THE DATCU CAREER READINESS INITIATIVE SPRING 2025
Empowering Students | Elevating Community Impact ____________________________________________________________________ As the largest university in North Texas, UNT faces both opportunities and challenges in preparing students for a rapidly evolving workforce. Immersive learning technologies help by providing scalable, high-quality experiences where students can develop interpersonal skills in low-stakes virtual environments. This expanded responsibility will require a redesign of both curricula and student support structures to ensure a well-coordinated new approach to workforce readiness. We respectfully request a gift of $1.5 million to establish the DATCU Career Readiness Initiative.
Mixed-reality simulation provides practical teaching experience for UNT students -- minus the classroom
Immersive Learning Technologies ____________________________________________________________________ UNT’s award-winning Mursion Lab, a state-of-the-art mixed-reality simulation, will serve as a cornerstone of this exciting initiative designed to help students and professionals refine essential skills in a safe, controlled setting. DATCU’s leadership in expanding the lab’s capabilities and its application to workforce readiness as part of the DATCU Career Readiness Initiative will create immediate impact for students and the university across multiple dimensions: Student Success: Preparing students for interviews, internships and careers through practical simulations. In particular, the Mursion Lab excels at preparing students for high-stakes interactions, such as internship and first job destination interviews and the facilitation of small-group meetings and learning environments, ensuring students will be equipped with skills to succeed at multiple stages of their career journeys. Innovation: Expanding lab functionality to include new immersive learning scenarios such as small-group facilitation and negotiation scenarios, along with associated staffing and equipment to serve more than 1,200 students. This expansion will increase the scope and capacity of the Mursion Lab to provide workforce readiness programs to students at UNT’s Denton campus, while also advancing plans to further scale the lab’s programs remotely, potentially reaching thousands more students across UNT’s campuses. Research: Establishing UNT as a leader in simulation-based learning research, including behavior analysis initiatives to integrate evidence-based training, improve educational outcomes and assess the lab’s impact on successful student workforce outcomes. Faculty Development: Training UNT faculty and staff to enable integration of Mursion Lab simulations into their various curricula, thus empowering educators across multiple disciplines with tools to create engaging, hands-on learning experiences.
High-Visability Recognition ___________________________________ In recognition of your transformative support, the Mursion Lab will be renamed in DATCU’s honor for a three-year period (subject to UNT Board of Regents approval). This naming opportunity will: • Highlight DATCU’s role as a leader in community and workforce development. • Extend DATCU’s visibility across UNT’s academic units and alumni networks. • Cement DATCU’s legacy of strengthening communities through education. DATCU will also be recognized as sponsors of many high-visibility university events, including: • UNT Kuehne Speaker Series • UNT Student Money Management Center events • Platinum partnership with the G. Brint Ryan College of Business
• UNT Teacher Induction Ceremony • UNT Alumni Association Block Party
In Summary... ____________________________________________________________________ The work outlined here is only the beginning of our larger vision to revolutionize students’ workforce preparation at scale by leveraging new learning technologies. DATCU’s investment in new immersive learning technologies at UNT will provide critical funding for a comprehensive redesign of career readiness support structures that will leverage new learning technologies. With your support, UNT will continuously innovate how students engage with learning and professional development, thus creating a future-forward framework for workforce readiness.
Your generous $1.5 million investment in the DATCU Career Readiness Initiative will: • Enhance overall student workforce readiness. • Elevate UNT’s standing as a leader in educational innovation. • Strengthen DATCU’s community impact and visibility.
Thank you for being champions of UNT! _______________________________________________________________________ We are deeply grateful that you would consider a gift of this significance to the University of North Texas. As we look ahead to address workforce needs and economic growth, we welcome the opportunity to discuss this proposal with you and further explore how UNT and DATCU can collaborate to achieve a shared vision of community enhancement through education.
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Garza Director of Development College of Education College of Health & Public Service sarah.garza@unt.edu 940-369-8501 Melanie Hanna Senior Director of Development College of Science melanie.hanna@unt.edu 817-793-7649
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