Create Success With the Degree Design Lab

Design your education for the future you want.

With technological advancements moving as quickly as they are, it's hard to know what kinds of job titles people will hold in the future. One thing remains certain: Employers want to hire people who can innovate and solve problems.

"Given a world in which machines will perform much of what we view as knowledge work, colleges will have to reduce their emphasis on knowledge transfer, and pivot to building students' capacity for coming up with original ideas."
—Joseph Aoun, "Robot-Proof: How Colleges Can Keep People Relevant in the Workplace"
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2016

The Integrative Professional Studies major at Champlain is designed to develop your creative problem-solving skills and promote interdisciplinary solutions.

How does the Degree Design Lab prepare you for career success?

By the time you graduate, you'll be able to speak confidently about what you can offer in the workplace, and your résumé will detail your impressive accomplishments. Your portfolio will track your development in each of Champlain College's competencies over time and serve as evidence that you have mastered the skills employers prize the most.

In addition to being experienced in your chosen fields, you'll be well versed in interdisciplinary thinking. Creative solutions are often born from combining different tools or ideas in a new way; many of the world's significant inventions came from combining existing technologies. The interdisciplinary experience you'll gain in the Degree Design Lab will provide you with numerous resources to tap and give you important practice in making the kinds of connections that can spark new ideas.

"Designing courses that are cross-disciplinary, where one discipline learns from the perspective of another, or interdisciplinary, where the disciplines are integrated ... prepare[s] students for jobs, opening doors rather than closing them."
—Zahir Irani, "The University of the Future will be Interdisciplinary"
The Guardian, 2018

In addition to your program studies and faculty mentorship, all Champlain students learn personal finance, salary negotiation, interviewing skills, and other success-building approaches through our unique InSight program. You'll even graduate with your own student loan repayment plan, empowering you to be in control of your budget.