The Griffin Edge
A personal and pre-professional development program for all GMercyU undergraduate majors
The Griffin Edge will help you make the most out of your college experience. Through this personalized program, you will have many opportunities to set an intentional, reflective, and proactive college journey that will reinforce your current path or help you discover a new one.
The Griffin Edge will also help you define your college experience in concrete and meaningful ways, so you can ace future job or graduate school interviews and launch a successful career.
Here’s How It Works
It begins your very first semester, during GMercyU’s First-Year Experience program. Here, you’ll be introduced to our Mercy values and explore the impact they can have on your life and the lives of others. With a special focus on service and social justice, you will hone your ability to reflect on what you’re doing and how it can set you up for success in the future.
Carrying those skills with you, The Griffin Edge continues throughout your time at GMercyU. It’s best summed up through the 5 E's that comprise The Griffin Edge.
Excellence: What you learn and who you learn from is crucial. With curricula designed to help you develop the skills employers most want and need, and faculty who are truly invested in your success, you will have the tools you need to succeed. Programs such as the Griffin Student Leadership Institute and the Honors Program can help you further expand your horizons, so that when you’re in your career, you can make the maximum impact.
Engagement: Closely tied to Excellence, Engagement is all about what you do in addition to your studies. Making long-lasting connections with professors and classmates, taking part in activities and clubs, and serving the community are all ways that Engagement shapes who you become once you graduate.
Experience: You can’t learn everything in the classroom. The most successful graduates gain hands-on experience that can directly translate into skills that they’ll need in their careers. As a part of The Griffin Edge, there are endless possibilities to gain experience, from clinicals, student teaching, undergraduate research, study abroad, internships, and more!
Empathy: Mercy is our middle name. Addressing the needs of others is what we do. As a GMercyU Griffin, you can participate in experiences that are directly connected to our University Mission and Core Values. Whether taking part in Alternative Spring Break and other community service opportunities, or refining your leadership style as part of one of our many clubs or organizations, you will develop the tools -- and values -- to make a difference for yourself and for others.
Encouragement: This is the final piece of the puzzle. Encouragement gives you support to take the courageous steps toward finding your passsion. The Griffin Edge helps develop and nurture your enthusiasm, for both your profession and the community around you through faculty and staff mentors, student support services, and so much more! We'll be there to guide you every step of the way.
The Griffin Edge is here to help you get to where you want to go and make real, meaningful change both for yourself and for others.
The Griffin Edge E-Portfolio
Using the skills learned in the First-Year Experience program, this is where you will begin to document and reflect on your college experience. It’s ultimately where you can take ownership of your educational journey and develop your personal story, a story that you can share with future employers in a meaningful and impactful way.
How It Works
You will be encouraged to make intentional choices to help you develop personally and professionally. Through distinctive Mercy experiences that take place inside and outside of the classroom, you will make connections between what you’re learning and how it will prepare you for future success. You will use your e-portfolio to:
- Upload multi-media coursework, projects, and personal reflections about your in-classroom and out-of-classroom experiences
- Capture your thoughts on how these experiences impacted you
- Engage in dialogue and receive feedback from faculty, staff, peers, and mentors about where you are and where you want to go
- Create a vision that will help you achieve your goals
The e-portfolio platform, which some describe as similar to LinkedIn, has privacy settings that only you control. You can share specific projects with your professors, but you can change those settings at any time – your e-portfolio is exclusively yours. You can access it even after you graduate, which can help you prep for future job interviews.
Why It Matters
Reflection is a skill. Learning to reflect on what you’re doing, while you’re doing it, helps you take full advantage of all the opportunities available to you as a GMercyU Griffin. It provides focus and purpose helps you create a vision for your college journey.
- It will confirm that you chose the right major – or help you find one that plays better to your strengths and interests
- It will help you identify and talk about your strengths, experiences and aspirations
- It will help you fill in any gaps in knowledge or experience that can help you achieve your goals
The ability to tell your story – in concrete and meaningful ways – will help you stand out from the crowd.
- For example, a student might say in a job interview: "I conducted research at the undergraduate level."
- But a Griffin Edge student might say: "The opportunity to conduct my own research alongside expert faculty taught me the importance of being exact in my data collection and analysis. I was even able to present my findings at our annual research conference! I know this is the career for me."