Breaking the Cycle Mentorship Opportunity

opportunities to all students with handson, learning options that will build strong foundations for educational and career successes.

To help accomplish this, the ELC offers workshops that help students identify and prepare for different careers. One of the classes we are teaching this semester, required for OCTC’s new Career and Life Skills certificate for students with intellectual disabilities but available to all students, is Career and Life Skills (CLS) development. CLS development looks at the importance of appropriate social behavior and interaction in the workplace. It is designed to help build the skills necessary for job searching, self- and time- management, and adapting to changing demands and expectations in life and the workplace. Another class included in the CLS certificate and available to all students is Experiential Education, which includes a planned and evaluated learning work experience such as job shadowing or an internship. The experience may be related to the student’s major or may be exploratory in nature.

The Office for Cultural Diversity is collaborating with Breaking the Cycle to provide mentorship opportunities for OCTC students. Students will participate in an experiential learning internship, through which they will mentor up to 10 area youth who are served by the Breaking the Cycle project during the fall 2023 semester. Participating students will enroll in EX 196 (Experiential Education) and earn college credit. Tuition for the course will be waived, allowing students to participate at no cost.

Interested students should contact Maurice Calhoun to learn more.

OCTC’s ELC

The Experiential Learning Center (ELC) is working to give every OCTC student the tools and resources needed for success. We want to provide open and equitable

The ELC workshops offered cover a variety of valuable skills such as building resumes, writing an effective cover letter, developing strong study habits, time management, and more! These workshops are open to everyone and are Merit approved to help build a strong, co-curricular resume. We share internship and job opportunities through Handshake, which connects students with potential employers across the country. The ELC can help students navigate this all-in-one, early-talent, recruiting platform to discover employment and internship opportunities.

The ELC is funded by a US Department of Education Title III grant. For more information about the ELC, please contact us at octc.elc@kctcs.edu or by stopping by the Pathfinder Den.