Connecting Classrooms to Careers An Introduction to Political Science

Political science is a wide-ranging discipline which covers American politics, global studies, public administration and policy, and more. The study of politics and policy can produce rewarding careers in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Unfortunately, the path from studying political science to a rewarding career is not always a clear one. This book provides information and tools that help students explore the connections between their classrooms and careers in the field of political science. It first does so by outlining the wide array of career opportunities across the discipline’s subfields. It then provides a framework that helps students think about how the knowledge, skills, and experiences they gain in and out of the classroom can contribute to their employability. Finally, the book uses job ads for entry-level positions in popular policy areas (e.g., health care, immigration, economic policy) to demonstrate this connection in a way that is relevant to students’ near-term employment goals. In short, it provides a roadmap to help get students from classroom to career. Waite and Wheeler’s Connecting Classrooms to Careers in Political Science provides the tools to help faculty convince students that political science is an employable field of study, and for students to translate their experiences in college into evidence of their employability, all in a format that is useful to students and their parents, faculty, advisors, guidance counselors, librarians, and other education professionals.