Author: Coop Marketingintern

This fall, Wichita State launched a new course designed specifically for students beginning their English degree. ENGL 198: English Career Seminar is an eight-week, one-credit-hour class that introduces students to the wide range of possibilities available to English majors and equips them with tools to begin shaping their academic and career pathways.  

The course was developed through collaboration between Dr. Francis X. Connor and Katie Lanning, Department of English, and Sarah Mathews, Shocker Career Accelerator. Together, they created a class that blends academic exploration with practical, career-focused learning.  

“Students often ask, what can I do with an English degree? This course helps answer that question early in their college journey,” said Connor. 

Janett Lerma-Reyes, a mechanical engineering sophomore, was an operations summer 2025 intern at Shuttlewagon. She taught herself SolidWorks, a 3D modeling software, through her LinkedIn Learning student access, which all Wichita State students have access to. Steps that prepared her for her operations intern role.

Shuttlewagon, a mobile railcar mover manufacturer, designs railcar movers for rail yards, industrial facilities and ports. At the Kansas City location, Lerma-Reyes’ work centers around Shuttlewagon’s assembly line processes, improving its efficiency, accuracy and safety for workers. Before starting her role, she took advantage of her First-Year Seminar class, Intro to Tech and Design, learning the basics of continuous improvement.

Are you looking for ways to help your students explore career options and make informed decisions about their future? Attend the upcoming PathwayU: Overview & Advisor Access trainings:

• 11-11:45 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 virtually via Microsoft Teams
• 11-11:45 a.m. Monday, Nov. 10 virtually via Microsoft Teams

Register on myTraining via your myWSU.

PathwayU is the comprehensive career assessment tool, utilized by the Shocker Career Accelerator. It is designed to guide students to their purpose, supporting their success and persistence. In this training session, you will learn how to:

• Navigate the platform’s features, including assessments, career matches, WSU major alignment and military crosswalk
• Gain valuable insights into student interests and career aspirations
• Integrate PathwayU into your teaching or advising practices to empower students

Prior to the session, create an account at wichita.pathwayu.com and take the four career assessments.

Niki Noland is a spring 2025 Wichita State graduate who majored in studio art, concentrating in print media. Before leaving Wichita State and the College of Fine Arts, Noland directly impacted Wichita’s art scene, interning for the City of Wichita’s Arts and Cultural Services Department and public art manager, Jana Erwin.

As a student, Noland was active on campus and in the art, design and creative industries program. They were a mentor for the College of Fine Arts You Belong Here: Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Program. As a mentor, they developed leadership qualities by assisting mentees with academic and professional work. Noland, true to their major, was also a member of the printmaking club. Additionally, they were involved in the Shocker Sound Machine and the Model UN Board. Active within Shocker Nation’s arts and clubs, Noland’s internship for City of Wichita’s Arts and Cultural Services Department was a perfect match.

Emily Rueda is an integrated marketing communication senior at Wichita State. In the spring 2025 semester, she experienced the behind-the-scenes aspects of social media marketing through an internship with the College of Fine Arts. Funded through WSU’s Applied Learning Fund, which provides paid, hands-on experiences in students’ majors and future career fields.

With experience from previous roles involving social media and marketing, Rueda welcomed a chance to explore this interest fully. She had previously served as a general marketing intern for a nonprofit and was concurrently working as a graphic design intern at HOPE Services, a role she still has today.

“This experience has helped me understand what social media marketing really is. It’s a fun job, but there are also more technical skills and strategic elements involved than I expected,” Rueda said.    

Vivian Salazar is a junior at Wichita State majoring in mechanical engineering. On campus, Salazar is a maintenance, repair and overhaul engineering intern for The Smart Factory by Deloitte. At Deloitte, she supports the smart maintenance and repair facility by managing Industry 4.0 machinery.

Her responsibilities include maintaining high-end machinery like the Metal X 3D printer and CNC machine. Salazar’s supervision of these machines provides vital support for the smart maintenance and repair facility’s operations.

These machines create new projects and parts, which are exhibited to potential clients to display Industry 4.0 technology capabilities. Towards the end of the spring 2025 semester, she got to present these technologies to clients, getting introduced to a new interest: client-facing work.

“I enjoyed connecting with other companies to share what Deloitte’s partnership is like with Wichita State,” Salazar said.

Liza Danilova is a senior majoring in integrated marketing communications. Originally from Moscow, Russia, Danilova came to Kansas as an international student and has since embraced every opportunity to grow her skills and gain professional experience in the U.S. With a strong interest in social media management, she has taken on several roles at WSU that align with her career goals. As graduation approaches, Danilova’s diverse internships have equipped her with the skills and confidence to pursue her dream job in the field.

Danilova began her collegiate academic journey at Cowley County Community College, where she was already gaining hands-on experience. There, she held the role of social media ambassador, as a full-ride scholarship and was a sports videographer for her campus job — positions that not only supported her financially but also laid the groundwork for future opportunities at Wichita State.

Are you looking for ways to help your students explore career options and make informed decisions about their future? Attend the upcoming PathwayU: Overview & Advisor Access trainings:

• 11-11:45 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24 virtually via Microsoft Teams
• 11-11:45 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 virtually via Microsoft Teams
• 11-11:45 a.m. Monday, Nov. 10 virtually via Microsoft Teams

Register on myTraining via your myWSU. 

PathwayU is the comprehensive career assessment tool, utilized by the Shocker Career Accelerator. It is designed to guide students to their purpose, supporting their success and persistence. In this training session, you will learn how to:

• Navigate the platform’s features, including assessments, career matches, WSU major alignment and military crosswalk
• Gain valuable insights into student interests and career aspirations
• Integrate PathwayU into your teaching or advising practices to empower students

Prior to the session, create an account at wichita.pathwayu.com and take the four career assessments. 

Karaline Scott, a Wichita State electrical engineering sophomore, is currently interning for Professional Engineering Consultants. As a power and process division intern her tasks are focused on AutoCAD software, reading diagrams and schematics used in real world electrical systems.  

Scott has also learned how to read construction documents and how to handle client relationships on the job. Her experience also includes learning standard details and company standards. All creating her engineering foundation.   

“These are all skills that would be necessary to use in professional fields of engineering, no matter the specific concentration,” Scott said.   

As a freshman, Scott had trouble envisioning herself as an electrical engineer. These concerns initiated her internship search at the Shocker Career Accelerator’s Engineering & I.T. Career Fair. Her resume was workshopped by the College of Engineering’s Wallace Scholars beforehand, with her upper-level math and physics classes highlighted. 

Lucas Garces is a double-alumnus of Wichita State. He first graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s in business administration, then again in 2020 with a master’s in applied economics. Today, he works at Google as a data scientist. 

His degrees reflect his interest in finance and economics. His bachelor’s concentration was in finance and financial management services, and his master’s focused on financial economics. However, Garces was still exploring his ideal career path during college. It was through various internship roles during his studies that he began to uncover it.