RAPPORT
Volume 3 Issue 1 (2018)
The International Journal for
Recording Achievement,
Planning and Portfolios
CHARTING A COURSE FROM CLASSROOM TO CAREER:
MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE’S ATLAS COMPASS CLASS
Gillian Greenhill Hannum
Professor of Art History and Director, Atlas ePortfolio Program
Michaela D. Muckell BA ‘17 MAT ‘18
Manhattanville College, USA
Abstract
This article unpacks the specifics of a course offered in Manhattanville College’s Atlas
ePortfolio Program, an optional, credit-bearing series of courses designed to help
students make the transition from college to career and to capitalise on the benefits of a
liberal arts education. Following a brief history of the program and an overview of its
design, the authors provide an in-depth look at the learning objectives and activities in a
course in the program designed for 3rd and 4th year students from the perspectives of
both the faculty member teaching the class and a student who enrolled in it.
The connection between the liberal arts
and career has not always been an easy
one; indeed, liberal arts colleges have
received significant criticism in recent
years for not adequately preparing
students for careers (Sidhu & Calderon,
2014; Busteed, 2015; Badal, 2016). In
2016, supported by a two-year, $100,000
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant,
Manhattanville College, a liberal arts
institution in the New York City suburbs,
launched its Atlas ePorfolio Program.
Manhattanville has had a long history
with portfolio-based education, having
introduced a required paper portfolio for
all undergraduates in the early 1970s, but
this new program was designed to be
elective and student-focused, with
scaffolded courses developmentally
appropriate for each of the four years of
college. The emphasis of the courses
targeting students in their last two years
of undergraduate study is the transition
from classroom to career.
This article will give a brief overview of
the design process and implementation
of the Atlas program as a whole and then
take an in-depth look at Atlas Compass,
a course open to Juniors and Seniors
(third and final year students). It will
examine the curriculum, class exercises
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