Medaille College

Internship Orientation

April 12, 2010

Orientation Goals

• Introduce internship resource manual

http://www.medaille.edu/academics/internships/

•Review the internship process Stage 1 Preparation and Planning Stage 2 Field Experience and reflection Stage 3 Post-internship reflection and assessment

Address the importance of active student involvement throughout the learning process

A Few Key Messages

•Ownership

•Responsibility and Accountability

•Active engagement (initiative, curiosity, questioning, problem solving)

•Meaning-making through reflection and

integration (connected learning)

Internships Defined

• Internships are structured, supervised opportunities for extended, in-depth, out-of-class, field-based discovery learning.

• Internships involve the direct, hands-on application of classroom learning (concepts, theories, knowledge, skills) to situations in real-world contexts.

• Internships are one form of experiential learning (others include service-learning, study abroad, undergraduate research)

Internship Benefits

•Apply classroom learning to practical real-life problems in order to evaluate its validity

•Foster capacity to integrate knowledge with experience to deepen learning

•Enhance thinking, communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills

•Gain knowledge of developing trends in one’s field•Explore and confirm (or not) career choices•Develop self understanding, confidence, and maturity•Develop network of professional relationships/contacts

Medaille College Internship Resources

•Medaille College Undergraduate Internship Guidelines and Resource Manual

•http://www.medaille.edu/academics/internships/•This manual is your definitive information resource for

internships. • It describes all the policies and procedures you need to

know to prepare for and enjoy a successful internship.•Contact your program’s faculty internship coordinator if

you have any questions or need help understanding the manual.

Medaille College Internship Outcome Statement

•Students will:•Demonstrate effective written and oral communication

and critical thinking skills•Demonstrate common professional workplace

behaviors (listed on assessment forms in your packet)•Enhance professional networking skills•Demonstrate active engagement and intellectual

initiative throughout the internship process •Demonstrate the ability to integrate theory

Student Roles and Responsibilities

•See pages 15-18 in the internship manual for complete information.

•Stage 1 – Pre-Internship Planning Attend Internship Orientation Complete Internship Concept Form (Appendix A)

• What kind of experience and site?• Consider relationship to educational and career goals• Brainstorm preliminary learning and objectives• What specific kinds of knowledge or skills do you want to enrich

or learn? • Think about connections to classroom learning.

Student Roles and ResponsibilitiesStage 1 Pre-Internship Planning

•Research and select site. Look for sites that will “fit” with your educational and career

interests and needs Consult with your faculty internship coordinator Look for a site supervisor who is willing to help you to

brainstorm and develop realistic, achievable internship learning objectives and who is willing to mentor you

Apply for internship Complete a Student Internship Learning Plan in conjunction

with your site supervisor and your faculty evaluator (Appendix A)

Student Roles and ResponsibilitiesStage 1 Pre-Internship Planning

• The Student Internship Learning Plan (SILP) represents your learning contract; it is your largely self-designed syllabus.

• The SILP consists of three elements: Learning objectives (knowledge, skills, values, behaviors,

attitudes)

What do you expect to learn? Tasks/Strategies

How will you achieve your objectives? Evidence & Evaluation

How will you know if have achieved them? And to what degree?

Writing Learning Objectives—Resources

• “Writing Learning Objectives” by Dr. Raoul Arreola•http://www.utmem.edu/grad/CourseInfo/CurrManageme

nt/Learning_Objectives.pdf

• “Helpful Resources for Writing Measurable Learning Outcomes” by Dr. Kristine Webb

•http://www.unf.edu/groups/unffa/OnlineForms/CurrentAPCforms/APC%202005%20Folder/Writing_Measureable_Learning_Objectives.html

Student Roles and Responsibilities Stage 1 Pre-Internship Planning

• The SILP should be thoughtfully and carefully completed as early in the process as is reasonable once a site is determined.

• A SILP is complete only after the faculty internship coordinator and the site supervisor have signed off on the contract and approved its content.

• A signed SILP is required before you are authorized by the College to begin the internship.

•Students who fail to submit their signed SILP to their faculty internship coordinator prior to the start of the fall or spring semester will automatically be administratively de-registered from their internship course.

Student Roles and Responsibilities

•Stage 2 – The Internship Contact site supervisor a few days before you begin Notify your internship coordinator when you start your hours Attend host site orientation (as required) Maintain analytical field learning journal Maintain regular contact with internship coordinator Attend campus seminars (if required) Arrange for internship coordinator to visit site Have an exit strategy: bring your internship to a smooth

conclusion: say goodbyes, give thanks; contact faculty coordinator about next steps

Student Roles and ResponsibilitiesStage 2 The Internship

• Be a five year old: not literally but exhibit–in a professional manner-- the insatiable curiosity and inquiring nature of a young child trying to figure out the rules and behaviors of this strange new world into which he/she has been thrust. Ask the what, how, when, where, and why questions!

• Be an anthropologist: keeps your mind and senses alert at all times, seek to learn as much as possible about the native inhabitants of the culture you’ve just entered as an outsider: observe phenomenon, take notes, ask questions. Try to analyze and decode the environment both intellectually and emotionally. Attempt to learn all you can about the beliefs, behaviors, values, attitudes, customs, rituals, and institutions of the natives.

Student Roles and Responsibilities

•Stage 3 – Post-Internship Submit site supervisor’s evaluation of your performance

(Appendix B) Complete self evaluation form (Appendix B) Continue to reflect on your field experience and integrate it

with prior learning Submit your required analytical field learning journal Submit required summary and analysis essay to internship

coordinator

Learning from Experience

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”

(David Kolb 1984)

David Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning: A Lifelong Tool for Learning from Experience

• In 1984, cognitive psychologist and educational theorist David Kolb published a cyclical model of learning consisting of four stages.

