President's Blog: From the Heart

By Eric F. Spina

As a student athletic trainer, Kat Blandford ‘26 is literally receiving hands-on experience as she helps treat injuries sustained by her fellow Flyers.

“I have been able to immerse myself in what will be my future career,” says Kat, a junior health science major from Cincinnati and a standout rower on the women’s rowing team who shared this year’s prestigious RUDY Award for outstanding student-athlete leader.

I’ve found Kat to be emblematic of so many of our students — they’re making the real world their classroom. She has studied abroad in Italy, serves as wellness chair of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, supports me and my office as a president’s emissary, and interned with NuVasive — all in just three years!

We want to guarantee that every undergraduate is mentored in at least one meaningful, hands-on, real-world learning experience — and has the opportunity to reflect on how it builds upon their classroom work — before they graduate. Thanks to the creative, thoughtful work of champions Lee Dixon, Meghan Henning and Karen Velasquez, the Academic Senate this month voted overwhelmingly to make experiential learning a requirement in the Common Academic Program starting this fall.

This is hardly a new direction for UD, where nearly 90 percent of undergraduates already participate in hands-on learning. With over 500 courses offering experiential components and more than 50 community partners, our students are gaining real-world experience through internships, co-ops, service, and entrepreneurial projects.

“This is part of who we are,” says Erin O’Mara Kunz, outgoing president of the Academic Senate. “What is also a part of who we are as a Marianist university is making sure our students have equitable access to these experiences, and I think formalizing experiential learning as a CAP component helps us do that.”

Students can explore opportunities in  a catalogue of experiential learning programs and courses across every area of the University — from faith and vocation programs and undergraduate research to neighborhood school centers and sustainability projects. Our Office of Experiential Learning supports faculty with curriculum grants and provides funds to students with financial need to help them participate in programs outside the classroom.

With the Academic Senate’s support, we’re accelerating this work. Along with holistic advising — launched this year to guide students from orientation to graduation — we’re helping our students realize their place in the world from that first tentative moment they step foot on campus to that glorious day when they walk down a UD Arena aisle to receive their diploma.

We’re graduating students prepared to engage with the world — a world that’s already their classroom.