Global Professional Skills Program (GPS)

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The Global Professional Skills (GPS) program is AUP’s signature career development program. It is open to all undergraduate students and provides you with the opportunity to sharpen critically important skills and develop your own personal narrative throughout college that will benefit your life post-AUP.

As an undergraduate student, you are strongly encouraged to participate in co-curricular activities during your time at AUP — whether it's volunteering with an international NGO, interning with your dream fashion designer, or participating in one of AUP's many clubs. You generate a co-curricular record (CCR) that registers all of your activities from semester to semester and connects them with your transcript to boost your career prospects after graduation.

To successfully earn a GPS certificate, you will explore global skills through design thinking workshops, reflective exercises, and activities that align with our university Core Capabilities. Each activity is designed, in the words of AUP’s mission, "to challenge you to master and to make, to reflect and to apply and to analyze and to act in hands-on, real-world settings."

WHY PARTICIPATE IN THE PROGRAM?

    • 1 in 3
      degree-seeking students attend a GPS design thinking workshop
    • 67%
      of GPS seniors apply co-curricular experience to coursework
    • 85%
      of program graduates report preparedness for life after AUP

In addition to providing a structure for you to record and reflect on your co-curricular and extracurricular activities – thus learning about yourself and the world and preparing yourself for life after graduation – the program also offers the following takeaways:

  • Learn how to tell your story with confidence and conviction;
  • Customize your own co-curricular record to highlight activities to share with graduate schools and employers;
  • Participate in a suite of three design thinking workshops to develop a unique, compelling, and coherent narrative about yourself, your interests, and your achievements;
  • Earn a GPS certificate (with a mention of your completion of the program on your official academic transcript) at the annual GPS Award Ceremony in May;
  • Seize the opportunity to present your narrative to a panel of AUP alumni, employers, and faculty;
  • Top student presenters will be invited to present in front of the AUP community and the AUP Board of Trustees at the annual GPS Award Ceremony;
  • One winning submission will receive the Danielle Savage GPS Award at Commencement.
Explore your GPS path here

If I hadn't done the activities, my AUP experience would have been much quieter, less fun, and less fulfilling. I am so glad that I took the opportunities provided to me.

More information

Contact

If you have any questions about the GPS Program, reach out to our team at: gpsataup.edu

AUP Engage

In addition to providing a home for clubs and student activities at AUP, AUP Engage also gives you access to your co-curricular record, helps you register your activities and experiences and ultimately guides you in completing the GPS Program.

 

Get started now at engage.aup.edu