{"id":11379,"date":"2024-09-26T08:49:14","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T13:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=11379"},"modified":"2024-09-26T08:51:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T13:51:44","slug":"service-learning-helps-uw-milwaukee-communication-student-land-a-job-before-graduation","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/service-learning-helps-uw-milwaukee-communication-student-land-a-job-before-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"Service-learning helps UW-Milwaukee communication student land a job before graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Christiana Ibiwoye graduated from UWM in May with a master\u2019s in communication. (Photo courtesy of Christiana Ibiwoye)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After volunteering for a children\u2019s organization in her home country of Nigeria, Christiana Ibiwoye knew she wanted to pursue a career working with children. Her experience in service-learning helped her land her dream job even before graduating from UW-Milwaukee in May 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know no matter what you want to do, I think service-learning is really important, and it also opens your eyes to other things going on out there,\u201d Ibiwoye said.<\/p>\n

Ibiwoye came to UWM to pursue a master\u2019s degree in communication after graduating from the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2021. She shared her career goals with her academic advisor, who then connected her with Ben Trager, director of community engagement and experiential learning at the\u00a0Center for Student Experience and Talent<\/a>. Trager was a resource for Ibiwoye and introduced her to service-learning.<\/p>\n

A chance to see class learning in real life<\/h3>\n

Service-learning is a component of a college course that connects students with community projects that are related to the course content. It provides a structured opportunity for reflection on the experience in class discussion or written work. For Ibiwoye, service-learning is a way to see firsthand how \u201cwhat we talked about in class plays out in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her time at UWM, Ibiwoye had two service-learning courses and worked with\u00a0Friendship Circle of Wisconsin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0GiGi\u2019s Playhouse<\/a>, both nonprofits that support individuals with disabilities. The staff were supportive, encouraging and offered an open door to opportunities at their organizations.<\/p>\n

Ibiwoye didn\u2019t realize that service-learning could be added to her resume until she was applying for jobs and discovered the similarities between the skills and experience listed in the position announcements and the work she was doing. Curative Care was impressed with her experience with Friendship Circle and GiGi\u2019s Playhouse and offered Ibiwoye a job. She started working there in June.<\/p>\n

Giving back<\/h3>\n

\u201cI want to just I want to give back to my community in any little way I can,\u201d Ibiwoye said.<\/p>\n

Ibiwoye said she is excited to stay in Milwaukee as she begins her professional career and is happy with her decision to attend UWM. Service-learning helped her create connections to the Milwaukee community, and her openness to the new experiences provided by service-learning classes led to a full-time job.<\/p>\n

Ibiwoye\u2019s advice for future Panthers about service learning: \u201cJust do it and go for it, because you\u2019re going to benefit from it and gain skills that will be useful for your future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Amanda Kienow<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/service-learning-helps-communications-student-land-a-job-before-graduation\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After volunteering for a children\u2019s organization in her home country of Nigeria, Christiana Ibiwoye knew she wanted to pursue a career working with children. Her experience in service-learning helped her land her dream job even before graduating from UW-Milwaukee in May 2024. \u201cI know no matter what you want to do, I think service-learning is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":11406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[107],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-11379","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-milwaukee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/11379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=11379"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=11379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}