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Office of Communications

Office of Communications

YouScience helps Denmark Tech students surpass the competition

Denmark Technical College is utilizing YouScience, an aptitude and career discovery tool to match students’ natural talent and skills with lucrative, in-demand career paths, and industry-recognized certifications. 

YouScience is unique in helping students make more informed choices about pursuing programs. Based in science, the tool uncovers how a student’s brain works to solve problems. Using the data, the proprietary algorithm will point them to potential career clusters that play to their strengths and map their innate skills to careers that require those abilities. Going beyond knowledge checks and interest surveys, YouScience introduces the student to potential careers outside of their immediate exposure, creating conversations about how their individual gifts and skills connect to careers.

“We started using YouScience and immediately noticed an impact on the students. It was like you could see the light bulb go off over their head. It helps students make connections they didn’t know were missing,” said Leslie Holman-Brooks, director of career planning and student success. 

The goal is to help students, who may or may not already have career plans, to have the information they need to make intentional career and educational pathway decisions. 

“Many traditional career placement activities are solely based on interest and do not provide a scientific alignment with aptitudes, interest, and an intersection with careers. However, because of the lack of connectivity and engagement around the data, you are lost in developing your identity formation. Essentially, if you are not sure of who you are, how can you connect with your life’s mission and decisions? The issue is that many students have not had the life experience early on in their educational careers. They lack the preparation to understand how their individual gifts will truly enhance the world. YouScience is different because it connects students to the aptitudes they may have not yet discovered they have. YouScience helps you to create your identity and launches a voice in you that is so powerful that success is inevitable. Having worked with this experience for almost ten years, I have seen the impact that it has made on thousands of students,” said Dr. A. Clifton Myles, executive vice president for administration and innovation and chief strategy officer. 

After students complete the assessment, they meet with academic champions who help them understand their results and guide them in the direction to the career clusters they are matched. 

According to Myles, “This is not a drive-by conversation. This is an intentional conversation about the student, their data, what they can learn from the data and how to use it to make decisions for the future.” 

There are 16 national career clusters including health science, architecture and construction, hospitality and tourism, STEM and business management. 

“Utilizing the credentialing process within these various clusters will yield a win-win situation for all students and people involved,” added Myles. 

“Working with the YouScience program has been such a rewarding experience,” said academic champion Rhonda Cummings. “It’s a breath of fresh air to help young people find a path that’s not only going to be financially rewarding, but personally rewarding as well.” 

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