for a loop and challenge you in ways that you haven’t experienced before. During this session, we will examine the concepts of resiliency and how to navigate situations that may be turbulent, but transformative. In addition, we will touch on some other general tips and tricks on “adulting” so that you’re better prepared to face life outside of the Gettysburg College sphere.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Develop strategies to communicate with and alongside individuals with diverse lived experiences.
- Build practices that promote personal and community resilience.
- Examine the difference between accountability and toxicity when working with others.
Formatting for Success: Let Word Do the Work – Part I
*This is a two-part training. Session capped at 20 students.
Part I will take a dive into Microsoft Word settings using styles, custom headers and footers, and other custom page settings with the intention of setting up papers in MLA and APA Style formats.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Examine the role of MS Word Styles in formatting documents.
- Modify document settings (format) to meet formal paper requirements of MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, etc.
- Construct a table of contents utilizing Style Headings.
- Recognize the importance of MS Word Styles for document accessibility.
Formatting for Success: Let Word Do the Work – Part II
*This is a two-part training. Session capped at 20 students.
Part II will focus on managing your references and citations in Word. We will go through the source manager for in-text citations and building a bibliography. Please note that this session will require a desktop version of Microsoft Word.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Recognize MS Word tools for managing references and works cited.
- Create a bibliography using MS Word tools.
- Employ MS Word tools for managing and listing document figures and tables.