research among peers in anthropology programs to better understand students' experiences in the major and their career goals. In this article, we highlight student narratives of personal and intellectual growth. We found that current majors had more to say about how they had been transformed by anthropology than about the specific anthropological skills relevant to future careers. We posit that students' personal growth, including greater empathy and open-mindedness, and intellectual growth, including cross-cultural understanding and the ability to think critically, developed through students' integration into departmental communities of practice. [college student development, empathy, critical thinking, communities of practice]
I n t r o d u c t i o n
What do anthropology students think about their professional future? In what ways does the study of anthropology provide competencies or skills that will be useful in the workplace? Research fellows from Illinois State University, Indiana University, and St. Mary's College of Maryland conducted individual interviews, focus groups, or surveys of alumni or graduating seniors to examine narratives about the perceived usefulness of anthropology in securing and sustaining professional employment. Employing the metaphor of an “inverted funnel” shows that while an undergraduate anthropology major may appeal to a smaller range of the overall student population, hence the narrow end of a funnel, their education instills broad and critical thinking about issues, an appreciation for and ability to relate to human cultural and social diversity, and an empathic orientation to understand individual diversity. Thus, anthropology undergraduates successfully carve out job niches over a wide range of economic sectors and professions that are represented by the broad end of the inverted funnel.
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