Learning for Life: Importance of Internships for

Non-traditional StudentsLynn Brandt, MSE, GCDF

Career Counseling and Internship CoordinatorAdult Degree Program

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Who am I?University of Wisconsin – Green

BayTotal Enrollment 2012-2013 – 6,211

Non-traditional student enrollment – 27%

Total Enrollment in Adult Degree Program - 650

Who are Non-traditional Students?• 25 years-of-age or older• Delayed post-secondary education• Work at least part-time• Have dependents• Taking care of parents• Financially independent from parts• Veterans• Displaced Workers

Why do an Internship?A Typical Student Story:

“When I first graduated from college, I thought, “ok, great I have my B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, emphasis in Human Development. I can finally work in the career of my dreams: being an advocate for runaway teens. As I researched the jobs I really wanted, I saw that I was lacking one very vital thing, experience.

All of my experience had been in the business world. In spite of it having always been my dream, I didn’t have any recent or tangible experience in a field related to my dream career. This could have been avoided if I would have done one simple thing…completed an internship.”

Road Blocks • Career changers have little to no experience in new career field• Flexibility of internship hours • Unpaid internships/financial barriers• Difficulty communicating benefits of internships to students• Fear of Failure

Creative Solutions: Career Changers have little to no experience in new career field

Volunteering

Join Professional Societies

Workshops, conferences, conventions, seminars

Job Shadowing

Internships

Creative Solutions: Flexibility of Internship Hours

Virtual Internships

Winternships

Shorter internships during academic year or summer

Weekend/evening internship opportunities

Creative Solutions: Unpaid Internship/Financial Barriers

Great Lakes Higher Education grant awarded to UWGB which allows payment of interns who are at non-profit or public service agency

Intentionally build relationships with companies who offer paid internship opportunities

Internships at place of employment

Creative Solutions: Difficulty Communicating Benefits of Internships to Students

Develop marketing resources from employers

Academic Advisors and faculty need to be supporting efforts to promote internships

Start promoting internships the moment students step in the door!

Use electronic resources

Creative Solutions: Fear of Failure

Pretty Self-explanatory…We grew up trying NOT to fail…message sent loud and clear FAILURE IS BAD. Avoided an F on an exam, only tried out for sports teams you thought you had a relatively good chance of making and compromised yourself in the context of a relationship just to avoid failure.

Steps taken to createInternship Program

Created Internship Manual specific to Adult Degree Program

Set up database to track internship sites and contacts

Plan outlined to begin creating program

Develop Relationships - Network with potential internship sites: do site visits, meet one-on-one with staff responsible for placing interns

Steps taken to createInternship Program

Create internship-specific information documents

Created informational site on Desire-to-Learn (D2L) for students to access at their convenience

Career Counseling offered directly through program with expertise geared toward the non-traditional students

Career Development Plan for every student entering the program

Steps taken to createInternship Program

Development of Internship brochure specific to targeting businesses

Use team approach to reach out into area businesses: create internship opportunities specifically for non-traditional students

Offer Career/Internship Fair geared toward non-traditional students/Possibly a virtual Career/Internship fair

Internship requirements create opportunity for reflection and synthesis of major learning outcomes

Capstone seminar for major to offer alternative Experiential Learning component

Questions and Conversation…