More than a job: Gaining career-ready skills at the library

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Western Michigan University continues to level up student learning by enhancing and growing experiential learning opportunities. Instead of solely learning skills from textbooks, students are gaining them from hands-on, practical activities in the classroom and skills-building internships and job experiences.

Teaching students how to navigate the information universe is one way University Libraries helps them achieve academic success and thrive after graduation. Outside the classroom, we are enhancing our student employment opportunities by crafting meaningful, resume-building experiences. Campus jobs might be students’ first job experience or opportunity to work in a professional setting. These early job experiences can help them gain critical skills that prepare them for internships and future careers.

Building connections on the marketing team

An average day on the Libraries’ marketing team could include everything from event planning to capturing moments on camera to creating content for social media.

Student employees Angela Fenstermaker, Hannah Malloy and Kira Paluch have learned to be flexible when priorities and projects change—a helpful skill in most careers.

“I've learned how to quickly adapt when things don't go to plan,” says Paluch, a fine arts major. “I've also been able to feel less anxious about not knowing how to do something right away, due to having a space to learn in without judgment.”

Students gain experience with photo and video production, content creation, writing, event planning, logistics and project management. One of the team’s favorite content creation projects is “on the street” videos, where they interview fellow students around campus about a topic.

“Doing ‘on the street’ style videos helps to show how close the library is to the community, and I like to help build those,” says Fenstermaker, a film, video and media studies major.

“It's been so enriching to hear the perspectives of students I'd normally never interact with,” Paluch adds. “It has also given me more friendly faces when on campus and that is always amazing.”

Collaborating with team members and building connections as informal ambassadors of the library has also enhanced their Western experience.

“Working at the library has definitely deepened my connection to the WMU campus,” says Malloy, an elementary education major. “With every shift, I get to fully immerse myself in the campus community, whether it’s by exploring the campus itself, researching the history of the University, or interacting with the students here.”

Planning, recording, interviewing and video editing are just a few skills learned while developing content, notes Sara Volmering, marketing manager.

“I like to challenge my students to pitch ideas for our Instagram accounts that will engage our audiences,” Volmering says. “It gives them the opportunity to see their ideas come to life. Some ideas move forward, others don’t. This is exactly what future professionals will experience in their careers.”

Gaining experience in project management, event planning, writing and video editing are valuable skills for any career.

“Even if you’re not a marketer, being a savvy communicator is important in almost any job you could have,” Volmering says. 

“Although I’m heading into elementary education, this experience has strengthened my skills in collaboration, organization and planning—skills necessary for a career as a teacher,” says Malloy.

“This job has already begun to help me in building my resume,” Paluch adds. “When applying to be the vice president of community relations for my Greek organization, I was able to reference my experience making content for the library during our application process.”

Unique experiences with distinctive collections

Student employees at the Zhang Legacy Collections Center get hands-on experience with our distinctive collections. Helping visiting researchers, assisting with class visits, working on conservation projects and curating exhibits gives employees at the Center plenty of experience working with unique collections.

For Benjamin Smith, a public history major, working at the Center has been an “invaluable experience” for building his resume as an aspiring archivist.

“Having a dedicated archive on campus in a separate and modern building has given me experience that is impressive to employers and that I would be unable to get at many similar institutions in Michigan,” Smith says.

Experience with customer service, communication and conversation skills are great resume additions for Leo Gingerich, a psychology major.

“Before Zhang, I had never really done anything similar, and I didn't have much job experience overall,” Gingerich says. “I have gained and refined a plethora of skills. I can boast about unique skills and forklift training that might not be on many other resumes of people in college.

“It also shows me and others that I really can learn anything for any job so long as there is training involved,” Gingerich adds.

Smith noted one of his favorite projects was developing an exhibit about WIDR FM, Western’s student-run radio station. The exhibit was installed at Waldo Library and showcased WIDR’s history and the unique artifacts preserved in the WMU Archives.

“Being able to freely dictate what to include and how to arrange them allowed me to express myself and my own preferences through the display case,” Smith adds. “As a person whose work is mostly behind the scenes, it was rewarding to see the impact that my display case had on people that saw it. I often heard ‘How did you find this stuff?’ and ‘I never knew about that!’”

Although work at the Center might be peaceful, it is rarely boring and could be likened to detective work from time to time.

“I once had to go through three legal ledgers looking for one court case to help out someone who wanted help finding a family member for some research they were conducting,” adds Gingerich.

Working at the Center gave both Gingerich and Smith an appreciation for the Libraries’ role in the campus community and the history of Western and Kalamazoo.

“It's not just one person searching something up on a computer,” Gingerich says. “It's a whole collection of different workers and different specialists and curators.”

Interacting with the team and patrons has added context to better understand Kalamazoo and what the community needs, Smith adds.

“My experience working for the library has given me a deeper appreciation for Kalamazoo and WMU, both fixtures with storied histories that are exhibited in the archives at the Zhang better than anywhere else.”

For more WMU news, arts and events, visit WMU News online.