UVA Career Academies — Online Education and Digital Innovation

The Office of the Vice Provost for Online Education and Digital Innovation (OEDI) at UVA is excited to offer UVA Career Academies.

We piloted UVA Career Academies with the stress of the current job market in mind. Many students struggle to land full-time roles without internship experience, and many others face barriers to participating in a traditional internship in the first place. These barriers may include:

a lack of transportation to and from the internship site
an inability to find affordable housing in the area where the internship is taking place
a prior commitment to a paid job not connected to one's career aspirations
home responsibilities, such as caretaking or running a family business
athletic schedules
rigorous academic and/or extracurricular schedules

In creating the virtual, asynchronous, and collaborative format of Career Academies, we hoped to address these issues and help students navigate career readiness obstacles.

Of the 255 past participants in UVA Career Academies, many were student athletes, student leaders, students with concurrent jobs or internships, and students preparing to apply for admission to one of UVA's many excellent programs in Data Science, Commerce, and more.

Want to learn more? We welcome you to read more below and fill out the form at the bottom of the page if you are interested in participating, whether as an employer or a student.

UVA staff, faculty and students pose together in a conference room in front of a TV screen and between two decorative banners.

UVA Summer Career Academy students posing with UVA faculty and Riipen executives at a post-project celebration.

A vice provost presents to a group of students while standing in front of a screen.

Vice Provost Kemi Jona speaking to students at a recent post-project celebration event.

Two female students wearing white shirts present a slide to their peers.

Students presenting their work at the most recent UVA Career Academies post-project celebration.

A male student and a female student standing on opposite sides of a screen present their work as part of a slideshow.

Students present their work with UVA Institutional Research & Analytics (IRA) at a recent UVA Career Academies post-project celebration event.

Two female students present their work in front of a room full of students and executives seated at three tables.

Students present their work at a post-project celebration for the J-Term Clubs Career Academy.

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What are career academies?

UVA Career Academies are experiential learning opportunities that fuse online career-connected learning via Google Career Certificates with virtual asynchronous employer projects through the Riipen platform. You will collaborate in teams of up to five fellow UVA students to complete asynchronous career-based coursework and apply this learning to an employer project in real time. In the end, you will emerge with valuable hands-on experience in your chosen field and industry-recognized certifications to boost professional development.

How do career academies work?

Career academies begin when you are matched to a project based on your indicated area of interest, otherwise known as a project track. You and up to five fellow students will be assigned to a team within your chosen track. If you are participating as part of a club, your teammates may be fellow club members; however, all students are welcome to participate regardless of club affiliation.

Next, you will work toward a Google Career Certificate before directly applying this learning in collaboration with teammates while completing a Riipen employer project.

Finally, you will conclude your project and complete key deliverables such as a post-project survey. At the end of the project, we invite you to celebrate your accomplishment a networking event with peers, UVA faculty, and company executives.

A timeline graphic detailing the process of UVA Career Academies.

An infographic details the timeline of a traditional UVA Career Academy, beginning with 1) team assignment, then funneling into 2) career-connected learning and 3) a Riipen project kickoff before concluding with 4) the completion of project deliverables and 5) an in-person team celebration and recognition event.

Our next iteration of Career Academies, AI4VA, will take place this summer. Student onboarding and outreach officially begins in March; however, if you or your club are interested in this opportunity, feel free to email us at oedi@virginia.edu.

What are Google Career Certificates?

Google Career Certificates are online, asynchronous career-connected learning programs powered by Grow With Google. Course programs are taught by experts in technology fields such as UX/UI, Data Analytics, AI & Web Development, and more. Google Career Certificates are designed with busy schedules in mind and can be completed in anywhere from 3-6 months, meaning that you can set your own learning pace.

Through our partnership with Grow With Google, we are pleased to offer these exciting skill-building certifications at no cost to UVA students. As part of UVA Career Academies, you will be asked to complete at least the first course in your given certificate to ensure you have the basic knowledge you need to succeed.

Learn more about Google Career Certificates here.

I want to participate in an UVA Career Academy. Which project track should I pursue?

