Column:UWSPpreparesstudentsforsuccessinanyfield
Stevens Point Journal | July 24, 2014 As I write this, I’m anxiously awaiting the birth of my first grandchild. She is due July 29. When I head to Oklahoma to meet her, I will find out exactly how many photos my iPhone will hold. Mackenzie Lee will be the fourth generation Patterson to share the same middle name. My mother was Mauda Lee. Mackenzie’s mother, my daughter, is Susan Lee. Some aspects of life are passed down through generations. Some change rapidly in a few years. I’m filled with anticipation, joy and hope for Mackenzie Lee. I wonder what will interest her. What will her educational experience look and feel like? What career path she will pursue? Many of you with children or grandchildren have wondered what the future holds for the next generation. Whether our precious little ones are entering kindergarten or college, we want to support them and see them succeed. My sister and I were the first in our family to graduate from high school, and education is important to me. Will classrooms as we know them exist in 10 or 20 years? When I was in college, there were no online classes. I wrote term papers on a typewriter. My daughter used a personal computer for her research papers. What tools will Mackenzie use? Today, students create presentations on a virtual canvas with cloud‐based software that allows them to zoom in and out. Interactive Smart boards have replaced blackboards. Digitized classrooms encourage collaboration across town and across the country. My bachelor’s degree was in technology, and I completed it in 1973. Computers were not widely used then, and we didn’t surf the World Wide Web. For historical context, the first worldwide telecast by an entertainer, Elvis Presley, occurred in January that year. And in April 1973, the first hand‐held mobile phone call was made by an inventor at Motorola in New York City. Many of today’s college majors did not exist when I chose my college course of study. Consider a few examples from the University of Wisconsin‐Stevens Point: web and digital media development, geographic information systems and spatial analysis, or our newest resource management emphasis: wildland fire science. Historically, the top five areas of college study have remained consistent: business, education, engineering, health professions (and related sciences) and the social sciences (such as history, psychology and sociology). These were the most popular bachelor’s degrees conferred in the United States, according to a comparison that goes back to 1960. Education was the most popular field, with about 23 percent of students pursuing degrees to be teachers in 1960. It continued to lead, but gradually declined in popularity during the next 50 years. Business, the second most popular major in 1960, jumped to the top spot by 1980 and has held steady with more than 20 percent of bachelor’s degrees conferred since then. Social science peaked in 1970 at 18 percent of degrees. Business and education will likely continue to be popular majors, according to Angie Kellogg, director of Academic and Career Advising at UWSP. Angie, whose eldest son will begin college in the fall, keeps her finger on the pulse on up‐and‐coming careers. She tells me that health and technology fields will continue growing in the next decade. Occupations including registered nurses, medical technicians, elementary school teachers and accountants are projected to experience strong job growth in the next decade. As society changes, other jobs are emerging and expected to grow in areas such as mobile applications, cyber security, robotics, big data and sustainability. It’s difficult to predict what jobs will be hot in 20 years. That’s why we need to help students develop skills and aptitudes to succeed in any field. As educator Karl Fisch says: “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” And that’s why we call it a liberal, or broad‐based education. We don’t know what the future will hold, for Mackenzie or for your children and grandchildren. But we do know this: We’ll be with them every step of the way. Bernie L. Patterson is chancellor for the University of Wisconsin‐Stevens Point. http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/story/life/2014/07/25/column‐uwsp‐prepares‐students‐success‐
field/13099463/