1. A Discussion on Understanding How Community College Internships impact Future Job Performance
Jeffrey Hoyle
Central Michigan University
Ed.D. (Higher Education) Student
April 9, 2011

2. Background

3. Overview
The workplace setting provides an excellent opportunity for institutions, businesses, and students to apply the skills and assess learning through an internship program (Alpert, Heaney, & Kolb, 1984; Kuhn, 2009; Divine, Miller, & Wilson, 2006; Hymon-Parker & Smith, 1998; Snyder, 1999).
The internship is designed to provide “the practice of gaining supervised, practical experience” (Coco, 2000, p. 41)
Many studies confirm the benefits to the student of the internship experience (Alpert et al., 2009; Coco, 2000 Divine et al, 2006; Fender & Watson, 2005; Gault, Redington, & Schalager, 2000).
As the business environment becomes more competitive: an effective internship program could be a critical tool to help equip graduates to gain quality jobs upon graduation.

4. Lewinian Experiential Learning Model
Source: The Lewinian Experiential Learning Model, adapted from Kolb, 1984, p. 21

5. Goals for This Session
Share examples of internship approaches to bridge theory with practice
How such approaches impact community college graduates future job performance

6. Please respond to the following questions:
What is your experience with internships in the community college setting?
What are the necessary components of a successful internship?

7. Strategies
What items are critical to include in a community college internship?
What are the pertinent learning outcomes for the internship and how should they be measured?

8. Final Thoughts
To examine the role of the internship experience to facilitate knowledge acquisition from the classroom to the workplace
To identify best practices for internship design and implementation

9. References
Alpert, F., Heaney, J., & Kuhn, K. (2009). Internships in marketing: Goals, structures and assessment - student, company and academic perspectives. Australasian Marketing Journal, 17(1),
Coco. M. (2000). Internships: A try before you buy arrangement. S.A.M. Advance Management Journal, 65,
Divine, R., Miller, R., Wilson, H. (2006). Analysis of student performance in an internship program in a U.S. university. International Journal of Quality and Productivity Management, 6(1), 1-15.
Fender, D. L., & Watson, L. E. (2005). OSH internships: One program's perspective on benefits for students, employers and universities. Professional Safety, 50(4),
Gault, J., Redington, J., & Schalager, J. (2000). Undergraduate business internships and career success: Are they related? Journal of Marketing Education, 22(1),
Hymon-Parker, S., & Smith, S. (1998). Benefits and limitations of internships as viewed by educators and retailers/commentary. Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences, 90(4),
Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Marlborough, K. (1999). Development and validation of an instrument to assess student satisfaction with community college internships. (Doctoral dissertation. The University of Iowa). Retrieved from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text. ( Publication No. AAT ).
McConoughey, G. (2008). Intern perceptions: How new college graduates in the workplace perceive their undergraduate internship experience. (Doctoral dissertation. Illinois State University). Retrieved from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text. (Publication No. AAT ).
Snyder, A. (1999). The college/university business internship: Identifying the program components and students' characteristics of a successful internship model. (Doctoral dissertation. Willington (Delaware) University). Retrieved March 20, 2010, from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text.(Publication No. AAT ).
Young, M. (2010). Transforming the initial marketing education experience: An action learning approach. Journal of Marketing Education, 32(1), Retrieved from