In the past, students have pursued Google Career Certificates and/or completed employer projects in the following tech tracks:

AI/Prompting Essentials
AI & Web Development
Business Financial Consulting
Cybersecurity
Data Analytics
Digital Marketing & E-Commerce
Project Management
UI/UX Design

Ultimately, you should choose a project track that you enjoy and that is aligned with your academic and/or career goals.

What is an employer project?

An employer project is a virtual, team-based project wherein students collaborate in a team to accomplish a shared goal for a small- to mid-sized employer sponsor.

Thanks to our partnership with Riipen, a leading experiential learning platform, we are able to match UVA students with employers in their field(s) of interest and provide them with second-to-none employer experiences. In the past, students have worked with employers across the country, including Toyz Electronics, Feminine Intelligence Agency, MyEdMaster, and even UVA-based employers.

Our unique format ensures that you will receive direct communication and guidance from your employer, enabling you to make key connections and understand how a company functions up close.

Why should I participate in an UVA Career Academy?

Participation in a UVA Career Academy comes with many benefits, including:

Obtaining industry-recognized credentials and valuable hands-on experience in your chosen field, all of which can be added to your LinkedIn profile and resume
Direct communication with company executives and exposure to company structure
Collaborating and networking with your peers, UVA faculty, and company leadership
Creating a tangible work artifact
If participating as part of a club: greater group cohesion

Don't just take it from us. Hear from past Career Academy participants on what their experience means to them:

a quote in navy blue with orange faded quotation marks detailing student experience in a UVA Career Academy

QUOTE: "I think this is a great way to get experience while still in school. There wasn't too much work when combined with academic work, so it's totally worth it. You get to learn how to act when employed and what things to do to maintain professionalism post graduation." -KK, second-year student

QUOTE: "I really liked this experience, it really shows you what a working environment in a company looks like, and it gets you familiar with the type of stuff you would be working with in your future job. It gives you a hands-on experience, which helps me learn way faster, like, for example, I have never used Unity in my life, and I would say now I have a general understanding of the main components of Unity." -JS, fourth-year student

QUOTE: "Taking part in an employer project is a unique way to learn while gaining real-life work experience. This experience is distinct in that you are not given many strict guidelines or rubric, and you must learn how to collaborate within a team efficiently in order to follow the employers' needs. This allows for a mix of all talents and skillsets--creativity, time management, leadership, adaptability, and teamwork." -CB, second-year student

QUOTE: "Being able to work this closely with members of a team, understanding their thought-processes, working alongside them and figuring out a plan-of-action together, there are so many soft skills that this experience preps you for. The more you immerse yourself, the more you get out of it, and the more experience and fulfillment you achieve." - SY, fourth-year student

QUOTE: "The online career experience allowed me to work from the comfort of home and was super flexible in terms of time, which I appreciated. I was able to save time and money that it would take to go to an in-person office!" -NT, second-year student

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Read transcript

[TRISTAN DAVIN] Hi, I'm Tristen Davin. I'm from Littleton, Colorado. I'm a third year and I'm studying data science.

[NO AUDIO] What motivated you to participate in a Career Academy?

[TRISTAN DAVIN] I think it was my athletic advisor [who] helped me choose it, and I thought it was a really great option for the summer and I really enjoyed it.

[NO AUDIO] What did you gain from participating in an employer project?

[TRISTAN DAVIN] I think that working in a team for the first time on an actual project was really good for me and learning those valuable skills of just communicating.

[NO AUDIO] How did this project connect to your broader career goals?

[TRISTAN DAVIN] I plan on doing something centered around data analytics, and I feel like this mapping modality project really helped me build these skills and also just work in a team.

[NO AUDIO] Which challenges did you encounter - and how did you overcome them?

[TRISTAN DAVIN] I think that uncovering the mysteries behind data is magical and that just uncovering the truth and finding your own opinion on the data is really unique.

[NO AUDIO] What lessons did you learn from participating in an employer project?

[TRISTAN DAVIN] Doing this has made me realize that everyone has different schedules, everyone does different things, and just finding a time to put aside to actually do a project can turn out really well. Real-world data is really, really messy, and it's really hard to work with.

[NO AUDIO] If you had a friend who was interested in participating in Career Academies, what would you tell them?

