Several months ago I proposed a series of goals and objectives to Mike Green and Greg Krikorian for how we might be able to move forward with the internship emphasis contained in our strategic plan. Those goals include:
- Provide opportunities for faculty to become better acquainted with literature and
resources related to internships
-
Develop initiatives and utilize resources that promote the professional
development of LVC interns
- Prepare standard operating procedures for internship registration and record-keeping
- Create a web presence for Internships
There are many ways we could go about working on these goals, but to begin we offer you an opportunity to become involved in any or all of the following activities:
InternQube is a new resource for finding and making the most of an internship. The resource is geared towards helping students make the leap from student to employee. An online textbook of sorts, InternQube is a multi-faceted hub of resources that is offered in the following formats - text, audio, video, social networking, weblinks, reflection, and group discussions. It even has mobile capability with items such as the ipod touch and iphone. InternQube is a comprehensive resource designed to provide students with everything they ever wanted to know about an internship as well as learning how to make the most of any internship experiences they do. Mike True, internship director at Messiah College, is the creator of this resource. He is nationally recognized as a leader in the field and Messiah College has earned an exceptional reputation for their internship program. You can learn about this resource, see a demonstration of it, and discover how it is being used with interns and internship classes on April 28, 4:30 pm in Neidig-Garber 203.
Read and discuss. A recent issue of the Journal of the National Association of Colleges and Employers was devoted entirely to the topic of internships. Several articles including, What Makes a College internship Program Effective?, Recruiting for Tomorrow: Recent Trends in Employer Internship Programs, and Internship Insights: A Report from the National Internship and Co-op Study may be helpful in thinking about what we need to do to keep pace with what is happening in the field. We’ll start with these journal articles and later we may want to read together A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice by Sullivan and Rosin (Jossey Bass, 2010). “Based on the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Seminar that brought together educators from six professional fields with faculty from the liberal arts and sciences, this book proposes an educational aim of a practical reason, a focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training.” The book is on reserve in the library if you’d like to take a look.
Internship promotion. First, we would like to develop a working group to create a centralized web presence for internships at LVC. Additionally, this group could determine ways to support and promote pre-internship opportunities such as Project CLOSE-UP, participate in internship recognition opportunities (e.g. PennACE Student of the Year awards), and plan for an annual celebration of internship experiences on the LVC campus.
Would you like to get on board with any of these activities? Please let Mike Green’s office know of your interest in participating by April 1. Details will follow to interested participants.