Experiential Learning
Where Will Your Curiosity Take You?
Students in Drake University’s College of Arts and Sciences don’t sit back and wait for what’s next. They explore their interests and turn passion into action both on and off campus.
Our location in Des Moines, Iowa’s capital and a growing destination for young professionals, sets the stage. Through internships for local organizations, service to our city, and our established partnerships, you’ll translate the work you do in the classroom into skills that’ll take you far after you graduate, in a personalized way.
However you picture your future, our learning-by-doing philosophy means you’re fully ready to embrace every possibility in your professional and personal life.
Internships and Independent Study
Whether you seek to learn the rhythms of a professional lab or engage in conservation efforts to sustain future generations, internships deliver valuable experience, industry connections, and sometimes even job offers. Preview what College of Arts and Sciences students do.
Student Research
At Drake, teaching and research go hand-in-hand. You’ll get to know your faculty in small classes and then engage in meaningful scholarship regardless of your major. Collaborative and independent projects often lead to publication and conference presentations.
Study Abroad
Every year, College of Arts and Sciences students study abroad in dozens of different countries, either through semester-long programs, intensive J-Term sessions, or faculty-led travel seminars. Get your passport and gain an entirely different perspective on your studies while becoming a better global citizen.
Community Partnerships
Collaboration is at the heart of innovation and change. Our more than 100 partnerships with outside organizations and schools let us learn from and build knowledge with the institutions around us.
Des Moines Municipal Observatory
Physics students get hands-on experience scanning the skies and contribute to public programs at the observatory, which is run jointly by Drake and the City of Des Moines.
Government Agencies
In addition to National Science Foundation-funded programs in computational atomic physics, Chemistry and Physics students participate in MISSFIT, a NASA-funded effort investigating travel to Mars.
Organizational Partnerships
Local organizations facing tough challenges often turn to Drake’s College of Arts and Sciences. For example, Data Analytics majors helped a utility provider save on repairs, while English students organized a speaking series for a human rights group. Our partners have included Third Coast Commodities, Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity, MidAmerican Energy, the Des Moines Register, and the Iowa Environmental Council.
Local Schools
When local schools face teaching shortages, Math and Computer Science Education majors step into the classroom to instruct students from middle school through community college levels.
Service Learning
Outreach and service are core elements of the Drake experience. In collaboration with the Office of Community Engaged Learning, our faculty guide you to fieldwork, internships, capstone projects, research, and other opportunities where you’ll use creative action to improve the world around us. This is how College of Arts and Sciences students get involved.
Biology
Through projects such as the Drake Prairie Rescue and Birds in Your Backyard, Biology students build relationships with the public, apply conservation principles to threatened habitats, and develop educational outreach programs.
Law, Politics, and Society
Drake students see close-up how the law influences our world through internships with law firms, state and local government agencies, social service agencies, and groups that advocate for social justice.
World Languages and Cultures
World culture is in our own backyard, something Dr. Inbal Mazar’s class has learned by interviewing native Spanish speakers about their first-hand perspective of Latin American oral traditions. A subsequent collaboration with painting students yielded an art exhibit depicting those legends.
Fine Arts and Performance Opportunities
Our programs in theatre, music, and art and design enrich all of us, whether we’re observers or participants. Hear a concert, attend an exhibit, or exercise your creative side.
Student Art Exhibitions
The Anderson Art Gallery hosts an annual juried exhibition open to any student in an Art and Design class. The gallery, a hub for experiential learning, also displays work from local and national artists alike.
Orchestral Performances
Drake students and faculty present more than 150 performances on campus every year, including concerts, recitals, and operas—most recently, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, a production involving 60 students, faculty, and professionals.
Theatrical Productions
Every year, Drake’s Theatre Arts Department stages major productions like Legally Blonde, a musical adaptation of the hit movie. Students act, write, design, and direct a half-dozen Main Stage shows and several others.
16 Pianos in Surround Sound Project
What you hear from composer Nathan Felix’s latest installation depends on where you hear it. In his composition for 16 pianos, listeners walked through the Anderson Gallery, becoming part of the performance.
Friends of Drake Arts Student Funding
Friends of Drake Arts provides $500 grants to help student artists develop projects that connect with the Des Moines community, promote the arts on campus, and travel to enhance their skills.
Career Development and Additional Opportunities
More than 90% of Drake undergraduate students begin their careers or grad school within six months of completing their degrees. Behind that figure is our four-year focus on helping every student develop a professional strategy and build real-world skills long before graduation.
Problem-Based Experiential Workshops
All College of Arts and Sciences programs incorporate hands-on, active learning. From the First-Year Seminar to a culminating capstone project, we constantly seek ways to make education come to life.
Pre-Professional Exam Support
Whether you’re taking the LSAT or MCAT, advisors and mentors offer guidance as you study for these standardized tests. Lectures, practical experiences, and other programs put you in a position to do your best.
Career Services
More than 90% of Drake students also complete at least one internship before they graduate—and many find opportunities through our Career Services office. Connect with their expert staff to discover a learning opportunity suited to your aspirations.
Student Leadership Opportunities
Whether you shape policies through student government, take a role as a peer mentor, or serve your community through a campus group or another organization, you’ll find dozens of ways to get involved and find your voice.
Tutoring
Academic success isn’t a solo journey. Peer tutors provide assistance with classes in a wide variety of subjects, while our Writing Center can help you work through any stage of your essays, reports, and research papers.
On-Campus Opportunities
Whether you’re a History major combing the university archives or a Computer Science student in a research lab, the Drake experience makes an impact. That’s a key reason why nearly 14,000 people raised $265 million for our recent The Ones campaign.
Student Publications
Put your ideas out into the world through publications such as Periphery, Drake’s student-published art and literary journal, or award-winning journalistic outlets such as The Times-Delphic newspaper and Drake Mag.
Student Organizations
Our community’s better when you’re involved in it. With more than 150 student clubs and organizations, including many devoted to professional development and service, you’ll grow while giving back.
What Our Students Do
Students traveled to Uganda through their Sustainable Development in Africa class, learning about farming and economic practices, teaching at an elementary school, and helping build a health clinic in a rural village.
A pair of Arts and Sciences students collaborated to develop our first-ever Alternative Fall Break, connecting students to issues and activities relating to social justice, service learning, and urban exploration in the Des Moines community.
Music students frequently perform with the Des Moines Symphony, gaining experience in a major professional ensemble and seeing how a respected music organization is run.
If you have a research idea, our faculty will help you get it off the ground. Recent independent study projects have focused on topics including immunology, jazz theory, wealth on the Titanic, and compassion studies.
Data Analytics students pooled their quantitative skills to help Third Coast Commodities improve the efficiency of its grease recycling operations and identify new markets to expand their business.
Through projects with People Inc. and many other businesses and non-profit organizations, Graphic Design students put their websites, posters, and other projects before a wide audience.
Student Testimonials
Take the Next Step
In Drake’s College of Arts and Sciences, you’ll be part of something bigger than a class. You’ll be part of the world, learning from your community and giving back to it.
