Upside Down: Rethinking When Career Learning Starts

Most colleges say they do experiential learning. Alex Hernandez can tell you exactly what separates the ones that mean it.

Alex is president of Champlain College, a small career-focused school in Burlington, Vermont, where students start taking classes in their major on day one — not junior year. The model is built on a simple premise: experience is part of the education, not a bonus you might get around to.

Alex Hernandez has spent his career thinking about how education creates opportunity. His father was a farm worker; his first job was on Wall Street. For 20-plus years, he's been working on what it takes to make that kind of leap accessible to more students. He came to Champlain because it was doing that — deliberately, not by accident.

What we cover:

• Champlain's upside-down curriculum — why students start their major on day one, and what that makes possible for internships and career exploration in year one
• How the curriculum works for students who don't know what they want yet, including a Lego-block model that lets students combine and remix across majors
• What a campus-based internship actually looks like — and why it's a meaningful bridge experience
• The recent curriculum redesign: Flex 30 credits, interdisciplinary studios, and co-ops that let students earn and learn without delaying graduation
• What families should actually ask when a college claims to do experiential learning — and which statistics to push on
• Why work-integrated learning is harder to build than it sounds, and what it takes to do it in a way that sticks

What Parents Should Ask:

• Does experiential learning happen at the core of the program, or at the fringes?
• What percentage of your graduating class do you actually survey for employment outcomes?
• What is the school doing to help students access internships — or are students on their own to find them?

Connect with Alex

Champlain College website: https://www.champlain.edu/

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhernandez/

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