Student Resources

TEK focuses on students obtaining essential employability skills, including the highly valued abilities to see multiple points of view, reflect on growth, communicate ideas, and collaborate in teams. 

Leveraging a comprehensive campus linked and aligned to solve problems in Kentucky, TEK positions students in ways that engage them in meaningful work with others to advance Kentucky.

As we learn and think about the world in transdisciplinary ways, we prepare for lives of meaning and purpose – the idea at the center of everything we do at UK. 

Beginning in Fall 2023, first-year students will be introduced to transdisciplinary approaches through a refreshed first-year experience course that will expose students to disciplinary and workforce experts who engage in transdisciplinary work to address critical 21st century problems. 

Students will have the opportunity to complete two new TEK courses, Discover and Engage that will be focused on developing essential workforce skills. 

Discover allows students to participate in an introductory credit-bearing experience that utilizes transdisciplinary approaches to study a 21st century problem. Students will be exposed to transdisciplinary and workforce experts, from within UK as well as community partners who will help TEK students translate and recognize how many perspectives are used by multiple disciplines to solve both every day and global problems and propose potential solutions to these problems. Furthermore, students will be able to use this knowledge while exploring career-oriented pathways.

Engage allows students to participate in an advanced credit-bearing experience that involves working in teams, reflecting on their own growth, and exhibiting an ability to identify the ways in which transdisciplinary approaches can address a targeted Kentucky issue. In collaboration with community and campus partners, students will work as members of a team that generates and communicates knowledge through tangible products that address real-world and workforce problems.

Students will have the opportunity to complete a refreshed undergraduate course that builds employability skills. In collaboration with community and campus partners, students will work as members of a team that generates and communicates knowledge through tangible products that address real-world and workforce problems.

The Office of Undergraduate Research holds an annual Showcase of Undergraduate Scholars during the spring semester where they celebrate bold dreamers and strategic thinkers. This is a one-day event that showcases undergraduate students’ research projects from across campus.

There will be a TEK Strand at the annual showcase that will bring together students, faculty, staff, and community partners to provide a platform for the products that have been created in Discover and Engage. The showcase will also provide an additional opportunity for networking.

Activities will vary and be expanded each year and may include the following:

• Poster sessions highlighting projects that students have generated in Discover and Engage
• Small-group presentations showcasing transdisciplinary work geared toward critical Kentucky issues
• Workforce community participation, engagement, and networking
• Evaluation of student presentations by workforce experts

To learn more about the Showcase of Undergraduate Scholars, please visit the Office of Undergraduate Research.