Developing Greater Impact with High-Impact Practices:
Internships and Civic Engagement
A presentation at the 2015 Association of American Colleges and Universities Conference (Washington, DC) with
Jillian Kinzie, University of Indiana
Gregory M. Weight, Washington Internship Institute
Ariane Hoy, Bonner Foundation
Developing Greater Impact with High-Impact Practices: Internships and Civic Engagement
1. Developing
Greater
Impact
with
High-‐Impact
Practices:
Internships
and
Civic
Engagement
Jillian
Kinzie,
University
of
Indiana
Gregory
M.
Weight,
Washington
Internship
Institute
Ariane
Hoy,
Bonner
Foundation
2. Introduction
• What
are
High-‐Impact
Practices?
• What
is
liberal
education?
• How
can
we
better
integrate
the
two?
★ especially
internships
and
civic
engagement
3. Why
the
Interest
in
HIPs?
HIPs
are…
• Positively
associated
with
learning
&
student
success
• Respected
pedagogies
• Beneficial
to
all
students
• Valued
by
employers
• Important
to
faculty
• Enjoyable
for
students!
4. Growing
evidence
that
“high-‐impact
practices”
provide
substantial
educational
benefits
to
students
[High-‐Impact
Educational
Practices:
What
They
Are,
Who
Has
Access
To
Them,
and
Why
They
Matter
(2008)
AAC&U]
5. High
Impact
Activities
★
First-‐Year
Seminars
and
Experiences
★
Common
Intellectual
Experiences
★
Learning
Communities
★
Writing-‐Intensive
Courses
★
Collaborative
Assignments
and
Projects
★
Undergraduate
Research
★
Diversity/Global
Learning
★
Service
Learning,
Community-‐Based
Learning
★
Internships
★
Capstone
Courses/
Projects
6. Reflect
to
yourself
★Think
about
what’s
happening
right
now
on
your
campus.
★What
are
your
strongest
HIPs
on
your
campus
right
now?
7. HIPs
Put
Student
Learning
at
the
Center
➢High
Engagement
(Peers,
Mentors,
Unscripted
Questions)
➢High
Effort
(by
Students)
➢High
Reward
(for
Learning)
8. What
Makes
HIP
Effective?
“HIP
Hallmarks”
6
elements
that—when
employed
—make
the
practices
high
impact:
✓They
are
effortful
✓They
help
students
build
substantive
relationships
✓They
help
students
engage
across
differences
✓They
provide
students
with
rich
feedback
✓They
help
students
apply
and
test
what
they
are
learning
in
new
situations
✓They
provide
opportunities
for
students
to
reflect
on
the
people
they
are
becoming
(Kuh,
2008;
excerpts
from
O’Neill,
Peer
Review,
2010)
9. Lessons:
High
Impact
Practices
1.
Associated
with
desirable
learning
and
personal
development
outcomes.
10. 2.
Features
Make
a
Difference
Internships
• Value
of
real
world,
applied
experience
• Best
when
linked
to
curriculum,
and
involves
critical
reflection
• Attend
to
Inequities…Difficult
for
first-‐
generation,
low
income
students
if
experience
is
unpaid
11. HIPs:
Differences
by
Race-‐Ethnicity
3.
Not
all
students
take
part
in
HIPs…
Across
ALL
institutions…
• 48%
Seniors
“have
done”
Internships
Source: “Assessment of High-Impact Practices: Using Findings to Drive Change
in the Compass Project,” by Ashley Finley, Spring 2011,, Peer Review.
13. What
do
First
Year
Students
Expect?
(NSSE
2014
results)
• 76%
expect
to
do
an
Internship
• 43%
expect
to
study
abroad
• 56%
plan
to
do
a
capstone
• 35%
expect
to
do
research
with
faculty
What
informs
student
expectations?
15. Faculty
Perception
of
HIPs
• How
important
is
it
to
faculty
that
undergraduates
do
HIPs
(“very
important
+
important”)
:
–
Culminating
Exp/Capstone
86%
–
Internships
82%
–
Community
Service
58%
–
Research
with
faculty
57%
–
Learning
comm.(FY)
46%
–
Study
Abroad
41%
»FSSE
2014
Upper
Division
Faculty
results
16. High
Impact
Practices
★
First-‐Year
Experiences
★
Common
Intellectual
Experiences
★
Learning
Communities
★
Writing-‐Intensive
Courses
★
Collaborative
Projects
★
Undergraduate
Research
★
Diversity/Global
Learning
★
Service
Learning,
CBL
★
Internships
★
Capstone
Courses/Projects
Couldn’t
they
all
be
tied
to
community
engagement?
17. Relevance
of
a
Liberal
Education
We
need
to
think
about
deeper
restructuring
of
scholarship
and
teaching
so
that
it
provides
more
of
what
ci]zens
need:
values,
facts,
and
strategies
that
they
can
use
to
make
the
world
bemer.
Some
of
that
teaching
and
research
should
be
experien]al
and
community-‐based,
but
I
think
almost
as
important
is
to
reorient
our
reading
and
wri]ng
and
classroom
discussions
so
that
they
are
more
integrated
and
relevant
to
cinzens’
problems.
~
Peter
Levine
“A
Defense
of
Higher
Educanon
and
its
Civic
Mission”
(2013,
p.
5)
hmp://peterlevine.ws/?p=10850
18. What
Education
Can
Be
...We
want
an
educa]onal
future
that
draws
on,
and
draws
out,
the
implica]ons
of
the
new,
high-‐
impact
pracnces
like
[community
engagement].
It
would
provide
students
with
an
arc
of
learning
experiences—ac]ve,
collabora]ve,
boundary-‐
crossing,
and
integra]ve—that
interweave
intellectual,
professional,
civic,
and
personal
growth.
~
David
Scobey,
“A
Copernican
Moment”
(2012,
p.
13)
hmp://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/CLDE/
CivicProvocanons.pdf
or
imaginingamerica.org
19. Reality
Check:
Student’s
Perspective
Students’
perspectives
from
large-‐scale
study
by
Ashley
Finley
and
Tia
McNair
(2013)
Report:
Finley
&
McNair,
Assessing
Underserved
Students’
Engagement
in
High-‐Impact
Practices,
http://www.aacu.org/
assessinghips
20. A
Deeper
Look
at
What
Students
Are
Doing
“...I
have
teachers
that
take
us
out
of
the
building.
I
don't
know
what
it's
called.
It's
called-‐-‐it's
called
something
here.
They
take
you
out
of
the
building,
and
you
go
learn
about
like
the
vegetable
gardens
that
they
have
growing
here,
among
the
Hmong
society...So
there's
a
lot
of
professors
here
that
teach
differently.”
~
Student,
Wisconsin
21. Reality Check: Student’s Perspective
“I think projects with real world implications. I was really
lucky enough to have more than a couple of classes where
we did group work, where the outcomes of our projects at
the end of the term made a real world difference where
we were working at the nonprofit, at the library, and all the
research that we did actually went to publication. All of the
systems that we had researched and designed actually
went someplace and that was incredible.”
22. “I recently..took an anthropology class and
it was uh, water systems… good class.
And the research project I chose was a
little creek around here, and this little creek
used to be horribly polluted… like bad... It’s
not that way today. But I got to go out and
find out that there are actually people
who care, people trying to make a real
difference for the whole world- city
workers...I got to interview these people
and talk with them and it changed my
perspective on the world...
