Good grades are important, but they are not the whole story of a student’s college experience. Beginning this fall, a co-curricular transcript being offered through Student Life will help fill in the blanks.
Co-Curricular Transcripts are a record of involvement in student organizations, event participation, volunteer efforts, special training and more.
“It is important for students to get recognition for the involvement that they have and any service learning opportunities they participated in while they are in college,” said Anna Kessenich, Assistant Director of Student Life at Spring Creek Campus. “By having this Co-Curricular Transcript, they will be able to fully justify that they completed those activities and programs.”
The transcripts are printed on watermarked paper to prevent forgery. Transcripts can be referenced when interviewing for jobs or attached to a resume. As students transfer to universities, the transcript can show their involvement outside of the classroom.
“One thing we have to keep in mind is that so many of our students have taken the same classes and are transferring with the same amount of credits,” Kessenich said. “They are competing against students from other community colleges who have the same credits and they need something to set themselves apart. The only thing they can really have that sets them apart that is affiliated with their institution is their co-curricular involvement.”
Student Life Publicity Specialist Jovanna Dollins said recording that involvement is a straight-forward process. Students just fill out information under the “Involvement” tab of their personal OrgSync page.
“There is a little green button that says ‘Add Involvement Entries.’ Also every time they do something through an organization, it is going to be added to their transcript automatically,” Dollins said.
As long as it is done through the organization, the group can verify that involvement. For individual events, students can add the involvement on their personal page and choose their role – volunteer, leader, participant or attendee.
Organization membership should automatically show up on a student’s transcript and Kessenich said that Student Life will implement a card swipe system at its events this fall to make event participation entries even easier. Students will just have to swipe their ID cards in card readers provided at Student Life events. Card readers will be available for student organizations to check out for their functions as well.
“We try to it make is so that students don’t have to record every single opportunity, so a lot of it is auto-populated,” she said.
Once a student’s involvement is recorded, he or she can request a Co-Curricular Transcript at https://orgsync.com/involvement/reports in his or her OrgSync portal. Student Life will provide the Co-Curricular Transcripts. For more information, contact any campus Student Life Office.