Preparing Students for an Ever-Changing World

By: Thomas Kunkel, Interim President

Just before I was invited to write this editorial – on how St. Norbert College is preparing tomorrow’s workforce – I read about one of our juniors, a biology-turned-business major who recently wrapped up an exclusive internship with national department store chain Von Maur. The internship was offered after a classroom encounter with CEO Jim Von Maur, when our student bowled him over with her questions and enthusiasm. “She was so sharp, curious, engaging and had a lot of energy,” Von Maur said.

Add to the list “effective communicator, critical thinker, adaptable problem solver, and hard worker,” and you’ve summed up what employers throughout the region say of SNC grads.

Our graduates enter the workforce with a broad liberal arts foundation, a solid intellectual grounding and a strong professional focus. They carry with them ample handson experience gained through invaluable internships, collaborative research opportunities, global experiences, and a history of service within our broader communities. They have the freedom to discover their calling, then have the support to build the skills, knowledge, and résumé to go after it.

It pays off: 96 percent of our students are employed or in grad school nine months after graduation, and our alumni loan default rate is a mere 1.4 percent, meaning our graduates get the good-paying jobs necessary to pay back their loans. And about one-third of our students graduate with no debt, thanks in part to our four-year graduation guarantee. Our partnerships with the Medical College of Wisconsin-Green Bay, located on our campus, and with the Bellin College of Nursing are helping to solve the labor shortage in the healthcare industry. And our teacher-education program gets aspiring teachers into the classroom quickly and often, which is critical as our state feels the impact of a growing teacher shortage. In fact, our graduates are so sought-after, our teacher-education graduate placement rate has reached 100 percent.

Those successes have helped SNC rise in college rankings, and we’re now proudly listed among the top liberal arts colleges in the country.

Here, we’re committed to making a St. Norbert education accessible to all, by offering merit- and need-based scholarships (97 percent of our students receive some form of financial aid). And with each year comes renewed hope and joy as more St. Norbert graduates head out into the world to serve the common good.

After all, higher education is inherently optimistic: Our students enroll to achieve a brighter future, and our faculty, staff, and administrators work tirelessly to help them get there.