Student merit pages help BSC students market themselves

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - When you’re searching for a job, keeping track of all your academic and professional accomplishments can be a little overwhelming.

But there’s a tool available to students at Bismarck State College that’s making that a little easier, while also helping students better market themselves for the career they want.

Grace Letteer is back in college.

“I first started here in 2017,” she said. “I first enrolled for a liberal arts degree. Then I went to cosmetology school. But after a few years of working, I decided I wanted to go back to school.”

This time, she’s pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian.

She’s able to keep track of all her academic accomplishments on her BSC student merit page.

“This is my college life. This is my adult life,” said Letteer, while scrolling through her page.

Everyone who enrolls at Bismarck State College has a merit page. That includes traditional full-time students, online students and even high school students taking dual credit courses. Merit pages automatically list the programs a student completes at BSC. Students can add a profile picture, graduation date, clubs and organizations and even work experience.

“I like to think of it as an academic LinkedIn page,” said Juanita Lee, BSC public relations manager.

It’s an online record that college officials say will make it easier to create a resume when it’s time to start looking for a job.

“It’s creating documentation on a timeline of their experiences, their milestones, their successes, their achievements at Bismarck State College. They can use that to promote themselves, market themselves when they go out to seek employment after they graduate from Bismarck State College,” explained Lee.

“I always tell students when they’re starting their resume, is put everything on one document so you don’t forget anything. And this merit page makes that easier,” added Josh Randolph, director of career development and support services at BSC.

Letteer has already started updating her merit page.

“I can really kind of showcase myself as a young professional,” she said.

She hopes this merit page could be a tool that might help her one day land her dream job.

The merit pages include icons to share posts to other social media sites. Merit pages also make it easier for BSC to send out news releases to all students’ hometown papers.

You can check out the merit pages here.

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