What is experiential learning? Very simply, it means learning from your experiences. In this section, you can read about learning from your experiences outside the classroom. You need to ask this question of yourself: How can I have the college experience of a lifetime?

At UT Arlington, you have many opportunities to make your college experience exceptional, unforgettable, and (dare we say?) sensational. Engaging in opportunities outside of the classroom can inform your major and career exploration process and open your eyes to things you have never experienced.

What’s a Maverick to Do?

Begin thinking now of strategies you can use to make sure you have at least one of these “value added” experiences:

UT Arlington Links to Experiential Learning

Internships can provide you with the practical, “real world” experience you need to be competitive in today’s job market. Internships also provide you with a new network of people, individuals outside of the University setting, who can provide mentorship and companionship to you. At a minimum, an internship will allow you to evaluate how well you “fit into” a career culture. For example, you may love information technology (IT) and, through an internship experience, find out that you are also well-suited to the pace and excitement of the IT field.

Research experiences with particular faculty, research groups, and Centers for Excellence are important to consider especially if you plan to further your education beyond your undergraduate degree. Is it too early to begin thinking of advanced degrees? Absolutely not. Most students who are in graduate schools today began their research careers as undergraduates. They acted as “apprentices” to a faculty member and worked with members of the faculty’s team: graduate research assistants, post-doctoral researchers, and collaborating colleagues. Such experiences can also teach you transferable skills like project design and management, goal setting, and communication skills that can be used wherever your career may take you.

Becoming involved in research may seem intimidating, but UT Arlington provides resources to help you engage with professors and research topics you are interested in. The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) offers tools to help you identify your research interests and manages several programs that pair you with a faculty member on a research project. You can also get involved with research by talking with your professors; they are often working on a research project you could help with, or they may know a different faculty member who is directing a project more closely aligned with your interests and academic and professional goals. Note that research is not limited to sciences like chemistry and biology – research occurs in every discipline on campus.

Be sure to talk to your advisor about taking a readings or research class with a faculty member of your choice. You need to work this experience into your roadmap for success. It is important to contact the faculty member well in advance to be sure that he/she has room in the laboratory or research group for you in a given term.

Study Abroad Opportunities are another way to make your college experience exceptional. Travel broadens you in so many aspects – you can develop new friendships while exploring different cultures of the world and earning college credit. UT Arlington offers hundreds of programs across more than 40 countries; check out the website below to see which programs interest you.

Funding is available from many sources. You can meet with a study abroad staff member from the Office of International Education (OIE) to discuss funding opportunities to lower the cost of your trip. Again, planning ahead is key, so after reviewing your study abroad options, visit with your advisor to be sure you can plan for study abroad in your academic plan.

Have you ever done some volunteer work? Do you want to be of service to others during your college years? Service learning, organized by the Center for Service Learning, provides the ways and means for faculty and students to “learn from doing”—doing community service as part of your coursework, and learning as you go. Course credit is given for service learning activities. When you visit the center online, look at some of the courses offered. Faculty are increasingly adding service learning components to their classes. UT Arlington boasts having 790,516 logged hours of service in recent years.

Service learning is not just for people thinking about careers in public service. These experiences help you integrate what you are learning in the classroom with “real world” problems and needs. You can build your civic and leadership skills through many community activities and share your reflections on these experiences with others. Scholarships are available, too.

So let’s return to the question: How can I have the college experience of a lifetime?

Round out your roadmap with an internship, research participation, a study abroad trip, or service learning—or all of these. Experiential Major Maps (EMMs) suggest ways that you can participate in experiential learning opportunities – find the EMM for your major or a major that you are interested and see how you can apply the information you are learning in class to life outside the classroom. Afterwards, engage in some of these experiences and write about them. Who knows? These experiences may lead to new opportunities in your future.