[TRISTAN DAVIN] I would tell them definitely to do it 'cause it's low stress and also you get a lot out of it.

[NO AUDIO] Describe your Career Academy experience in one word.

[TRISTAN DAVIN] I would sum up my experience as thought-provoking.

Third-year data science major and UVA swimmer Tristen Davin discusses the benefits and unique opportunities that come from working on a virtual employer project.

Evan Kutsko

Read transcript

[NO AUDIO] What motivated you to participate in a Career Academy?

[CATHERINE GETTENS] I had so many different interests coming out of my first year, and I really viewed the Summer Career Academy as an opportunity to evaluate each of those interests in a corporate environment.

[NO AUDIO] What did you learn from your chosen project path?

[CATHERINE GETTENS] I did a Google certificate in business strategy, and I am a STEM major, so that was a really important skill I developed, and it really opened my eyes to the need to be well-rounded in the workforce. Initially, I viewed specialization is the best way to go, but after sitting on meetings with a founder, I really learned that it's important to have a business IQ and understand each of the different aspects.

[NO AUDIO] What did you find most valuable about your experience?

[CATHERINE GETTENS] I really valued the experience to work with students from different grades and from different academic backgrounds. Although we didn't all have the same task, just being able to sit on the same meeting and discuss ideas and different projects was really valuable. I learned things from finance and growth and supply chain all just from this experience.

[NO AUDIO] If you had a friend who was interested in participating in Career Academies, what would you tell them?

[CATHERINE GETTENS] I would say 100% participate in the summer career academy. As a first year, I was a bit skeptical how effective I would be as an intern, but the way the program's set up, you take a summer course, mine was on business strategy, and then, only then when you complete the course, can you officially begin your internship. So going in, after having taken the course, I had a lot more confidence and really felt that I could make an impact with the new skills I developed.

[NO AUDIO] Describe your Career Academy experience in one word. [CATHERINE GETTENS] I would describe my experience as immersive.

Second-year data science student Catherine Gettens recounts her experience in a business strategy Career Academy.

Evan Kutsko

Read transcript

[AMRIT KAUR] Hi, my name is Amrit and I am a second year computer science student from Leesburg, Virginia.

[NO AUDIO] How did you hear about Career Academies?

[AMRIT KAUR] So, I first heard about career academies through Women in Computer Science and I decided to join because I wanted to do something over the summer where I can get hands-on industry experience.

[NO AUDIO] What did you gain from participating in an employer project?

[AMRIT KAUR] Working With the employer was cool too, because we scheduled calls and I kind of got a feel of what it's like in like the real world when you're really working with these kind of teams.

[NO AUDIO] What about the collaborative format of Career Academies worked for you?

[AMRIT KAUR] A lot of this for my group was online, and so I had to learn a lot about how to collaborate with others and split up tasks, especially with the real world setting and things that we had to do.

[NO AUDIO] Tell us about your best collaborative experience.

[AMRIT KAUR] The brainstorming and that type of like, before you actually start talking and making documents of all of our ideas and trying to combine them. I think that kind of collaboration was really fun, and, like, really allowed me to think of new perspectives, too.

[NO AUDIO]: If you had a friend who was interested in participating in Career Academies, what would you tell them?

[AMRIT KAUR] I would tell them to honestly join, because I think the interesting aspect of it is, like, the certificate part. The fact that you get learning before the experience is honestly, like, really useful, and you can honestly use that later on, too. Even if you decide you don't wanna go towards that career path, you'll still learn a lot and like you'll be able to use these skills in other types of roles as well.

[NO AUDIO] Describe your Career Academy experience in one word.

[AMRIT KAUR] I would describe this experience as hands-on.

Third-year computer science student Amrit Kaur shares her experience working with a group on a virtual employer project.

Evan Kutsko

Resources

Are you a leader of a contracted independent organization (CIO) seeking to bring this experience to your group? Feel free to download the slide deck and/or one-pager below to share information with members.

How do I get involved?

Interested in participating in a UVA Career Academy, either as a student, employer, or as part of a student club?

Fill out the form below and a member of our team will be in contact with you shortly.

UVA Career Academies One-Pager

View this one-page flyer to learn more about Career Academies and share with peers.

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