The College Internship Study: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study Exploring the Impacts of College Internships on Student Outcomes at HBCUs

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Internships and other forms of experiential and work-based learning are increasingly a common feature of STEM education in the United States and are all central to the goal of preparing a STEM workforce for the 21st century. In focusing on access and equity related to internship participation, this study will be one of the first to empirically explore these issues, which are of increasing concern to higher education scholars.The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for College-Workforce Transitions launched a translational mixed-methods longitudinal College Internship Study in 2018 at three different types of institutions in Wisconsin and South Carolina to produce empirical evidence on student outcomes of internships. An integrative theoretical framework that views internships as a problem of situated learning as well as a venue for students' development of self-efficacy beliefs and vocational identities was used to inform the study design. The project adds six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to this study to track a cohort of students and employers, faculty, and career centers over three years and measure psychosocial and labor market outcomes. Additionally, the proposed research project will leverage the strengths of large-scale, generalizable survey data and the more fine-grained perspectives of qualitative data. In addition, the longitudinal aspect of the study promises to shed important light on the impacts of internship experiences on a cohort of college students over time. This study represents one of the few empirical studies examining the relationship between internships and psychosocial outcomes that are of central importance to the fields of vocational psychology and persistence and equity in STEM education. Finally, expansion of the College Internship Study to encompass HBCUs will contribute to the research on these campuses as a unique institutional context in general and to the research base on the experiences of African-American students with college climate, persistence, and career planning. The College Internship Study builds upon two bodies of literature - the learning experience as a form of situated and experiential learning and developmental processes of vocational identity. The investigators will examine what students do and under what forms of mentorship. They will use situated cognition theory to interpret these results along with Social Cognitive Career and career Construction theories from vocational psychology to conceptualize the developmental processes of interns themselves. The internship experience will be characterized as comprising three elements - participation and access, program design features, and student outcomes and experiences. The research questions are: (1) How, if at all, does internship participation vary by students? demographics, academic programs and performance, and life/employment situations?; (2) What, if any, are the major barriers for students to access and then persist in an internship?; (3) How, if at all, are internship program features associated with students? satisfaction, career-related self-efficacy beliefs, sense of adaptability, and employment outcomes? and (4) What are the strengths and weaknesses of institutions regarding provision of internship programs and subsequent student supports? Investigators will conduct three waves of data over three years via online student survey, student focus groups, employer interviews, and faculty/career advisor interviews across the six institutions. Using statistical and qualitative techniques, they will compile reports and interactive data and visualizations for institutional partners. They also will use a comparative case study approach that involves situating cases within specific cultural, political, and historical contexts. The translational aspect of the project will ensure its impacts extend beyond the contribution of new scientific knowledge to policy and practice related to internship programs on participating campuses. These impacts could involve meaningful changes to students? experiences and learning, to institutional practice regarding internship programming, and to continuous improvement efforts.The project is supported by the ECR Core Research program that supports fundamental STEM education research focused on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.