Academics & Records Field Period®
Because Field Period® is self-designed, the sky is the limit with where you choose to go. Accessible through the College's Portal, there are many resources to help students find Field Period® sites including a database of past experiences and through employer postings on our Career Management System, Handshake. Faculty, staff, and alumni also serve as valuable resources for finding sites, and many students rely on additional networks including friends, family, past supervisors, and community members as well.
Prior to doing a Field Period® experience, students must submit a course proposal, which consists of a learning contract and a thank you letter, for faculty and site approval. The learning contract identifies their site, supervisor, and what they expect to do and learn from that experience. During the experience, students will keep a reflective journal. At the end of the experience, the student and site supervisor will be sent a Final Evaluation to complete and the student will be required to create a summary paper and put together a presentation that displays his/her learning through unique documentation.
Keuka College's Field Period® program is an annual, self-designed experience that gives students a chance to explore their interests. It can be an internship, observation, cultural experience, community service project, artistic endeavor, or spiritual-based exploration. Briefly stated, it is a chance for students to gain experiences in the fields that interest them for a short period of time.
Field Period® is a 140-hour course. Students are required to complete at least 120 on-site hours towards each Field Period® experience and an additional 20-hours will be dedicated to the reflective assignments. Occupational Science students divide their Field Period® courses in half and therefore they complete at least 60-hours in two different settings for each three-credit Field Period®.
Keuka College offers faculty-led group Field Period® trips on a regular basis. Information is advertised through fliers, emails, and interest sessions. Recent courses abroad include Vietnam, Netherlands, Hungary and Romania, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Spain, and Ireland. Keuka College also partners with organizations such as GIVE Volunteers, which allows students to do service work in Thailand, Tanzania, Nepal, and Laos. Sometimes, students also seek opportunities that are not affiliated with Keuka College. Students will work with the Office of Global Affairs and the Field Period Office to align with College policies and procedures.
Deadlines are established on the Keuka College Academic Calendar for when Field Period® course proposals and approvals are due for the upcoming Field Period® term. Typically, about a month before the end of the fall/spring semester is when January/summer course proposals are due, and about one week prior to the end of the semester is when faculty and site approvals are due. After the experience, about two weeks into the following semester, faculty are required to submit grades, so students must submit their assignments and present on their experiences prior.
You think it’s only NBA players that are lured out of college early to start their careers?
Listen to Julianna Zizzo ’22, a sophomore and future teacher who is already fighting off job offers thanks to the unique opportunities afforded by Keuka College’s Field Period ® program:
“After my first Field Period®,” she says, “I was offered two jobs at the two different sites I went to.”
That’s not uncommon. The immersive, on-the-job opportunities that Field Periods® provide not only give Keuka College students extensive, real-world experience, they give would-be employers a look at potential new hires.
Quite often, they like what they see.
Sini Ngobese ’15 is one of many alumni who had a job waiting for them upon graduation thanks to a successful Field Period®. The Management major spent her sophomore stint with a Boston-based Fortunate 500 company that came calling two years later.
“I’ve got a dream job in a dream industry,” says Sini, who credits Field Period® with helping to make her career-ready. “I have a résumé I can be proud of and every accolade on there, I can point to ten people on campus who helped me.”
Like Sini, Julianna is completing her degree before entertaining any job offers. But she’s already realized another benefit of the Field Period® model: Confidence in her career choice.
“Field Period® opens doors to possible jobs and it helps students get their feet wet in their possible life occupation,” says Julianna. “Some students may realize they want to change their major because a Field Period® experience helped them make that decision. For me, I realized that teaching is what I was meant to do.”
For information about Field Period® or to apply to Keuka College, visit keuka.edu/admissions/freshman.
Each Field Period® course—which consists of the experience and reflective assignments—is worth three academic credits. Students should review their Program Evaluations to understand which Field Period® course requirements they must complete for their major. Field Period® courses are graded as pass/fail. A passing Field Period® course will should up as an "S" for "satisfactory" on a student's transcript.
Keuka College's Field Period® program helps students connect academic learning to real world experiences. It often helps them with their major and career decisions as well as develop transferable and industry-specific skills. Additionally, the Field Period® program allows students to develop professional networks and strong resumes as they experience working with different environments and populations.