Your Path to Success

Whether your focus is on business, science, education or the arts, your experiences at St. Ambrose will pave the way to a successful future. Expect your communication skills-and your confidence-to increase significantly during your first semester, and those new skills to benefit you both socially and academically.

Learn by doing

In many majors, such as education and nursing, you're in the classroom or clinic your first year. It's all about helping you discern the right fit for the career path you've chosen.

Think of every experience as a learning opportunity. Through organizations like Ambrosians for Peace & Justice, Campus Ministry, and the Service Learning Department, you'll have the chance to participate in community service activities that will not only benefit those in need, but also shape who you are as a person.

Last year, the Ambrose chapter of Habitat for Humanity created "Shanty Town," a collection of makeshift tents in which 18 students and faculty slept overnight to raise awareness about homelessness during Multicultural Week. Recent alum Phil Reges '08 says shedding light on poverty and the right to live in decent housing allows students to see beyond their "bubble" of existence on campus.

Helpful pit stops

• Visit the Career Center early and often. The relationship you develop with the helpful staff members at the Center will enable you to:
  • Take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Strong Interest Inventory, and other assessment tools
  • Learn about and apply for internships
  • Build an electronic portfolio
  • Identify experiential learning opportunities
  • Participate in mock interviews with actual employers
  • Interact with the community through job fairs
• Through internships, you can explore different fields or put your interests into practice. Computer science major David Bloom '08, earned internships at Opera and Google after reporting glitches in their systems. Bloom got to work on doing what he likes best: searching out and fixing software problems.

Traveling through

Study abroad can stretch your capabilities and confidence. When Rachel Taylor '09 traveled to Italy to study theology, not only did she experience a different culture, she felt the history of the country. Students learned to articulate both the common threads linking and the features unique to periods of Christian tradition. In other words, they learned to explain in what ways we are very much like those who have gone before us and in what other ways we are compelled to strike out on new paths. "Being at the ground level and actually touching the places we had studied made all the difference."