{"id":26727,"date":"2026-01-21T10:42:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&#038;p=26727"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:42:07","slug":"the-power-of-experiential-learning","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/21\/the-power-of-experiential-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of experiential learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-dean-of-the-college-laurie-ross-on-finding-your-passion-in-college\">Dean of the College Laurie Ross on finding your passion in college<\/h2>\n\n\n<iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; clipboard-write\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"175\" style=\"border:0;width:100%;max-width:800px;overflow:hidden;background:transparent;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-power-of-experiential-learning-with-dean\/id1608025510?i=1000745488112\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Laurie-Ross-800x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"headshot of professor\" class=\"wp-image-20899\" style=\"width:320px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Laurie-Ross-800x800-1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Laurie-Ross-800x800-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Laurie-Ross-800x800-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Laurie-Ross-800x800-1-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/laurie-ross\/\">Laurie Ross<\/a> &#8217;91, M.A. &#8217;95, dean of the college and professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/sustainability-social-justice\/\">sustainability and social justice<\/a>, remembers how important her study abroad experience in Costa Rica was in finding her passion and career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experiential learning can look like study abroad, an internship, serving as president of a campus club, or building a video game with teammates. The path from college to career looks different for each Clarkie, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/academics\/the-clark-experience\/\">The Clark Experience<\/a> helps students harness their creativity and critical thinking skills to graduate with confidence and find success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s really important for students to remember who they are, what they value, and feel confident that the liberal arts education they&#8217;re getting at Clark, coupled with experiential learning, is a beautiful recipe for not just getting the first job, but also getting the jobs after that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Challenge. Change.<\/strong>\u00a0is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4UuYAjq1d3Hq45cjwxoCNL\">Spotify<\/a>\u202for\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/challenge-change\/id1608025510\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group boxout has-deep-red-color has-clarku-background-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-83f19620a48b63c7527ab296d57eb5a8 is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-12dd3699 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"border-width:5px\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-jumpstart-your-career-at-clark\">Jumpstart your career at Clark<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Introducing the Clark University ePortfolio\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/69Z_oqZ9uY4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/offices\/career-connections-center\/\">Explore resources from the Career Connections Center<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/academics\/the-clark-experience\/\">Learn about The Clark Experience<\/a><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-clarku-background-color has-deep-red-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-0460362f86fbccb9465dd61ddb555bff\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10)\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Matt_Goldman_18_Nov_2025-4-1024x683.avif\" alt=\"two people sitting at podcast mics\" class=\"wp-image-26321 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Matt_Goldman_18_Nov_2025-4-1024x683.avif 1024w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Matt_Goldman_18_Nov_2025-4-300x200.avif 300w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Matt_Goldman_18_Nov_2025-4-768x512.avif 768w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Matt_Goldman_18_Nov_2025-4-1536x1024.avif 1536w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Matt_Goldman_18_Nov_2025-4-2048x1365.avif 2048w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Matt_Goldman_18_Nov_2025-4-1200x800.avif 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"h-more-clark-alumni-on-challenge-change\">More Clark alumni on Challenge. Change.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/10\/blue-man-group-creative-communities-and-making-your-idea-reality-with-matt-goldman-83-mba-84-and-laura-camien\/\">Blue Man Group, Creative Communities, and Making Your Idea Reality with Matt Goldman &#8217;83, MBA &#8217;84, and Laura Camien<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/21\/an-introverts-clark-journey\/\">An Introvert&#8217;s Clark Journey with Dean of Students Danielle Morgan Acosta &#8217;05, MAT &#8217;06<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/11\/sublime-symphonies\/\">The Sublime Symphonies of Anton Bruckner with Professor Benjamin Korstvedt &#8217;87<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dean of the College Laurie Ross on finding your passion in college<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26730,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-deep-red)","story_headerImg":26730,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223],"displayed_author":[237],"featured":[494],"topic":[232,230,231,150,176,559],"class_list":["post-26727","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","displayed_author-melissa-hanson","featured-secondary","topic-alumni","topic-career-connections-center","topic-careers","topic-faculty","topic-podcast","topic-the-clark-experience"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The power of experiential learning | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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