Learning Beyond Boundaries

McMicken College is taking learning beyond the classroom walls and university boundaries. While many departments have offered field experiences and study abroad opportunities for years, these are not the only “experiences” available to students. Over the past two years the college has worked not only to increase awareness of experiential opportunities, but also to provide academic internships and service learning experience.

Academic internships are directly connected to a field of study and allow a student to work under the supervision of a faculty member to earn credit toward a major. These have been available in some departments for over a decade, but several others have only recently created such opportunities. During each of the past two years, over 400 students have participated in an academic internship experiences, and this number is expected to increase. This past year, mathematical sciences, economics and organizational leadership joined 14 other programs that currently provide academic internships for students. In addition, with the support of the political science department and the Pre-Professional Advising Office, pre-law internships are now available as well.

Service learning efforts have also increased. Service learning is designed to combine community engagement with regular course objectives and to encourage students to “learn through doing and reflection” as they meet community needs. Currently faculty in several departments, including English, psychology, communication and economics take students into the community to work with non-profit organizations and schools as part of their learning. Students are helping the Cincinnati community in a variety of ways, which include redeveloping curriculum at a CPS high school and developing a marketing plan and materials for a non-profit organization.

The first step in achieving growth in any of these programs is for departments to create more partnerships with community members and college alumni. Information about developing for-credit internship opportunities, adding service learning components, or expanding existing programs, is available by contacting Maggie Stevens at 556-1795 or Margaret.stevens@uc.edu.