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Hora, M., Duenas, M., Rodriguez, J.M., Chen, Z., Wolfgram, M. (2021). Results from the 1-year longitudinal follow-up analysis for the College Internship Study at Texas College. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Summary: This report includes findings from the second round of data collection (Fall 2020 or T2) at Texas College for The College Internship Study. The data collected at T2 include follow-up interviews with 6 students and a follow-up online survey of 110 students who participated in the first round of data collection (Fall 2019 or T1). These data are analyzed to provide faculty, staff, and leadership at Texas College with evidence-based insights about the impacts of internship participation on students’ lives and careers. This second round of the College Internship Study at Texas College is guided by the following research question: What are the changes concerning students’ internship experiences and outcomes comparing longitudinal data at two points in time?
Hora, M.T., Lee, C., Chen, Z., & Hernandez, A. (2021). Exploring online internships amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: Results from a mixed-methods study. Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Abstract: In this multi-site case study we collected survey and interview data from college students during this period, and our findings focus on three distinct cases: (1) two independent websites that provide online internship networking platforms (OINP) for students seeking online internships and employers seeking student interns (n=183 surveys, n=45 interviews), (2) 11 colleges and universities (n=9,964 surveys), and (3) a single employer-hosted online internship program at TreeHouse Foods, a multi-national firm engaged in manufacturing and distributing private label food and beverage products. In analyzing and interpreting our data, we used CCWT’s Internship Scorecard (Hora et al., 2020a) framework that provides a structured approach to studying internships, as well as insights from research on remote work and digital learning.
One of our primary conclusions is that while considerable variation exists within the world of internships writ large, an added layer of complexity exists for online positions with respect to IT, internet access, work-life boundaries, and challenges associated with online or remote work that many occupations have experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. We argue that these additional concerns and factors make online internships—which are unlikely to disappear post-pandemic—a top priority for improvement, equitable access, and quality control in the field of higher education.
Wolfgram, M., Vivona, B., & Akram, T. (2021). On the intersectional amplification of barriers to college internships: A comparative case study analysis. Harvard Educational Review, 91(4), 457-481.
Hora, M., Wolfgram, M., Chen, Z., & Lee, C. (2021). Closing the doors of opportunity: A field theoretic analysis of the prevalence and nature of obstacles to college internships. Teachers College Record, 123 (12), p.
Vivona, B.D. & Wolfgram, M.S. (2021). Conducting community based participatory action research. Human Resource Development Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/15344843211044003
Hora, M.T., Benbow, R., & Lee, C. (2021). A sociocultural approach to communication instruction: How insights from communication teaching instruction can inform faculty development programs. Journal of the Learning Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2021.1936533
Thompson, M. N., Perez-Chavez, J., & Fetter, A. (2021). Internship experiences among college students attending an HBC: A longitudinal grounded theory exploration. Journal of Career Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072721992758
Smolarek, B.B., Wolfgram, M., Vang, M. N., Xiong, C. P., Lee, L., Lee, P., Thao, M., Vang, K., Xiong, P. K., Xiong, O., & Xiong, P. (2021). Our HMoob American college paj ntaub: Student-engaged community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) as counter-invisibility work. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2021.1888162
Chen, Z., Wolfgram, M., Gopal, A., Rodriguez S., J., Dueñas, M., Colston, J., & Hora, M. (2021). Results from the 1-year longitudinal follow-up analysis for the College Internship Study at the University of Baltimore. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Summary: This report includes findings from the second round of data collection (Spring 2020 or T2) at the University of Baltimore for The College Internship Study. The data collected at T2 include follow-up interviews with 13 students and a follow-up online survey of 131 students who participated in the first round of data collection (Spring 2019 or T1). These data are analyzed to provide faculty, staff, and leadership at the University of Baltimore with evidence-based insights about the impacts of internship participation on students’ lives and careers. This second round of the College Internship Study is guided by the following research question: What are the changes concerning students’ internship experiences and outcomes comparing longitudinal data at two points in time?
Huerta, A.H., Rios-Aguilar, C., Ramirez, D. & Munoz, M. (2021). Like a Juggler, the experiences of racially minoritized student parents in a California community college. Center for Community College Leadership and Research. University of California-Davis.
Abstract: This brief provides an overview of findings from research conducted for Coastal City College* which sought to understand the collegiate experiences of student parents. This study utilized in-depth, one-on-one interviews and focus groups with racially minoritized student parents to explore how they navigated community college, received information, and made decisions about future careers during the 2018–2019 academic year.
We found that student parents maintain high educational aspirations and occupational goals despite the struggles and daily challenges they experience in pursuit of their community college education. Our findings suggest there was significant room at this college – and likely others – to adjust policies and practices to better serve student parents and their children, and to increase their chances to succeed academically and occupationally and gain social and economic stability. Importantly, this study revealed barriers that student parents faced in accessing campus space with their children.
Wolfgram, M., Colston, J., Chen, Z., Dueñas, M., & Hora, M.T. (2021). Results from the one-year longitudinal follow-up analysis for the College Internship Study at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Summary: This report includes findings from the second round of data collection (Spring 2020 or T2) at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (UW-Oshkosh) for The College Internship Study. The data collected at T2 include follow-up interviews with 11 students and a follow-up online survey of 149 students who participated in the first round of data collection (Spring 2019 or T1). These data are analyzed to provide faculty, staff, and leadership at UW-Oshkosh with evidence-based insights about the impacts of internship participation on students’ lives and careers. This second round of the College Internship Study at UW-Oshkosh is guided by the following research question: What are the changes concerning students’ internship experiences and outcomes comparing longitudinal data at two points in time?