I was amazed at the willingness of these
people to talk to me for a silly little
research paper, but they had passion and
wanted to talk about this stuff…
23. A
Developmental
Approach
Series
of
scaffolded
opportunities
in
community
engagement
that
build
skills,
knowledge,
competencies
=
“SIGNATURE”
★Freshmen
Year
★Senior
Year
★Sophomore
Year
★Junior
Year
24. A
sequence
of
real-‐world
internships
★First
Year
Experience/Learning
Community
★Summer
Internship
★Second
Year
(School
Year
Internship)
Project-‐Based
Learning
★Summer
Internship
★Third
Year:
Research
Project
Service-‐Learning
★Fourth
Year:
Capstone
Project
&
Presentation
★Summer
Internship
25. And,
It’s
What
Employers
Want
Skills and Abilities Wanted by EmployersSkills and Abilities Wanted by Employers
Skill/Quality Weighted average
rating*
Ability to verbally communicate with persons
inside and outside the organization
4.63
Ability to work in a team structure 4.60
Ability to make decisions and solve problems 4.51
Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work 4.46
Ability to obtain and process information 4.43
These skills were rated above analyzing quantitative data, technical job
knowledge, and proficiency with computer software, the next on the list.
2012 Survey “What Employers Want” by the National Association of Career Educators (NACE)
26. So,
why
add
civic?
★Public
mission
★Real-‐world
learning
★Lifelong
knowledge,
habits,
skills,
&
flourishing!
★Our
communities
want
our
engagement
-‐
inqualities
demand
it
★Contribute
&
make
an
impact
~
now!
27. High-‐Impact
Community
Engagement
CE
Internships
can
use
proven
practices:
• Cohorts/Teams
• Mentors
(Collaboration
between
“educator”
-‐
including
the
partner
-‐
and
“student”)
• Place
• Inquiry
• Depth
• Sequence
• Reflection
• Impact
(Hoy
&
Johnson,
2013;
Battistoni,
Mitchell,
&
Keene,
2013)
28. Connecting
the
dots...
★Where
is
(deep)
community
engagement
happening?
★Are
the
HIPs
on
your
campus
connected
with
community
engagement?
29. So
How
Can
Internships
&
CE
Connect?
Building
Capacity
for
Non-‐Profits,
Schools,
Government,
and
Communities
• Volunteer/Staff
Management
• Training,
Curriculum
and
Program
Development
• Communications
• Research
and
Evaluation
• Resource
Development
• Public
Policy
35. Example: The College of New Jersey
Had
core
community
partners
(multi-‐year)
complete
capacity
building
survey.
Distilled
their
wants
into
internships
that
could
be
connected
with
students.
Developed
50
community-‐based
academic
internships
with
30
partners!
41. Similar Examples Happening at
★Rutgers University - Policy Research Internships
★Siena College - School of Business multi-year
undergraduate program [NEXT ] where students
consult on teams
★University of Richmond - engaged students to
“apply” to non-profits for their school year internship
★Davidson College - catalog of community-based
internships for students, drawing on non-profits
capacity-building opportunities
visit: bonnernetwork.pbworks.com/internships
42. Internship
Quality
and
Integration
★ Connecting
to
a
student’s
academic
work
★ Providing
opportunities
for
reflection
and
critical
inquiry
43. The
Best
Internships
★ Develop
skills
and
habits
of
mind
that
are
crucial
to
developing
lifelong
learners
and
professionals
★ Produce
real-‐world
results
for
students
during
rather
than
after
their
education
★ Develop
qualities
vital
to
citizenship
and
professionalism
★ Connect
students
to
others—off
and
on
campus—who
can
become
peer
connections
and
who
can
become
mentors
44. Challenges
★ Lack
of
communication
★ Faculty
reward
structures
★ Technology:
can
high-‐quality
experiential
learning
be
virtual?
45. Questions
★ How
can
your
strongest
HIPs
be
leveraged
to
strengthen
civic
engagement
and/or
internships?
★ How
can
we
address
the
challenges
to
building
high-‐
quality
HIPs?
46. Contact
Us
Jillian
Kinzie,
University
of
Indiana
http://nsse.iub.edu
jikinzie@indiana.edu
Gregory
M.
Weight,
Washington
Internship
Institute
www.wiidc.org
greg@wiidc.org
Ariane
Hoy,
Bonner
Foundation
www.bonner.org
bonnernetwork.pbworks.com
ahoy@bonner.org