Career Accelerator Fall 2025

For those who are not familiar with the paid internship class (ELI 349 - Innovation at Work), you do not have to find your internship. On the first day of class, we will have a list of available, paid internships. All are for off-campus organizations. You will select your favorites and will apply. Not all students receive interviews at every organization to which they apply and not all interviews end up in job offers. That said, we have a track record of 100% of our students getting internships in this class. The seminar portion of the class includes a lot of career readiness work and guest speakers. We emphasize financial literacy.

Students meeting with facultyThe Career Accelerator enhances the value of your liberal arts education. It will absorb and expand the current Career Center, and partner with the Bates Center.

A liberal arts education develops critical thinking, problem-solving, adaptability, and communication skills. To maximize entry level career opportunities for our students, we must also acknowledge that many employers seek candidates who can demonstrate technical competencies alongside these foundational skills.

The Career Accelerator ensures that students continue to benefit from the broad intellectual foundation of a liberal arts education while also gaining the practical skills needed to secure competitive jobs after graduation. By integrating the Bates Center’s technical skills courses and structured internships into the Lewis & Clark experience, students will be better positioned to access well-paying, mission-driven careers that align with their personal and professional aspirations.

The Career Accelerator amplifies the value of liberal arts. The core of liberal arts is storytelling - understanding complex narratives, constructing compelling arguments, and making meaning from diverse perspectives. Many of the technical skills students will gain through the Career Accelerator (such as data visualization, Excel, AI, etc.) serve as tools that enhance storytelling and persuasion.

This approach strengthens Lewis & Clark’s commitment to preparing students for lives of purpose and impact. By pairing the depth of a liberal arts education with targeted, high-impact career development experiences, the Career Accelerator ensures that our graduates are not only well-rounded thinkers but also highly employable professionals in nonprofit and for profit spaces.

This fall, there are 30 spots open for students to enroll in one of two paid internship classes. The only prerequisites for professor permission to enroll in the class are:

1. Be a rising Junior or Senior (if you will have Junior standing this fall but plan to be here more than two more years, we ask that you not take the course yet).
2. Have time in your schedule to work 8-10 hours per week in addition to the class seminar time/homework and your other classes/activities.
3. Have taken an ELI 211 skills class or are simultaneously enrolled in one this fall (later, the rule likely will be to have already taken one, but we are being flexible for this fall).
4. Email Chrys Hutchings at chryshutchings@lclark.edu for permission to enroll in the class (confirm to her that the above parameters apply to you).

The 211 one credit Skills Classes for this fall are:

1. Data Visualization - Mo 3:00pm - 5:00pm
2. Excel - We 3:00pm - 5:00pm
3. SEO - Th 6:00pm - 8:00pm
4. Website Building - Tu 6:00pm - 8:00pm
5. AI Prompt Engineering - Mo 3:00pm - 5:00pm
6. Salesforce - Th 3:30pm - 5:30pm