• Kolb’s theory explain how human beings translate the raw data of experience into new learning or deeper understanding through reflection and analysis.

• Kolb’s descriptive model remains a useful and commonly cited tool in higher education for explaining the learning process

• The model can serve as a lifelong learning tool that helps us to construct meaning from our daily experiences.

Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle Four Principal Stages

Kolb Simplified

•What? concrete experience (CE)

•So what? reflective observation (RO) and abstract conceptualization (AC)

constructing meaning through reflection and analysis connecting concepts/theory/prior learning to new experiences integrative thinking and learning

•Now what? active experimentation (AE) applying learning to new situations and experiences for observation and

analysis

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Using your higher-order thinking abilities

•Creating (generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things: designing, inventing, planning, constructing)

•Evaluating (justifying a decision or course of action: hypothesizing, critiquing, judging)

•Analyzing (breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships: comparing, organizing, interrogating)

•Applying (using information in another situation)

• (explaining ideas or concepts: summarizing)

•Understanding (explaining, interpreting)

•Remembering (recalling information: listening, describing)

Example #1 Enhancing Nursing Techniques

• An internship nurse trainee participates in a supervised teaching simulation on how to lift a patient. (CE)

• The student might raise some probing questions about the process and her performance: “How did that feel?”or “What might I have done differently?” or “Was the patient comfortable?”(RO)

• The student might review her lecture notes, textbook instructions or search the Internet for helpful ideas and tips. (AC)

• At the next simulation, the nursing student might draw on yesterday’s lessons from experience and her research to modify her techniques and improve her effectiveness. (AE)

Example #2 Learning Coaching Style/Skills

•Participate in a week-long clinic on coaching styles and skills. (CE)

•Observe how other people coach and reflect on your coaching beliefs, values, and strategies in the context of what you learned at the clinic. (RO)

•Read articles or books on coaching philosophies and techniques. Draw on knowledge from videos or ESPN analysis of coaches. (AC)

•Apply your clinic experience, observations, and reading to test out components of your coaching style. (AE)

Example #3 Exploring Leadership

• Tour Buffalo neighborhood experiencing a housing and economic renewal and meet with recognized community leaders. (CE)

• Interview a citizen leader about his/her role in the neighborhood’s renaissance; use questions from leadership readings and films to create a portrait of the individual’s leadership traits, behaviors, and style. (RO)

• Apply leadership theories from course textbook or other research sources to construct a case study of the person’s leadership approach (style, traits, behaviors). (AC)

• Test out your new understanding of citizen leadership in your neighborhood or campus community. (AE)

Reflective Thinking and Meaning-Making Some Final Quotes

•Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you. --Aldous Huxley

•We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience. --John Dewey

•The only kind of learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered or self-appropriated learning—truth that has been assimilated in experience.

--Carl Rogers

Critical Reflection: The Key to Learning

•Experience becomes educative when critical reflective thought creates new meaning and leads to growth and the ability to take informed actions.

--Robert Bringle and Julie Hatcher

Analytical Field Journal: Reflective Tool

•A weekly (or daily) field journal represents an opportunity to create meaning from internship experiences through systematic reflection and critical analysis (see journal resources in your orientation packet)

•Four Cs of Reflection • Continuous

• Connected to academic learning

• Challenging to assumptions, knowledge, perspectives

• Contextual (dependent on setting and learning design)

Post Internship Assessment of Student Performance and Learning

•Direct Measures Field journal Summary and analysis paper Special documentation

Indirect Measures (Appendix B) Site Supervisor Evaluation Self Evaluation

Special Documentation

• You should determine your type of special documentation of internship learning, performance, and achievement in consultation with your faculty internship coordinator BEFORE you begin the internship.

• The idea here is to produce at least one tangible, observable product that documents what you learned during your internship.

• The forms of demonstration are many and limited only by your imagination.

• The documentation should be customized to fit with the specific circumstances of your internship.

Special Documentation

• Marketing brochure or other organizational publication to which you contributed an written copy or design elements

• Video or audio tape of one’s performance/work• Business plan • Case study• Scrapbook• Interview transcript (site leaders/managers, employees, clients)• An original song or poem or play• Visual representation (painting, sculpture)• Power point presentation• Poster presentation

Special Documentation

•Lesson plans•Proposal for improving services, products or processes

at your site•Website•A montage•Organizational chart•An additional paper analyzing the organization’s culture

or management/leadership style•Meeting agendas (of meeting you led or participated in)

Internship outcomes

• Internships can help with: Self discovery Career exploration Professional preparation

Its all about competencies….do you know what you know?

“a written description of measurable work habits and personal skills used to achieve a work objective” or the skills, knowledge, and abilities to do the job. SKA’a

Common competencies employers seek

•Communication skills•Strong work ethic•Team work skills• Initiative•Analytical skills• Interpersonal skills•Problem solving skills•Organization skills•Leadership skills

Journaling and Reflection can help

• Identify SKA’s•Develop competency based resumes•Prepare competency based cover letters•Prepare for the job interview – behavioral based•Prepare you for job success

Ten Commandments for the Intern

1. Office politics and office gossip can complicate the simplest tasks

2. Walk lightly and think twice before making waves

3. Deadline are reality, and time is money

4. You can make one mistake – learn from it

5. Organizations no longer close their eyes to after hours activities

6. Do as you are told; do not allow the ego to get in the way

7. Determine a proper time balance between work and play

8. You must work well with associates you did not choose yourself

9. Patience is a workplace pre-requisite

10. Bosses are right; even when they are wrong

Off to a good start….

•Be positive•Ask for help•Don’t be a know-it-all•Have a good sense of humor•Find a buddy•Follow instructions•Read company policies•Wear the right clothes•Be punctual