WINSTON-SALEM – What will make Winston-Salem State University greater?

“It will take Winston-Salem State continuing to deliver on that promise of making sure that we educate students for the job market, for careers,” Chancellor Elwood Robinson says in the accompanying video.

“We started focusing on that by making sure we designed a curriculum that speaks to what’s coming next in the world,” Robinson says.

In a fast-paced, ever-changing world, “We can’t sometimes educate them for a specific career, but we can give them the kind of essential skills that are necessary for them to be in a job market that’s ever-changing,” he says.

Among those skills, he lists leadership, critical and analytical thinking, problem-solving, flexibility, and an ability “to be in a growth-thought mode about my career and who I am.”

It also requires the university to stay on top of trends and predict – to the extent possible – what the 21st century workforce demands, Robinson says.

“Now we realize that education happens not just in the classroom, but it happens throughout every single thing that a student does when they step foot on this university,” he says.

“I tell folks, when I was in college, I got my education in the classroom…. That’s different today.

“Part of the education happens in the classroom. But you have to extend that into things like what we do, called High Impact Practices: Making sure that every student gets an opportunity to get involved in undergraduate research, doing an internship, being able to study abroad,” Robinson says.

“All these kinds of things broaden a student’s perspective and prepare them for the new workforce.”