Lewis, D. R., Fitzgerald, I., & Benbow, R. J. (2021). A student-led study of African American academic and career experiences at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater: Educational bridges, spaces, and safety in 2020. Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Summary: This report represents the findings from a student researcher-led project focused on the high school, college, and career preparation experiences of African American and Black college students at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater (UWW), a predominantly White institution (PWI) in rural southeastern Wisconsin. With the goal of dismantling systemic barriers to equitable African American student college-to-career transitions, especially from PWIs, a team of three researchers designed and carried out a qualitative study to (1) collect African American student college and career narratives and (2) better understand African American students’ experiences at UWW. Key findings from the study include the elucidation of student perspectives on the strong connections between high school experiences, mostly in and around Milwaukee, and students’ college and career trajectories; the challenges involved in navigating campus spaces at a rural PWI; and the psychological, social, and educational effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is novel to 2020, and police racial profiling, which is not. The study also identifies key strategies for creating additional space for African American self-authorship, including through student organization advocacy and involvement, faculty and staff mentorships, and cross-campus and cross-community conversations.
Zhang, J. & Hora, M.T. (2021). Who are the unpaid interns? Preliminary findings from 13 institutions in the College Internship Study. Data Snapshot #1. Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Internships are currently one of the most “high-impact” practice in higher education, largely because
the research literature has shown that they are positively associated with personal, academic and career outcomes (Garcia et al., 2016; Ocampo et al., 2020; Pan et al., 2018; Routon & Walker, 2019). Given the significance of internships in helping college students “open the doors” to their first post-graduate job, over time there have been increasing numbers of students who participate in a college internship, even if they have to work for free (Gardner, 2010; Rogers et al., 2019).
While unpaid internships may provide students opportunities to explore the world of work and may bring them some form of social and cultural capital (Leonard et al., 2016), they have been widely critiqued with respect to their legality, general equality, economically discrimination, and racism (Gardner, 2010; Holford, 2017). For example, lawsuits against the film industry charged that they used unpaid interns to do the work of full-time employees (Gardner, 2016), a scenario that confirmed the fear of some observers that an unpaid internship could represent an exploitative labor situation (Curiale, 2009). Continue reading.
Lee, L., Xiong, P., Xiong, Y., Yang, L., Smolarek, B., Vang, M., Wolfgram, M., Moua, P., Thao, A. & Xiong, O. (2020). The Necessity of Ethnic Studies: Prioritizing Ethnic Studies During COVID 19 and Beyond. Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (Research Brief #16). University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a devastating ripple effect on educational institutions—from budget cuts to health and safety concerns to changes in learning environments. In higher education specifically, Covid-19 is disrupting student lives by interrupting in-person learning, forcing students out of their living spaces, and causing students to suffer financially. The consequences of the pandemic have also led to financial crises for universities, causing administrators to make challenging budgetary decisions. Unfortunately, during times of budget scarcity, colleges and universities have historically opted—and continue to opt—for cuts that impact students of color profoundly, including deep cuts to diversity and inclusion efforts and ethnic studies programs, suspensions of ethnic studies faculty hiring, and even resulting in the termination of tenure-track faculty positions in ethnic studies (Bikales & Chen, 2020; Meyerhofer, 2020; Myers, 2014; Wang, 2016).
University administrators are currently having to make hard financial decisions which will have lasting impacts on students, staff, and their communities. Within this looming financial crisis, with multiple competing priorities and far less resources than in the past, in this report, we argue that ethnic studies programs must be prioritized for continued investment. Continued.
Hora, M. T., Wolfgram, M., Chen, Z., Colston, J., Ahrens, V., Rodriguez S., J., & Wetherbee, l. (2020). Results from the 1-year longitudinal follow-up analysis for the College Internship Study at Madison College. Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Summary: This report includes findings from the second round of data collection (Spring 2019 or T2) at Madison College for The College Internship Study, which is a national mixed-methods longitudinal study of internship programs conducted by the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). The data collected at T2 of the study include follow-up interviews with 8 students and a follow-up online survey of 147 students who participated in the first round of data collection (Spring 2018 or T1). These data are analyzed to provide faculty, staff, and leadership at Madison College with evidence-based insights about the impacts of internship participation on students’ lives and careers. Thus, this second round of the College Internship Study at Madison College is guided by the following research question: What are the changes concerning students’ internship experiences and outcomes comparing longitudinal data at two time points?
Hora, M. T., Chen, Z., Wolfgram, M., Chen, Z., & Rogers, S. (2020). Results from the College Internship Study at Tennessee State University. Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Summary: This report includes findings from the first round of data collection (Spring 2020) at Tennessee State University (TSU) for The College Internship Study, which is a national mixed-methods longitudinal study of internship programs conducted by the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). The findings are based on an interdisciplinary sample of students who took an online survey (n = 252), interviews with students who have and who have not had an internship experience (n = 9), and interviews with career advisors, faculty, and employers (n = 7). We would like to thank TSU for allowing our research team to conduct this study with your students, faculty, and community members, and hope that our findings are useful as you work towards improving internships and work-based learning for your students. As our research moves into its second year, we will focus on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the students, faculty and staff at TSU and employer partners with respect to internships and students’ overall experiences with the pandemic and its impacts on their studies and career goals.
Four research questions guide our study: (1) How many students are participating in internship programs, and does participation vary by student demographics, academic status, or life/employment situation? (2) What barriers exist for students to participate in internship programs? (3) What is the structure and format of internship programs? And, (4) How, if at all, is program structure and format associated with student satisfaction with their internships and their estimation of the value of the internship for their career development? In addition, given the timing of our interviews (Spring 2020), we also were interested in understanding TSU students’ experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic.